The National Security Agency (NIA) is reported to be accessing servers of some tech giants like Microsoft, Yahoo!, Facebook, Google, Apple and others at their consent. The access is reportedly a part of surveillance program codenamed, PRISM where the US government officials are collecting material pertaining to every internet user’s activity including his search history, the content of emails, file transfers, live chats, etc. This activity is referred as ‘DATA MINING’ and considered as ‘Illegal’ since laws on privacy as guaranteed by free Internet world cannot be violated by any surveillance programs launched by any government agency.
While many have denied involvement, the fact remains that all this has raised the concerns of people. Having said that suspicion remains that they could still be passing on user data. So, how can one check this and be assured that the website he is visiting is free and out of reach by any surveillance program? There is also a website Opt out of PRISM, that recommends alternative software & services which users may want to consider. A new Firefox add-on called ‘Dark side of the Prism’ too has just been released to let you know about it.
Dark side of the Prism - Firefox addon will play a song & warn you if you visit a PRISM website
The description of the ‘Dark Side of the Prism’ add-on reads as
A Firefox Add-on that provides a soundtrack for our surveilled internet meanderings.
Dark Side of the Prism” uses Pink Floyd’s aural prism (Dark Side of the Moon) as a playlist to the NSA’s tracking efforts, serving as an auditory reminder of how our online activities are monitored. To install it, all you have to do is visit the Firefox Add-on page and hit the ‘
Add to Firefox’ button.
Then, wait for the installation process to complete. Once done, you get a confirmation message that the add-on has successfully been added to your browser.
Thereafter, whenever you visit a website being monitored by Prism, the music begins to play and a dark-colored prim box is displayed in the upper right-hand corner of your computer screen, hinting you the website is under surveillance and your activity is being monitored.
During my test, the add-on played the song for the websites like,
• Microsoft.com
• Facebook
• YouTube
If you decide to try out this add-on, Please share your experience with the forum.
