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With the explosion of digital technologies, companies are sweeping up vast quantities of data about consumers' activities, both online and off. Feeding this trend are new smart, connected products-from fitness trackers to home systems-that gather and transmit detailed information.

Unroll.me is apologizing for a lack of transparency, but not for selling info.

Lightbeam is a Firefox add-on that uses interactive visualizations to show you the first and third party sites you interact with on the Web. As you browse, Lightbeam reveals the full depth of the Web today, including parts that are not transparent to the average user.

"PubHubs is the name for a new Dutch community network, based on public values. PubHubs stands for Public Hubs. It is open and transparent and protects data of the network's participants. PubHubs aims to connect people, in different hubs, such as your family, sports club, school class, museum, local library, neighborhood, or municipality. In each such hub, a relevant part of one's own identity plays a role. PubHubs focuses on reliable information, if necessary with digital signatures, and on trusted communication, if necessary with guarantees of the identity of participants."

We've all seen them - windows that pop up before you install a new piece of software, full of legalese. To complete the install, you have to scroll through 60 screens of dense text and then click an "I Agree" button. Sometimes you don't even have to scroll through to click the button. Other times, there is no button because merely opening your new gadget means that you've "agreed" to the chunk of legalese.