This browser extension shows what the Internet would look like without Big Tech – The Verge

The Economic Security Project is trying to make a point about big tech monopolies by releasing a browser plugin that will block any sites that reach out to IP addresses owned by Google, Facebook, Microsoft, or Amazon. The extension is called Big Tech Detective, and after using the internet with it for a day (or, more accurately, trying and failing to use), Id say it drives home the point that its almost impossible to avoid these companies on the modern web, even if you try.

Currently, the app has to be side-loaded onto Chrome, and the Economic Security Project expects that will remain the case. Its also available to side-load onto Firefox. By default, it just keeps track of how many requests are sent, and to which companies. If you configure the extension to actually block websites, youll see a big red popup if the website youre visiting sends a request to any of the four. That popup will also include a list of all the requests so you can get an idea of whats being asked for.

Its worth keeping in mind that just because a site reaches out to one or more of the big four tech companies, it doesnt mean that its necessarily snooping or doing something nefarious. Many websites use fonts from Google Fonts, or host their sites using Amazon Web Services or Microsoft Azure. That said, there are pages that connect to those IP addresses because they use trackers provided by one of the big four companies. The examples Im about to list were selected because theyre common sites, not necessarily because they should be shamed.

I saw the popup a lot. DuckDuckGo and Fastmail, popular non-Google alternatives for search and email, were both blocked because they loaded resources from Google, and DuckDuckGo also loaded things from Microsoft (not that this was surprising, given that the search engines ads come from it). In fact, almost every search engine I could think of was blocked: Microsofts Bing, obviously, but also Yahoo, Startpage, Ecosia, and even Ask.com. The Verge was also blocked, as it loads resources from Amazon, Google, and Facebook.

If I were trying to use the web without being able to connect to IP addresses owned by the big four, it would certainly make my job more difficult: not only could I not easily search for information, basically every news site I could think to try also came up blocked even the one for my local paper.

If I cant work, how about some entertainment? That could be tricky too. Google obviously owns YouTube, but Netflix, Hulu, Floatplane, Mangadex, and even Vimeo also all showed the big red lock screen courtesy of the Big Tech Detective extension. It was the same story with online shopping, as Etsy loads resources from all four companies. And if this extension made me want to just ditch the internet and go to the woods? The Hiking Project and AllTrails were also lost to the block.

To try to drive the point home that the takeaway from this extension should be more along the lines of the entire internet relies on basically four companies and not every website is tracking me, I tried to go to a website that I helped build and that I know isnt doing anything creepy or even showing ads. It was blocked because its hosted on AWS and uses fonts from Google.

Of course, if a browser extension can tell that trackers are present, its also possible to block them. There are quite a few extensions available that do so, and Ive used one called NoScript in the past. However, it is a balancing act between blocking things you dont want, and also not breaking the site youre trying to visit having to deal with broken sites because of super-strict settings was the reason I backed off trying that.

Big Tech Detective isnt meant to keep your data private from these companies it even says when it locks one of the pages that it isnt actually preventing the resources from loading, or collecting your data if thats their purpose. Its really meant as a visualization tool to show you that if you want to use the internet without relying on these companies, youre not going to have a good time. It does, however, let you somewhat recreate the experiment Gizmodo ran where one of its reporters tried to cut out the same four tech companies and Apple and some technology from that work helps power this extension.

Oh, and if youre wondering if I found any sites that didnt get blocked, the answer is yes: somehow, the iCloud site seemed to work fine. However, Apples website proper did not it made requests to Amazon.

Its possible that the webs reliance on Google, Facebook, Microsoft and Amazon might change. This hilariously explicit website is always my go-to when I want to remind myself that the modern web is very different from what it used to be.

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This browser extension shows what the Internet would look like without Big Tech - The Verge