The Electronic Frontier Foundation has released the first full version of their spy blocking extension, Privacy Badger. This extension is intended to stop various types of super-cookies and browser fingerprinting used by companies to track users from site to site. Beta versions of the add-on were available earlier, but this is the first full edition.
EFF Staff Technologist Cooper Quintin, the lead developer of Privacy Badger says, “It’s likely you are being tracked by advertisers and other third parties online. You can see some of it when it’s happening, such as ads that follow you around the Web that seem to reflect your past browsing history. 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. But Privacy Badger 1.0 will spot many of the trackers following you without your permission, and will block them or screen out the cookies that do their dirty work.”
This new add-on works together with the Do Not Track policy that has been advocated by the EFF and a coalition of software companies with a prominent presence on the net. Privacy Badger will not block third party cookies made by companies that promise to uphold requests to stop tracking, and you can set those flags within your browser or in Privacy Badger itself. The point of the add-on is to stop surreptitious tracking of users.
You can read more on the story at EFF. And you can download the add-on here.
