bobrNet - Digital Sovereignty Tracker

World map with network analysis statistics
Mysterious VSCode Server in Kenya that we found using our tool
Map with both statistics panels open
Report based on collected data
Browser extension

Inspiration

Digital services are increasingly concentrated in the hands of a small number of providers and countries. Most users have little visibility into where their data goes, who processes it, or how dependent they are on foreign infrastructure. We wanted to make these dependencies visible.

What it does

bobrNet is a digital sovereignty tracker that monitors network traffic and shows where data is routed.

It provides:

Real-time traffic monitoring using different backends (DNS, packet sniffing, browser extension) which are easily extensible
Geographic visualization of data flows
Country-level dependency analysis
Provider and infrastructure breakdowns

How we built it

The backend is built with Python, Flask, and Socket.IO for real-time event streaming. Traffic is collected through DNS and local network monitoring, enriched with geolocation and provider data, and stored in SQLite.

The frontend uses Tailwind CSS, Leaflet.js, and JavaScript to display live traffic on an interactive world map and generate dependency reports.

Challenges

Capturing network activity reliably across different environments
Managing geolocation lookups without hitting API rate limits
Handling overlapping map markers for shared infrastructure
Keeping frontend and backend data models synchronized

Accomplishments

Built a real-time dashboard for visualizing digital dependencies
Developed a Digital Dependency Score to summarize exposure
Created an interactive map and automated reporting system
Supported multiple traffic collection methods in a lightweight deployment

What we learned

Building bobrNet highlighted how much everyday internet activity relies on a small set of providers and jurisdictions. We also gained experience designing real-time systems and maintaining reliable data pipelines between backend and frontend components.