Projects

Extensions & Projects

TrackMeNot

TrackMeNot is a lightweight browser extension that helps protect web searchers from surveillance and data-profiling by search engines. It does so not by means of concealment or encryption (i.e. covering one’s tracks), but instead, paradoxically, by the opposite strategy: noise and obfuscation. With TrackMeNot, actual web searches, lost in a cloud of false leads, are essentially hidden in plain view. User-installed TrackMeNot works with the Firefox Browser and popular search engines (AOL, Yahoo!, Google, and Bing) and requires no 3rd-party servers or services.

Mozilla extension page
Chrome version

Unsearch

‘Unsearch’ takes advantage of Google-Instant log retention policy to prevent Google from recording user search for more than 15 days. When you use ‘Unsearch’, it copies the content of Google-Instant result and past it in a new tab (it removes the links to Google so you can click on links without being redirected to Google). In background, ‘Unsearch’ removes the text that you typed in Google searchbox.

Adnostic

Adnostic is a practical architecture that enables targeting without compromising user privacy. This project is currently developed as a Firefox extension that locally builds user’s profile. When the user visits a page publishing ads, Adnostic automatically downloads a list of advertisements and only display the one matching to user’s profile.

SquiggleSR

!!!Project is no longer updated!!!

SquiggleSR is a Firefox add-on which generates personalized queries to deceive search engines and protect user’s privacy. Keywords extracted from RSS flows and search engine statistics are used to create coherent and news related queries. Clicks are randomly simulated on non-sponsored results. SquiggleSR is under development. Current version is available here.

Admonitor

This extension is designed to evaluate TrackMeNot impact on user search profiles. It’s a toolbox for TMN development that provides the following functionalities:

  1. A switch between different Web Accounts (Google Or Yahoo! accounts)
  2. Approximation user search profile based on browser search history.
  3. Approximation of users Gmail profile. Analyze ads that are displayed along you mails (since Gmail does Behavioral Targeting)
  4. Generate a file containing your search time distribution (used by TMN as an input to schedule searches)

Some functionality will be integrated in TMN. Keeping the two extensions separated is just simpler to manage now.

Try it!

Take It Where It Is (TIWII)

TIWII is a P2P oriented transfer protocol that aims to speed up transfers by taking advantage of the sequence of bits already available on the receiver hard disk. Since fewer bytes are transmitted, TIWII should improve security and privacy by limiting eavesdropping possibilities. Especially, it should be impossible for an attacker to identify the transferred file without having the complete list of files used as references.