Emily Carr University visualizes online data tracking in Lightbeam add-on for Firefox

There's a new add-on for the Firefox web browser, and it has roots in Vancouver. An Emily Carr University of Art + Design professor and students worked with Mozilla developers to make the interactive visualizations for Lightbeam.

Lightbeam allows Firefox users to visualize online data tracking in real time. “Emily Carr University’s visualization research for Lightbeam enables users to understand their personal relationship to online tracking,” Emily Carr associate professor Amber Frid-Jimenez said in a news release. “Our visualizations for Lightbeam will contribute to increased transparency about how personal information is collected and propagated by third parties, a key issue of online privacy.”

Emily Carr student design researchers Sabrina Ng, Joakim Sundal, and Heather Tsang worked on the visualizations. The add-on has more than 270,000 users, so apparently some people are still using Firefox.