[secede] -- privacy badger
The cliche says that knowledge is power. In our era, *data* is power. We must control the information that we take into our minds as well as the information that we unwittingly give away.
It goes without saying that everyone should use a browser with some built in privacy features like Firefox instead of Chrome / Edge / Safari. This easy switch dramatically improves data leakage with no loss of functionality.
However, simply using a more secure browser is not enough. Many people are becoming increasingly aware that social media sites use trackers to monitor their activity across the web. For example, when we are browsing for gardening supplies at a hardware store, Facebook is browsing with us. This can occur even if we do not have an account with the social media platform.
Why does this matter? Besides being a violation of our privacy, such large scale data collection programs give tech companies (and therefore governments) an extremely accurate picture of trends in the zeitgeist. If they know what people are searching for and what people are buying, they know where society is moving. By squashing an idea here and boosting one there, they can prod society in their desired direction.
Privacy Badger automatically learns what trackers follow us around the web and blocks them. This free and open source “set it and forget it” extension reduces our outgoing data from a firehouse to a dripping faucet.