Lightbeam

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Lightbeam

Screenshot
Visible trackers on the website "www.abovetopsecret.com"
Basic data

Maintainer Princiya
developer Atul Varma
Publishing year 2011
Current  version 3.0.1
(November 10, 2019)
programming language JavaScript
category Browser plug-in
License MPL v2
German speaking Yes
www.mozilla.org/de/lightbeam

Lightbeam ( called Collusion in the development phase ) is a browser plug-in for Mozilla Firefox that graphically shows how third-party cookies are used to record user behavior. The extension was released under the Mozilla Public License and is supported by the Ford Foundation .

Lightbeam in action:
The four glowing blue circles are websites that were visited immediately. The different colored circles are websites that are only connected to the browser by cookies, including known data collectors - ringed in red.

The software is developed by Atul Varma from Mozilla Labs , an institution belonging to the Mozilla Foundation .

history

Collusion was presented by its developer in July 2011 and also made known in Germany, with particular emphasis on the importance of data protection and the protection of privacy . But it wasn't until the introduction by the then Chief Executive Officer of Mozilla, Gary Kovacs, in February 2012 that a strong media response was generated.

The British daily The Guardian launched in April 2012 in cooperation with Mozilla , the Action Tracking the trackers, was used in the collusion. In Germany, ZEIT online , Schieb.de and taz.de then took up the topic.

From version 1.0.2, published on October 23, 2013, Collusion is offered and further developed under the name Lightbeam .

alternative

Lightbeam does not work if the creation of a history has been deactivated in the Firefox menu under Settings → Data protection . Evaluable data is then no longer available on your own computer. Of course, the data continues to be generated by third-party providers.

Without a special browser extension, you can get an impression of the data generated by surf tracking on the MyShadow.org website.

See also

Web links

Commons : Lightbeam  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Atul Varma. In: GitHub . Retrieved July 10, 2017 (English).
  2. ↑ Firefox Lightbeam version history. In: mozilla.org. Retrieved March 30, 2020 .
  3. ↑ www.openhub.net .
  4. ↑ Jonathan Xia (jonoxia): toolness / collusion forked from mozilla / lightbeam. In: GitHub . June 18, 2012, accessed February 13, 2016 .
  5. ↑ Martin Fischer: Add-On for Firefox visualizes website tracking. In: Heise online . July 9, 2011, accessed February 12, 2016 .
  6. ^ Atul Varma: Collusion. In: toolness.com. July 7, 2011, accessed February 13, 2016 .
  7. ↑ Firefox extension visualizes user tracking (PC-Welt.de) , Collusion: Firefox add-on visualizes website tracking ( memento of the original from January 6, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (winload.de) @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.winload.de
  8. ↑ Introducing our new CEO: Gary Kovacs. In: The Mozilla Blog. October 14, 2010, accessed February 13, 2016 .
  9. ↑ Emily McManus: Inspired by The Filter Bubble: Q&A with Lightbeam developer Atul Varma. In: blog.ted.com. February 28, 2012, accessed February 13, 2016 .
  10. ↑ Mozilla introduces Collusion. In: pro-linux.de. February 29, 2012, accessed February 13, 2016 .
  11. ↑ Kathrin Schmitt (kas): Mozilla Collusion: Tool monitors the monitors. (No longer available online.) In: Chip Online . February 29, 2012, archived from the original on January 26, 2013 ; accessed on February 13, 2016 . Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / business.chip.de
  12. ^ Ian Paul: Firefox Add-On Collusion Shows Who's Tracking You Online. In: pcworld.com. February 29, 2012, accessed February 13, 2016 .
  13. ↑ Mozilla Collusion: Tool monitors the supervisors. In: itrig.de. March 1, 2012, accessed February 13, 2016 .
  14. ^ Rob Waugh: Turning the tables on Big Brother: Now internet users can watch who is spying on them in blow against Google's new snooping policy. In: Daily Mail . March 2, 2012, accessed February 13, 2016 .
  15. ↑ Joanna Geary, Chris Cross: Tracking the trackers: help us reveal the unseen world of cookies. In: The Guardian . April 13, 2012, accessed February 12, 2016 .
  16. ↑ Kai Biermann : “Guardian” wants to collect cookie data. In: The time . April 16, 2012, accessed February 12, 2016 .
  17. ↑ Jörg Schieb : When sniffing cookies: Now the users start a counterattack. In: schieb.de. April 18, 2012, accessed February 12, 2016 .
  18. ↑ Ben Schwan: How to sniff the snoopers. In: The daily newspaper . April 18, 2012, accessed February 12, 2016 .
  19. ↑ Lightbeam for Firefox. Mozilla , November 15, 2015, accessed February 13, 2016 .
  20. ↑ Stephan Bäcker: Firefox add-on visualizes surf tracking. In: Heise online . October 26, 2013, accessed February 13, 2016 .
  21. ↑ myshadow.org