Monitor the data that advertisers collect about you

Bynamite is a browser add-on for Firefox and Chrome that allows you to control the information ad networks take from your web use.

This unusual application is not aimed at blocking advertising, but rather at ensuring you only see the type of ads that are suitable for you. A little Bynamite icon is added to your browser, and a bar will pop up when it’s clicked. This will show you what interests the web thinks you have based on your history. This info is used by some advertisers, who then direct ads for pages you open.

Once Bynamite has collected all of your data, it allows you to delete any interests it has found so you no longer receive ads about that topic. You can also have Bynamite notify you when new interests are collected, and receive an email newsletter of your weekly additions.

As well as the icon pop-up, you can access the Bynamite home page, which gives you a visual map of your recorded interests they think you have, based on your history. Besides editing your recorded interests, you can actually add more, which will allow certain advertisers to direct more relevant ads at you as you browse.

Bynamite offers a different approach to privacy and advertising; unlike AdBlocker it attempts to give you control over what you see rather than stopping advertising altogether. It seems to work best if you browse with a light approach to privacy settings – if you are signed into Google, but don’t allow Google to record your browsing history there won’t be a lot of data for Bynamite to mine.

Bynamite is an interesting experiment that opens the world of data collection to you and allows you to control what companies see. It is very user friendly and a huge improvement over complex user agreements and difficult to reach privacy settings.