The Vibrant Web
Background
The Vibrant Web is a browser tool that allows users to begin to understand how companies track their behavior online. The tool provides both a pop-up view for understanding the site you're currently visiting, as well as an aggregated visualization that suggests relationships in tracking behavior across sites.
Internet users have been warned for years that companies track their behavior online, buy and sell that data, and take liberties with users' stated privacy preferences. But for the most part, users have had to rely on experts—often in the form of academic researchers and journalists—to understand what is involved in this tracking.
The purpose of The Vibrant Web is to bring a semblance of clarity and control directly to the user.
Pop-up View
Aggregated Visualization
Technologies: Chrome Extension API, JavaScript, Processing.js