The extension also comes with adjustable color-coded sliders that signal to users if there’s a third-party domain and if it is allowed to load content in your Web browser or not. Privacy Badger, on the other hand, is like autopilot for blocking, using algorithms to decide what is and isn’t tracking without requiring you to dig around in the extension’s settings.
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If Privacy Badger detects that an advertiser has been tracking you from site to site without your permission, it will automatically be barred from loading any more content from that source in your browser so that it can no longer track you.
There are a lot of privacy tools available already that promise to block a whole range of ads, but the Electronic Frontier Foundation’s (EFF) long-awaited Privacy Badger extension has finally officially launched after more than a year in testing. This is basically a message delivered to every website you visit that says “do not track me, please”. Even if you know what’s up, changing browser settings to make yourself safe is essentially impossible. The point of the add-on is to stop surreptitious tracking of users.
“The advertising industry has proposed opt outs that are better described as “pretend not to track”, with an emphasis on hiding the symptoms of tracking rather than actually preventing it. But users still need a way to opt-out of the non-consensual collection of data”.
To be clear, EFF isn’t against websites seeking to build businesses around advertising. Perhaps that’s another reason why they want to involve their developers in the development of the new DNT standard – to drive them towards a business model the EFF can fully support.
The Electronic Frontier Foundation recently announced that its tracker-munching browser add-on is ready for prime time. When Privacy Badger 1.0 is installed, it will set the DNT flag for the user.
Those echoes from your past mean you are being tracked, and the records of your online activity are distributed to other third parties-all without your knowledge, control, or consent.
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Privacy Badger is available for download at the low, low cost of free right now.
