Mozilla’s Lightbeam Browser Extension Allows Internet Users To Track Trackers

Mozilla recently unveiled a new browser extension called Lightbeam. Lightbeam is a browser extension which allows internet users to see exactly who’s tracking their internet usage and Mozilla claims it will “illuminate the inner workings of the web.”

Lightbeam creates a visual representation of all third parties that are active on the websites you visit including advertising companies, analytics companies and content delivery networks. The visualisation grows with every site you visit allowing you to examine how much you’ve been tracked and what third parties have connected to you over a 24 hour period.

Mozilla stated that: “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.” 

For the already privacy-conscious internet users out there Mozilla’s Lightbeam will be seen as very basic and somewhat primitive for what it is. Disconnect is a much more useful alternative because it not only allows you to track, categorise and visualise third party connections on every website you visit (like Lightbeam does), but it also allows you to block those tracking connections making your Internet presence more private. The blocking process also allows you to minimise unnecessary data usage from these third party connections and load pages faster as a result. You can also sift through all the third party connections and choose which connections to block (blacklist) and which ones to allow (whitelist) because some third party connections are required to use certain internet services.

If you’re interested in Mozilla Lightbeam and want to download or read more about it, then you can do so here. For those of you who are interested in taking a look at the more advanced Disconnect then you can do that here.

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