We have just discovered a new method in which you as a user
can be able to view people who are spying or watching you online while you surf
the net.It's standard practice for advertisers to keep tabs on the sites you
frequent using tracking cookies. Tracking cookies are small text files that are
downloaded on to your computer that log the websites you browse and, in some
case, how you interact with these sites. Advertisers and other companies use
these logs to build a profile of your interests, allowing advertisers to sell
you products and services you're more likely to buy.
In an attempt to highlight just how many different
firms are tracking our browsing habits online Mozilla has produced Lightbeam, an add-on
that can be downloaded for the Firefox browser that captures who is watching
you. Information collected by
Lightbeam can be uploaded to an online database that aggregates anonymised data
about third party tracking across different sites.
Mozilla said that some companies are
now using browser fingerprinting, where a user is tracked via the unique way
their web browser is set up, for instance in the font sizes selected or the mix
of add-ons installed.
So my best advice to regular internet surfers is
to get this add-on installed if you are really bothered about who could be
watching you.
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