Mozilla launches Rally, a Firefox plugin to let users …
Mozilla partners with The Markup to launch Rally study into Facebook’s tracking and data collection practices
January 10, 2022 Mozilla
Browser maker Mozilla today announced a partnership with The Markup, the non-profit newsroom that investigates how technology is reshaping society, on a research project to provide insights into and data about a space that’s opaque to policymakers, researchers and users themselves. By joining Mozilla and The Markup’s “Facebook Pixel Hunt” in Firefox, people can help Rally and The Markup unravel how Facebook’s tracking infrastructure massively collects data about people online – data that is used to target ads, tailor content recommendations and spread misinformation – all by simply browsing the web.
The Markup is the newest partner for Rally, the privacy-first data-sharing platform that was created by Mozilla in 2021 to take back control from platforms that are not transparent about how they use people’s data and make it very difficult for independent outside research to take place.
rt of a collective effort to solve societal problems that start online and that we have not been able to investigate this way before.
Using tools provided by Rally, the two organizations will research how Facebook tracks people across the web through its Facebook pixel-powered ad network and shine a light on what Facebook knows about their online life.
By opting into “The Facebook Pixel Hunt” study, Rally gives Firefox users the power to help answer questions like: What kind of data does the Facebook pixel collect? Which sites share this data? What can this data reveal about people? What other ways does Facebook track people? How widespread is Facebook’s tracking network?
Mozilla is excited to partner with The Markup. Cited by legislators to combat discriminatory tenant screening and mortgage lending, The Markup’s journalism has distinguished itself with its direct impact on people’s lives. The partnership of the two organizations brings together Rally’s technical skill and The Markup’s data-driven investigative journalism, exposing the problems of informational asymmetry on the internet and shedding light on systems of online surveillance used by companies like Facebook.
“A tool like Rally can bring the full force of communities of people joining together to provide insights into one of the most opaque parts of the internet that have such a dramatic impact on our individual lives and on society. This is a rare opportunity to lift the veil over Facebook’s tracking and data collection practices outside of the Facebook platforms.”
Ted Han, Rally Product Lead at Mozilla
Facebook has repeatedly slowed down efforts to bring transparency and to help independent third parties research and understand the mechanisms at play on its platforms: it shut down CrowdTangle, blocked ProPublica’s Ad Transparency tools, modified code to prevent The Markup’s Citizen Browser from collecting user-volunteered data and canceled NYU’s AdObserver researchers’ accounts.
“The Internet and the world cannot wait on platforms to do the right thing, especially when so much depends on it. This partnership seeks to lead the way in providing new and critical ways of illuminating the reality of the internet, led by the people who make it. This partnership comes at a time when the consequences of fragmented awareness have never been more stark.”
Ted Han, Rally Product Lead at Mozilla
“We’re thrilled to partner with Mozilla, which shares our commitment to a more transparent and trusted internet. Rally is an open invitation for the public to contribute to important research into some of today’s most pressing issues, and we’re excited to investigate wherever it leads.”
Julia Angwin, editor-in-chief and founder of The Markup
The Markup will be Rally’s first non-academic partner. Rally launched as a Firefox extension in 2021. It has supported a study in collaboration with Princeton University’s Center for Information Technology Policy about news and misinformation about politics and COVID-19 across online services, and another ongoing study with the Stanford University Graduate School of Business on news consumption and the impact of ads.
Participate in “The Facebook Pixel Hunt” Install Rally
Mozilla develops an extension that analyzes how Facebook tracks us
01.16.2022, Sputnik Mundo translated from Spanish
The Mozilla Blog When it comes to privacy, default settings matter!
The developers of the Mozilla software company have announced a project that aims to find out how far Facebook can spy on its users. Through an extension, they seek to expose the way in which the popular social network monitors the internet and consumer data.
In order to map the world’s largest social network tracking network and understand the type of information it collects on websites, the developers of Mozilla recently announced the creation of the study Facebook Pixel Hunt (Facebook pixel hunting, in Spanish).
The initiative became a reality in partnership with The Markup, a nonprofit journalistic organization that investigates how technology is reshaping society.
The alternatives to Facebook, WhatsApp and Instagram that will save you from Zuckerberg’s ‘eye’
The facebook pixels they are a series of hidden elements in millions of internet sites that can track visitors to later share this information with the social network. Zuckerberg’s company organizes this external data and, if it has a registered profile, adds it to what it already knows about the user.
In this way it creates a hidden profile of that particular person.
These are the types of hidden practices that the Mozilla team wants to investigate. To do this, and with the help of journalists from The Markup, they will look for details about Facebook tracking through a free download extension for your Firefox browser, known as Mozilla Rally.
“The internet and the world can’t wait for platforms to do the right thing, especially when so much depends on it. This partnership seeks to lead the way by providing critical new ways to illuminate the reality of the internet, led by the people who do it.”, points out the initiative’s leader, Ted Han.
Rally will collect the data sent by the Facebook pixels while browsing the web and will measure the time each user spends on different pages or the URLs they visit.
The study will run until July 13, 2022.
When it comes to privacy, default settings matter!
June 4, 2019
What if I told you that on nearly every single website you visit, data about you was transmitted to dozens or even hundreds of companies, all so that the website could earn an additional $0.00008 per ad! This is a key finding from a new study on behaviorally targeted advertisements from Carnegie Mellon University and it should be a wake-up call to all of us. The status quo of pervasive data collection in service of ad targeting is untenable. That is why we’re announcing some key changes to Firefox.
continue reading HERE https://blog.mozilla.org/en/products/firefox/when-it-comes-to-privacy-default-settings-matter/
La empresa de software Mozilla está ejecutando un proyecto para descubrir hasta qué punto Facebook puede espiarte.
Mozilla se asocia con The Markup para lanzar el estudio Rally sobre las prácticas de seguimiento y recopilación de datos de Facebook
Posted on enero 19, 2022 by ELCOMUNISTA.NET in TECNOLOGÍA // 0 Comments
Los desarrolladores de la empresa de software Mozilla han anunciado un proyecto que tiene como objetivo conocer hasta dónde Facebook puede espiar a sus usuarios. Mediante una extensión, buscan dejar en evidencia la forma en que la popular red social realiza el monitoreo de internet y de los datos de los consumidores.
Para poder mapear la red de seguimiento de la red social más grande del mundo y comprender el tipo de información que recopila en los sitios web, los desarrolladores de Mozilla anunciaron recientemente la creación del estudio Facebook Pixel Hunt (Caza de píxeles de Facebook, en español). La iniciativa se hizo realidad en asociación con The Markup, una organización periodística sin fines de lucro que investiga cómo la tecnología está remodelando la sociedad.
Los píxeles de Facebook son una serie de elementos ocultos en millones de sitios de internet que pueden rastrear a los visitantes para posteriormente compartir dicha información con la red social. La empresa de Zuckerberg organiza estos datos externos y, en caso de tener un perfil registrado, los incluye a lo que ya conoce sobre el usuario. De lo contrario, crea un perfil oculto de esa persona en particular.
Estos son los tipos de prácticas ocultas que el equipo de Mozilla quiere investigar. Para ello y con ayuda de periodistas de The Markup buscarán detalles sobre el seguimiento de Facebook a través de una extensión de descarga gratuita para su navegador Firefox, conocida como Mozilla Rally.
«Internet y el mundo no pueden esperar a que las plataformas hagan lo correcto, especialmente cuando tanto depende de ello. Esta asociación busca liderar el camino al proporcionar formas nuevas y críticas de iluminar la realidad de internet, lideradas por las personas que lo hacen», señala el líder de la iniciativa, Ted Han.
Rally recogerá los datos enviados por los píxeles de Facebook mientras se navega por la web y medirá el tiempo que dedica cada usuario en diferentes páginas o las URL que visita. El estudio se extenderá hasta el 13 de julio de 2022.
The Free 