Aaronweb.net

Privacy is a hot topic these days. Fortunately, people are starting to become more aware of what’s going on as the media are finally starting to publish about it. Without getting overly paranoid: advertising networks are constantly tracking users through the use of cookies, Facebook shares its user data with advertisers, and only last week telecom providers in the Netherlands admitted the usage of deep packet inspection to profile their customers on what internet services they use on their phones.

A worrying trend, right? There is something you can do to reclaim your online privacy, though, even aside from the usual healthy scepsis: customise your browser to tackle some of the issues that play in the background, by installing the following addons.

Ghostery

“Ghostery allows you to detect trackers on the sites you visit, learn more about the companies behind them, and control their visibility into your online behaviour.”

Ghostery is available for Firefox, Chrome, Safari and Internet Explorer.

Facebook Blocker

“This browser extension stops Facebook social plugins—including those within iFrames—from running on sites other than Facebook itself. This includes ‘Like’ buttons, ‘Recommended’ lists, and should also stop any Facebook scripts from tracking your browsing history.”

Note: this addon does not prevent you from using Facebook itself!

Facebook Blocker is available for Firefox, Chrome and Safari.

Comments or suggestions? I’d love to hear from you!