http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/gadgets-and-tech/news/mozillas-lightbeam-tool-will-expose-who-is-looking-over-your-shoulder-on-the-web-8902269.html
Just who is looking over your shoulder when you browse the Internet?
Tomorrow, web users will be given a new tool to shine a light on the
commercial organisations which track your every movement online.
Lightbeam, a download produced by Mozilla, the US free
software community behind the popular Firefox browser, claims to be a
“watershed” moment in the battle for web transparency.
Everyone who browses the Internet leaves a digital trail used by advertisers to discover what your interests are.
Users
who activate Lightbeam will be able to see a real-time visualisation of
every site they visit and every third-party that is active on those
sites, including commercial organisations which might potentially be
sharing your data.
Mozilla wants users who install the
Lightbeam add-on to Firefox, to crowd-source their data, to produce the
first “big picture” view of web tracking, revealing which third-parties
are most active.
Lightbeam promises a “Wizard of Oz”
moment for the web, “where users collectively provide a way to pull back
the curtains to see its inner workings,” Mozilla claimed.
Mark
Surman, Mozilla’s executive director, said: “It’s a stake in the ground
in terms of letting people know the ways they are being tracked. At
Mozilla, we believe everyone should be in control of their user data and
privacy and we want people to make informed decisions about their Web
experience.”
Mozilla already offers users the ability to
disable “cookies” - small files that download from websites onto a
computer, allowing advertisers to target users based on their online
activity – an option taken up by 18 per cent of UK Firefox users.
Lightbeam
will reveal the source of the third-party adverts, scripts and images
stored on a web page which are linked to servers in other domains. An
expanding graph visualises the interactions between the sites a user
intentionally visits and the third parties which may not be welcome.
Mozilla
has come under “tremendous pressure” from trade bodies over its mission
to bring transparency to the web, said Alex Fowler, the company’s
Privacy Officer.
The software company said it was
responding to increased privacy concerns following the revelation that
the US National Security Agency (NSA) had tapped directly into the
servers of Internet firms including Facebook, to track online
communication in a surveillance programme.
Firefox released a security upgrade after it emerged that
the NSA was exploiting vulnerabilities in the browser to gain access to
computers using Tor, a sophisticated anonymity tool.
But
Mozilla insisted that Lightbeam itself will not compromise the privacy
of users who agree to upload and share data. Lightbeam will not log IP
addresses, the information will be aggregated anonymously and the
software can be uninstalled, Mr Surman promised.
Lightbeam
initially will only be available for desktop browsers. Apple has
reportedly rejected from its store apps by developers which incorporate
“cookie tracking” technology. “The whole mobile environment is closed,”
Mr Surman said. “You have to go through Google and Apple for apps.”
Mozilla,
which is developing its own tablet, Mr Surman disclosed, is hosting its
UK Mozfest this weekend, a brain-storming “hack”, attended by 1,400
people.
Mr Surman said: “Our focus in on building a web
based on openness and transparency. Our dream is a world where people
know more about how the web works and take control of their lives
online. We need a posse of people to get involved and make that happen.”
He
accepted that some cookies can help consumers navigate sites by
providing content relevant to the user but said it was important that
tracking happens with a person’s knowledge.
Lightbeam is
released ahead of “Stop Watching Us,” a “rally against mass
surveillance” in response to the Snowden revelations, which will be held
in Washington D.C. on Saturday.