We saw Wil Wheaton’s post about online tracking today, recommending a browser add-on called Ghostery.

We wanted to mention that Mozilla also has a new tool in development called Collusion which is an experimental add-on for Firefox that allows you to see which sites are using third-party cookies to track your movements across the Web.

The image above shows what Collusion looks like in practice. The data visualization of a vast network of trackers grows and evolves in real time once you hit the on switch and allow Collusion to ‘watch the watchers’ as you browse. The results of a full day of browsing can be enlightening, and even upsetting, to see.

To learn more about how it works, watch Gary Kovac’s TedTalk: Tracking the Trackers.

Plans for Collusion this year include improved user experience and tools, improved visualizations, and a server component for users to optionally upload data that can help Mozilla build an open database of the tracker ecosystem.


The Collusion add-on can be found here:
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/collusion


As always, it’s a pleasure to Follow Wil Wheaton on Tumblr. (He’s got the googly eyes, which helps with all this watching watchers business.)
:)