Firefox Add-on warns you if you visit Prism-linked company websites

Martin Brinkmann
Jun 15, 2013
Firefox, Firefox add-ons
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9

A new Firefox add-on, called Dark side of the Prism, has been designed to warn Internet users who have installed it automatically when they visit websites of companies linked to the government surveillance system Prism.

All users have to do is install the add-on in Firefox, it will work passively from that moment on. Once you visit a website of a company associated with Prism, it starts to play the song Dark Side of the Moon by Pink Floyd. It also displays a logo at the top right for a second or two before it vanishes.

The add-on covers not only the main websites of companies involved, e.g. microsoft.com or google.com, but also company owned domains such as YouTube, Blogger or Bing.

The music begins to play right away and while it has been mainly designed to raise awareness, it may also render some websites unusable which may be intentional as well. If you visit YouTube for instance, you cannot really play any video on the site while the add-on is running in the background as you'd have to listen to two audio sources at the same time.

The conclusion here is that the add-on is mainly designed to provide Internet users with options to find out which of their favorite websites and new websites they visit are linked to Prism. There is no list of sites it supports though which makes it difficult to judge if it is covering all web properties of linked companies or only major ones.

An option to disable the sound would be really helpful in this regard, as it may be getting on your nerves pretty soon even if it plays for only a couple of seconds before you leave the website again.

If you need to work with the site however, it is definitely problematic since there is no stop button either.

Tip: NoScript users can block the server request so that only the Prism logo is displayed by the extension.

Anyway, if you are interested in the add-on check it out. It is available over at the Mozilla Add-ons repository.

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Comments

  1. Midnight said on June 17, 2013 at 5:04 am
    Reply

    @JPS… Actually, I do keep up with the news and not just locally! :)
    While many countries do spy on it’s citizens, the matter has only recently come to light when Edward Snowden blew the whistle on his own Government, exposing their abuse and illegal tactics, causing an uproar not only in the U.S. but here and around the world.

    Since then, many countries have protested their own Governments similar tactics, Canada included and Europe is implementing procedures to prevent such spying on it’s own Citizens.

    Read this for more details:
    http://news.techworld.com/security/3452851/eu-justice-commissioner-on-prism-eu-citizens-rights-are-not-negotiable/?olo=rss

    It’s not only the Middle Eastern countries that don’t have Free Speech!
    Say something derogatory against Barak Obama or anybody in Congress and watch what happens to you!! Your so-called Free Speech goes right out the window!
    Burn your flag and you end up in jail! It’s O.K. for other countries to burn the Star Spangled Banner, but not in the U.S. of A!!
    Free Speech? Yea right!!

    There haven’t been any acts of terrorism in Canada, as any attempts have been trampled by our Federal Agencies, as seemingly, our intelligence is far superior to the States and other countries. There haven’t been any acts of terrorism in many other countries, as well!

    As posted above,… However, we do have watch dogs, such as OpenMedia and others, to include the News Media, putting pressure on the Government to keep their noses out of what’s none of their business, as we take our privacy very seriously!

    Just saying!!

  2. berttie said on June 16, 2013 at 5:24 pm
    Reply

    @Midnight

    It is not only America and Canada. Australia, Britain, the Netherlands and New Zealand are also involved, have been since the 1960s under the ‘Echelon’ program through which they spy on just about everyone on the planet with a phone, computer, etc, including their own citizens and pool the information.

    1. Midnight said on June 16, 2013 at 5:50 pm
      Reply

      I’m not too concerned with what goes on in the rest of the world, especially the States, as they have more than their fair share of problems, but the privacy invasion that’s been going on in Canada for the past several years is cause for serious worries, although it’s been blown out of proportion more than we can all imagine!

      However, we do have watch dogs, such as OpenMedia and others, to include the News Media, putting pressure on the Government to keep their noses out of what’s none of their business, as we take our privacy very seriously!

      I can understand to a point that the NSA and Prism would need to snoop on people’s Internet use, as well as their e-mails and phone calls, but had the Americans not stuck their noses where it don’t belong and piss off the Arabs, terrorism would not be on such a wide scale as it is and the need to monitor people’s activities, would not be on such a wide scale!

      From what I have read, the EU is looking into the ill effects of Internet and phone monitoring and the backlash that could arise from those activities!

      1. JPS said on June 17, 2013 at 2:07 am
        Reply

        You’re either not looking at the big picture or you’re not keeping up with the news.There have been acts of terrorism in many countries — not just the USA.So terrorism occurs in many different countries because Islam’s goal is to dominate the world.As for Americans that ‘piss off the Arabs’,you have to remember that one of the things that the Middle Eastern countries don’t have is free speech,while here in the USA,we do have free speech{this is in our Constitution}.You have to also realize that the Middle Eastern countries will NEVER have free speech — it doesn’t exist in their part of the world.So which system would you like to live under?

  3. Dan said on June 16, 2013 at 3:11 am
    Reply

    Reminds me of a Patrick McGoohan line in 1960’s series “The Prisoner”: ‘I will not be pushed, filed, stamped, indexed, briefed, debriefed, or numbered. I am not a number, I am a free man!'(response of scene government antagonist: “AHHH, HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!”)

  4. Zinc said on June 15, 2013 at 5:27 pm
    Reply

    Now that we know the number of companies is a lot bigger than previously reported…the warnings just go off for every website you visit?

    Just assume they monitor everything…your browsing…your phone calls…your TV usage…your banking activity…your medical history…

  5. Midnight said on June 15, 2013 at 9:25 am
    Reply

    Interesting add-on that might benefit American Firefox users!

    Canada has it’s own spy agency that also monitors it’s citizens web usage, e-mails and phone calls, so it appears that everybody, in North America is having it’s privacy invaded by the Government!

  6. Peter said on June 15, 2013 at 9:17 am
    Reply

    Iook at Galaxkey http://www.galaxkey.com, these guys are doing well. and keep users Safe.

    great product to keeps file safe for free….

    Peter

    1. James Ginli said on June 20, 2013 at 3:57 pm
      Reply

      I have used Galaxkey and it does work, its pretty good, I also recommend it!

      James

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