Hi

Thank you for your question, I hope I can help.

Before going any further, I recommend you update Firefox (guide) and the Flash plugin (guide). This will help keep your browsing stable and secure.

it is good to be cautious about malware, but please appreciate that is not the purpose of Lightbeam. It was designed to help people see the different first and third parties online that may be tracking your interactions with various pages, such as advertisers.

Once installed from the Firefox Addons site, you should see an icon on the icon bar. When you click this (after having been browsing for a while!), you should see a network map appear that should the connections between various sites.

If you wish to remove Lightbeam, type about:addons in the address bar, select Extensions (on the left hand side of the screen) and click Remove on the row for Lightbeam.

I hope this helps, but if not, please come back here and we can look into a different solution for you.

Thanks for the help, Seburo. I have checked that everything is up-to-date and the Lightbeam graph does appear after every browsing session. Unfortunately, there is never a graph only a blank black screen. I just checked it after visiting several sites (after update) but still nothing.

Hi

I am sorry to hear that.

I have had a look into this and have seen that you may need to Refresh Firefox. You will then need to add back in any add-ons (like Lightbeam). Please read the important note at the bottom (just in case there is a problem).

(You may wish to make sure you have a backup of your bookmarks. You can read how to do this here.)

I hope this helps.

Thanks, I've done all that: still blank. Could it be because I have Duck Duck Go as my search engine?

I think Yes , Because Duck Duck Go don't track your activity. If you want to provide some code bit issue then look out Lighbeam git page : https://github.com/mozilla/lightbeam/issues/new

Edit: Only search through this will not give you any tracking activity,but once you visited that site , lightbeam will shows you visualization.

Thanks

Hi

Yes, that is a good point. If you are using a search engine like Duck Duck Go, you may not see a result from those searches.

I recommend trying a search through Google or Yahoo and seeing what happens.

I tried using explorer but Lightbeam didn't track that either.

Hi

Explorer is a different browser so it will not work. Please can you follow the steps below;

1. Please type about:preferences#privacy in your Firefox address bar and make sure that Firefox will - Remember all history.
2. Please type www.google.com into your Firefox address bar, do a search, then look at Lightbeam.

Please let us know what happens.

I followed your directions. Mine said "remember history" clicked it and checked to make sure tracking wasn't blocked but still nothing. I'm thinking perhaps I should just block tracking and be done with it. If I block tracking will I get automatic updates etc? How do I get rid of Lightbeam (if I can't use it)?

Hi

If you block tracking, you should still get the updates to Firefox.

If you want to remove the Lightbeam add-on, I recommend you follow this walkthrough.

I hope this helps.

G'day Saburo, Thanks for your continuing support. I followed your instructions and removed lightbeam. Now, after searching instead of the lightbeam black graph screen the screen is white and I have this at the top. resource://jid1-f9uj2thwoam5gq-at-jetpack/lightbeam/data/index.html

Hi

Your issue seems a bit more complicated and requires more investigation.

We're currently looking into it and we'll get back to you with more details ASAP.

Please understand that escalations can take up to 72 hours for a response, but no longer.

Hello Seburo, Have you had any further thoughts on my problem?

Hi there.

I did a little digging in Lightbeam's GitHub posts, and found that Firefox profile issues and some settings may break Lightbeam.

The quickest way of checking this is by using http://portableapps.com/apps/internet/firefox_portable; it is a standalone package with default settings and a separate profile. Try using Lightbeam in Portable.

If Lightbeam works in Portable, you may need a new profile in Firefox, or an Extension or Firefox setting may be interfering with Lightbeam's information gathering.

Thanks. This sounds very complicated to a novice like me and looks like it may cause more issues than it fixes by needing extensions and whatever a separate profile it. At this point, despite being interested in knowing whose been mapping me, I'd be satisfied with getting rid of Lightbeam altogether. Do you know how to do that. (See rest of thread for issues regarding this not-so-simple act.

Don't put yourself down unnecessarily. The Portable package is standalone, i.e. it contains everything needed to use it - if you can install Firefox, and you clearly can, you can install Portable. Using it is no different from standard Firefox, but you cannot have both open at the same time. -- Regarding the uninstallation of Lightbeam:

Sounds like the Lightbeam uninstallation did not go well (the files were removed, hence the empty resource:// reference, but the button may have remained, since you can try to access the view).

If you want to uninstall Lightbeam or any other extension, simply clicking the Remove button in the Extensions tab should be enough (as in the walkthrough linked by Seburo). Like so: http://i.imgur.com/3v4QZAD.png. Lightbeam is usually very well behaved as it needs no browser restart to install or uninstall.

If elements of the extension remain, the first thing to try is reinstalling it and then uninstalling it again. Install from https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/lightbeam/. Uninstall as above.

If there are still elements remaining, please do the following:

1. Go to about:support (type in like a normal address). Check your Firefox version under Application Basics. The Version field should say 42.0 if you updated correctly as indicated above. If it is not 42.0, follow the instructions linked by Seburo.
2. In about:support, check the Extensions section to verify Lightbeam is gone. It should be absent from the list if it has been removed.
3. Visit https://www.mozilla.org/en-GB/plugincheck/ to do a plugin version check. If any plugins are compromised, click their Action link/button and update as necessary. Plugins differ from Extensions in that they are not under Firefox's direct control and hence need to be updated this way.
4. If you have the newest version of Firefox and your Plugins already, skip to Manual Removal.
5. If you did not have the newest versions, try installing and uninstalling again after you have installed the newest versions, then proceed to Manual Removal.

Manual Removal To physically remove the extension, use these instructions: https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/cannot-remove-add-on-extension-or-theme#w_uninstalling-manually. Please note that you can try uninstalling from Safe Mode first - the instructions are in that same article. Install Lightbeam again to glean its ID if you need to, then uninstall as before to make sure it can be removed as properly as possible.

The above physically removes the extension's file. If the Lightbeam button remains in Firefox (how else would you access the view), then you can remove that with these instructions: https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/customize-firefox-controls-buttons-and-toolbars#w_customize-the-menu-or-the-toolbar. When you have the customisation view open, you can simply right-click the Lightbeam button and select Remove from Toolbar like so: http://i.imgur.com/cQX0QlW.png.

Manually removing Lightbeam this way is as close as you'll get to proper removal. We could dive into Firefox internals for complete removal of settings, but I would rather avoid that in your case if it is not necessary.

-- Side note: if you are interested in making Firefox more robust, plugins like AdBlock Plus and NoScript offer actual protection from harmful content. NoScript is especially popular, and for a good reason, as it will pre-emptively stop non-approved sources (sites) from running code. Firefox 42.0 now offers Tracking Protection in its Private Mode if that is what you want from time to time. Permanent tracking protection would be offered by Lightbeam, among other add-ons.

Finally I thought it was all gone after doing the reinstall delete but it is still there. Actually I don't see any button only the lightbeam address in the address bar after I've closed up my browsing.