See how companies data mine you

Ever wondered how companies data mine you? How all your sites connected, and how they tracked you? Is it possible for a regular home users to data mine themselves? It didn’t used to, but now its a reality. Mozilla FireFox has introduced a new plugin (made by MOZILLA), called Lightbeam.

What is Lightbeam?

Lightbeam helps you see how your begin tracked online. This is not another Ghostery, or Abine product. This just shows you how websites connect, and how companies data mine you. The plugin is amazing, and none of your data is sent to third party providers. All of the Lightbeam data is stored locally inside your computer. The file is also tiny, virtually no space on your hard drive is lost at all. Lightbeam is truly amazing, and this will really show you how the internet connects to each other.

Why Lightbeam is a wake up call

Lightbeam is a huge wake up call to all internet users. This plugin clearly shows how the internet is tracking you, and how one site can directly track you to another. This shows that when you go on a website, their trackers will track you to your other favorite website, then to the next, then the next, and non stop tracking continues. Virtually everything will connect in the end. Not all tracking is bad per say, but the fact that companies are data mining you like this is not okay. You are opted into this tracking, and there is no partial opt out, or way to get your data back. Once you open your browser, its a free for all with your data.

Can I stop this?

Yes, there are many easy ways to stop companies from data mining you. I go over tracking in many of my articles on my website. Here are a few ways to stop getting tracked and harvested

Use a VPN, check my list of trusted VPN providers here, and why you need one here.
Stop trackers from tracking you online. My article here shows you how to not get tracked by the invisible web.
Value your privacy. The more you value your actual privacy, the more precautions you will take. My Internet Security tab here will tell you simple ways to value your privacy.

Overall

Overall this isn’t news. As most of us know the web is full of privacy intrusions, and trackers. Right now, its just a matter of stopping it. We need to let companies know that we care about our privacy. Right now there is so much going on, privacy is one thing we need to hold onto. We need more companies to become transparent, and we need them to meet our needs. We cannot bow down and do what companies tell us, we need companies to listen to us, and meet our needs. This was just a quick one, but I really like the plugin, and its great PROOF that we are getting tracked 24/7/365.