Get control over Facebook!

A small Danish IT company turns the relationship between you and Facebook on its head with a brand-new browser extension – Findx gives you both privacy and control over your personal data.

The recent Facebook crisis has made it clear: the internet is more than just a place of wonder for web surfers hungry for information. It is also a commercial mecca for big advertising companies who buy your personal data and use your data to serve you highly-targeted ads. Facebook's founder, Mark Zuckerberg, was called before the US Congress to account for Facebook's massive harvesting of personal data – you couldn’t avoid this tracking as you surfed around the web, even if you tried.

You had no choice, until now! A small Danish IT company based in Holbæk, called Findx, has launched a browser extension that reverses the power relationship between you and Facebook's spies. Findx Privacy Control is a tiny program that you can easily install as a button in the upper right corner of Google Chrome or Firefox. When Findx Privacy Control is turned on, it stops Facebook from tracking you. With Findx Privacy Control, YOU are in control of what Facebook can harvest when you're looking at anything on the web, from chocolate cake to divorce procedures – plus, you can also prevent inappropriate ads from being displayed. 

You can choose your privacy level for each website

Findx Privacy Control is unique – it’s the only browser extension that gives you such control. You decide on which web pages Facebook tracking is turned on and off. For example, you can choose to allow Facebook on The Guardian or The Sun websites so you can easily comment and share articles – but block Facebook and other advertising networks on websites where you are looking for information that you do not want the rest of the internet to know about.

Freedom on the internet is a core concept for the team behind Findx. Findx does not want to stop all online advertising and they do not mind Facebook as a social media service. But Facebook has its tracking installed on virtually the entire web and systematically collects data about people, whether they have a Facebook account or not. Plus, they treat your private data as a commodity. Findx believes that you should be able to protect yourself from this behaviour, whenever you want to:

"We believe that when people have the right tools, they are smart enough to choose who they want to share their secrets with online. It should be their own decisions, for example, to see advertisements on the BBC but not on The Guardian, or to allow social media companies to build a user profile based on their browsing," says Brian Schildt Laursen, CRO at Findx. 

We have a responsibility to protect our children

In addition to blocking Facebook from collecting personal data, Findx Privacy Control can also prevent Google from doing the same, and blocking advertisements – either on selected pages or on the entire web. Blocking all advertising is intended to help children – they will not be exposed to targeted and personalized advertising when they are looking for information to complete school assignments:

"We believe that we, as adults, have a responsibility to protect our children online, and with Findx we have made it easy for parents and teachers to do that," says Brian Schildt Laursen.

You can also block advertisements that are displayed on your favourite video websites. Using the Findx video search feature, children can enjoy watching videos without advertising.

The development of Findx Privacy Control contributes to the IT company's lofty goal of creating an ethically sound World Wide Web based on transparency, an individual’s right to privacy and the freedom to choose. The development team is in full swing working on the Findx search engine, which is available as a beta version. You can use the search engine now via the search box in the Findx Privacy Control browser extension, or directly at findx.com