Author Topic: Mozilla's Lightbeam  (Read 4295 times)

Offline SorO_Lost

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Mozilla's Lightbeam
« on: August 22, 2015, 08:28:19 PM »
Just wanted to say, I love you guys.

Offline Raineh Daze

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Re: Mozilla's Lightbeam
« Reply #1 on: August 22, 2015, 08:42:39 PM »
... I'm confused by the thread title.

Offline SorO_Lost

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Re: Mozilla's Lightbeam
« Reply #2 on: August 23, 2015, 12:29:16 AM »
Lightbeam is a Firefox add-on that uses interactive visualizations to show you the first and third party sites you interact with on the Web. As you browse, Lightbeam reveals the full depth of the Web today, including parts that are not transparent to the average user.
...
Not all tracking is bad. Many services rely on user data to provide relevant content and enhance your online experience. But tracking can happen without the user’s knowledge. That’s not okay for some. It should be you who decides when, how and if you want your browsing data to be shared. We recognize the importance of transparency and our mission is all about empowering users — both with tools and information.

Basically when you visit a site that reconnects with a dozen other 3rd party sites Lightbeam shows them all in connected bubbles (and allows you to block them). So take Cracked.com, visiting that webpage also pushes connections to scorecardresearch, sharethrough, doubleclick, cloudflare, dmtracker, nr-data, bluekai, exelator, tru.am, krxd, moatads, newrelic, ricdn, sumome, couple google sites, and then all the social media sites.

MMX boards is almost it's own tiny little bubble, mostly interconnected through image hosts from user images and my google searches.
« Last Edit: August 23, 2015, 12:31:21 AM by SorO_Lost »

Offline Raineh Daze

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Re: Mozilla's Lightbeam
« Reply #3 on: August 23, 2015, 12:33:17 AM »
... how disconnected and uninterested do you have to be to download an extension purely for the process of helping you find things you're interested in?

Offline linklord231

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Re: Mozilla's Lightbeam
« Reply #4 on: August 23, 2015, 03:13:13 AM »
... how disconnected and uninterested do you have to be to download an extension purely for the process of helping you find things you're interested in?

Two things: 
1)  You mean like StumbleUpon?
2)  I think you're misunderstanding the purpose of the extension.  It's not to help you find things you're interested in, it's to prevent websites from sharing your browsing habits with shady advertisers. 
I'm not arguing, I'm explaining why I'm right.

Offline Nunkuruji

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Re: Mozilla's Lightbeam
« Reply #5 on: August 31, 2015, 03:35:12 PM »
Shed light on the filthy shit stained Otyugh tendrils of the web

The Holy Trinity: NoScript, Ghostery, AdBlockPlus

and a healthy /etc/hosts populated with black holes for faceyspace, twatter, pissterist, etc.

Web 2.0 is indeed a deuce. Fuck analytics.

Offline Raineh Daze

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Re: Mozilla's Lightbeam
« Reply #6 on: August 31, 2015, 06:41:00 PM »
Why not ublock over adblock plus? Less memory and processor time, same deal.

Offline Nunkuruji

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Re: Mozilla's Lightbeam
« Reply #7 on: September 01, 2015, 12:40:49 PM »
matter of habit

Offline KellKheraptis

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Re: Mozilla's Lightbeam
« Reply #8 on: September 18, 2015, 11:19:32 PM »
Shed light on the filthy shit stained Otyugh tendrils of the web

The Holy Trinity: NoScript, Ghostery, AdBlockPlus

and a healthy /etc/hosts populated with black holes for faceyspace, twatter, pissterist, etc.

Web 2.0 is indeed a deuce. Fuck analytics.

Hey now - most of this I agree with and use, but at the same time any GA code I use is properly asynchonous and only tracks page hits and conversions (and if the browsing agent/OS is blocked, no biggie...I already know my shit works on all devices :P ).

That being said, there is definitely merit to having a dedicated blacked-out browser.  I keep a USB stick on-hand with Kali just for that.