Every so often, a new product comes along that’s so great, it makes you angry it didn’t already exist. This morning, that product is PrivacyFix, a free plugin for Chrome that tells you nearly everything you ever wanted to know about how your online activity is being tracked, and fills in your online privacy holes with a click. But that’s not the best part.
Unlike other tracker blocker plugins, like Ghostery or Do Not Track Plus, PrivacyFix provides an estimate of exactly how much revenue you generate for Facebook and Google through your online activities. It’s an insight into the inner workings of the Web’s money machine that few of us have had access to in the past.
According to PrivacyFix, I am worth a whopping $0.51 per year to Facebook — a surprisingly low amount, though I am far from a heavy Facebook user. For Google, that number takes a wild leap up to $1095.17. Other Digital Trends staffers who tested out their PrivacyFix stats showed similar disparity between Facebook’s and Google’s earnings from a single user. Clearly, Google know something about online advertising that Facebook does not.
Of course, these numbers are only estimates, and do not come directly from the companies themselves. Instead, PrivacyFix, created by online privacy company Privacy Choice, has teamed up with stock analyst startup Trefis, which provides the figures.
“It’s a very rough estimate, of course,” said Jim Brock, founder of Privacy Choice, in an email to me this morning. “We included it because it’s important for people to understand that their data has real value. When they use these services, they are exchanging data for value.”
Though Facebook and Google are the only companies for which PrivacyFix gives per-user earnings estimates, Brock says that the company is “very interested in adding additional revenue information whenever we can find it.”
The decidedly nifty data value estimate feature aside, PrivacyFix’s primary function is to alert you to the porousness of your online privacy in Facebook, Google, and other websites. It automatically analyzes your Facebook privacy settings, and alerts you to areas that are leaking your data. To update your settings to the most secure option, just click “fix.” The same goes for Google.
PrivacyFix also tells you which websites may share your personal data, plus which data brokers and advertising networks have installed tracking cookies on your machine, and provides an equally quick way to shut off the flow of personal data. Finally, PrivacyFix provides an optional “healthbar,” which appears in the top-right corner of your browser at all times, and gives you a visual cue of how much of your personal information is being shared on each website you visit.
While other plugins provide similar services, Brock says that PrivacyFix gives users a number of benefits that competing products do not.
“Three things really distinguish Privacyfix from other privacy tools: it’s super easy to use, it’s comprehensive and it’s balanced because we show you the tradeoffs in the decisions you make,” he said.
To give PrivacyFix a go, click here and install the plugin. (Just remember: It only works for Chrome, at the moment.)



So if my information is being sold for profit, why am I not given a percentage?…..
just downloaded it.
I will be
Ha ha, too funny that this is on Facebook.
Want to make your Profile Fully private don’t make a face book Account and don’t post things you don’t want people to know about you to a Social network were sharing with other’s is what its all about
http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/eat-health/id549426450?mt=8
Link included this time! Sorry about that.
Where’s my cut?
Wow, I am worth a whopping $12.40/yr for Facebook and $682.25 for heir Google.
I really wish I didn’t click that “Tracking Me Now” feature. I’m really disturbed now.
I definitely thought I had all my Facebook/Google+ stuff locked down until I installed this. Thanks!
Great find Andrew. I installed it and it showed me how to change my Google search settings, +1′s, Facebook settings etc so my information is more private.
How do you get it to show you how much Google makes off of your web browsing?
Cool, right?
If you go to PrivacyFix.com, and click on the “Google” tab, you’ll see your revenue generation figure on the bottom-left corner. Same goes for the Facebook tab. As I’ve checked it throughout this morning, my numbers have changed rather significantly. My FB number jumped by $0.02. And my Google number went up more than $8. Interestingly, I have used both more than normal this morning, so it would seem these estimated figures are at least taking real-time information into consideration.
How long do you have to browse before that number is accurate?
So if my information is being sold for profit, why am I not given a percentage?…..
https://www.facebook.com/pages/لأني-أنــا-الكبرياء-بذاته/397950183553144?ref=hl
أكتر من 3500 هدية مجانية بالمزرعة السعيدة للحصول على واحدة ، اشترك معنا … سارعو قبل الإنتهاء
http://ferme-heureuse.01.ma/32934.htm
:42:
Yes, Anthony, it’s only simple solution!
plz like our page on facebook/Fay-Products
By doing this, how much info can Privacyfix get from us while blocking other competitors?
U see this money come back by not having to pay for it haha. Weirdly
http://www.facebook.com/Army.a.ml
Write 1 line about mother!
Go to page if u love u r sweet Mother http://www.Facebook.Com/shakildarora
to go private in a public place called the internet is like dreaming land in a vast ocean. if you want to make it private cut off all the wi-fi, bluetooth, lines, etc. and… never pick-up a cellphone hehe
nice info,, spsly fa galz :D
Hey Raghu dont insist on the facebook. It is like the mirror. What we post it will reflect. If one cheater gets our password he will enter into our domain and creates unlawful things and for that we cannot blame the facebook uploaders.
Faiza Hashim
Simple solution: don’t use facebook.