Observe online web-tracking with Lightbeam

Antoine Duparay - antoine.duparay@mozfr.org

http://flaburgan.github.io/presentations-mozilla/

Observe online web-tracking

Antoine Duparay - FOSDEM - February 2014

~$ whoami
>Antoine Duparay


  • French engineer from the Ensimag
  • FLOSS enthusiast
  • I care about privacy on the Internet
  • diaspora* and Mozilla contributor!

The Internet is powerful <3


Use the Web, Luke.

  • Share everything with everyone everywhere
    Website, e-mail, VoIP, chat...
  • How many times did you use it today?
  • Be careful of the dark side

Accumulation of data

  • Billions of e-mails, messages, images and documents shared everyday
  • Very personal and professional data
  • Processed, shared and stored by corporations
    • Goal: $$ money is the target
    • Dominating entities: not easy to change
    • They're thousands of kilometers away: you can't talk with them
    • You lost the control of the data

Big browser is watching you

I have nothing to hide!

Maybe, but...
  • You depend on the services
  • Targeted ads / incitement to purchase
  • Contracts (insurances, banks...)
  • Your job
  • And the State ?
Financial risk and freedom concerns.

Choose applications and services

Depending on:
  • Against whom am I protecting myself?
  • Who is providing the service? (non-profit?)
  • How much can I invest myself? (Time, money, knowledges...)
  • Where is it located?

Keep your data under control

First, use Free Softwares
Then, where to store them?
  • Your own server at home
  • Your own server at a hosting company
  • Hosted by a non-profit entity
  • Hosted by a company
Everything is about trust

See who’s tracking you online

  • A Firefox add-on by Mozilla
  • Real-time trackers visualization
  • Information filters and website blockers

Panopticlick

  • By the Electronic Frontier Foundation
  • Is your browser unique?
  • User Agent, time zone, installed plugins, activated cookies, available fonts, screen size...
  • https://panopticlick.eff.org

What can I do?
As a user

  • Firefox settings: Block third-party cookies, DoNotTrack...
  • Automatic solutions: Ghostery / Disconnect.me, Adblock...
  • Non-user friendly solutions: NoScript, RequestPolicy...
  • But we have nothing without goodwill

And now?

What can I do?
As a power user

  • Use alternative search engines: DuckDuckGo, Ixquick/Startpage...
  • Host your own services: OwnCloud, CozyCloud...
  • Use alternative OS: GNU/Linux, Cyanogen/Replicant, Firefox OS...
  • http://prism-break.org
  • Spread the word! To your family, to technical person, at work...

What can I do?
As a web developer

  • Avoid direct inclusion of external content
    Social buttons, video streaming...
  • Use Piwik instead of Google Analytics
  • Use Persona (connect with your email) instead of Facebook Connect / Google...
  • Don't host your projects on cloud providers like Amazon

Any questions ?

Credits

Presentation under CC-BY CC-BY on github
http://flaburgan.github.io/presentations-mozilla/

  • Template HTML5 by Vadim Makeev, Opera Software
  • Mozilla styling by Chris Heilmann, Mozilla
  • "Like" button by Sean MacEntee on flickr
  • Firefox and Ligthbeam logos © the mozilla foundation
  • diaspora* logo © the diaspora* foundation