Big Tech Detective is a new browser extension that shows how Big Tech are invading your privacy by tracking your every move online

We’ve written extensively about how Big Tech companies are censoring free speech online and invading your online privacy by monitoring your every move online. As we noted last month, many privacy-conscious users are now switching to Big Tech alternative tools to better protect themselves online.

Today, we just learned about a new tool called Big Tech Detective, a browser extension for Chrome that lets you track and avoid tech giants as you browse the web. Thanks to the team at Verge, who first brings attention to the tool. Think of Big Tech Detective as an x-ray vision revealing the guts of a website.

Now imagine what the Internet would look like without Big Tech companies like Google, Facebook, Microsoft, or Amazon. That’s exactly what Big Tech Detective does. Big Tech Detective as an x-ray vision revealing the guts of a website. As Verge pointed out, “this tool drives home the point that it’s almost impossible to avoid these companies on the modern web, even if you try.”

You may have grown used to seeing advertisements served in the sidebar of a website, but this browser extension tool shows the role Big Tech plays in serving you those ads. This tool may also alert you to the role that Big Tech plays in hosting some of your favorite websites on their servers.

As you browse the internet, Big Tech Detective will alert you if the website you are on is exchanging data with Big Tech by identifying and measuring connections to internet protocol (IP) addresses owned by Amazon, Facebook, Google, and Microsoft.

Source: BigTechDetective

The overlay page will alert you when a webpage is exchanging data with Amazon, Facebook, Google, or Microsoft. While the tool is on, the extension window counts connections as you browse the internet in real-time, even if you do not choose to lock traffic to and from any of the four companies. In the extension window, the “websites view” of the Traffic Analyzer graph shows you the percentage of websites that have connections to each company. Toggling to the “packets view” will show you the breakdown of the volume of data going to each company.

Screenshot: The Verge

In the end, this browser extension further shows that “the entire internet relies on basically four companies:” Google, Amazon, Facebook, and Microsoft.

Screenshot: The Verge

You can visit the Big Tech Detective website to download the tool and avoid tech giants as you browse the web.