The 8 Best Chrome Privacy Extensions To Increase Security

 As we know Google Chrome is the most popular web browser in the world. But it's not the most private browser in the world. Chrome receives consistently poor reviews regarding its approach to privacy. As the world's largest advertising company, Google is in a prime position to exploit millions of Chrome users worldwide. Luckily, you can take steps to improve Google Chrome privacy using extensions. Here are the 8 best Privacy Extensions for Google Chrome.

1. uBlock Origin

The first privacy extension is uBlock Urigin. We know Ads are everywhere when we go online. They keep the internet ticking in many ways, keeping many of the major sites and services you use every day completely free. With advertising comes tracking. Tracking scripts follow you around the internet, log your activity, and use that data to streamline the ads you see.

uBlock Origin lets you block a lot of those pesky third-party tracking scripts. This extension has several third-party tracking lists that you can toggle on and off. You can also easily whitelist other sites and services (since many websites rely on ad revenue to stay afloat and not show offensive ads!) while you surf the web. A bonus to uBlock Origin is the blocking of malware and malvertising. uBlock Origin can block known malicious domains, as well as domains that are known to show malicious ads and other nasties.

Download: uBlock Origin (Free)

2. Blur

Blur is a handy application that offers two important functions. First, Blur is a password management extension. It creates a strong and unique password for every online account you open, increasing your security and privacy. The extension stores your passwords, encrypts the password data using the very strong AES-256.

Second, Blur creates a layer of protection between you and the service you sign up for. It works like this: whenever you need an email address to register for a service, Blur provides one masked email address and you use this as your login. Any emails or alerts sent to you from the service still go to your inbox email box. But if there is a data breach, and a hacker gets hold of your disposable address, your real address is protected. The hacker just got your Blur address.

Blur also comes in two versions. The Premium version also offers credit card masking, which is like email masking, but offers protection for your credit and debit cards. Apart from that, you can also use a Blur masked phone number to add another layer of privacy to your Chrome experience.

Download: Blur (Free)

3. HTTPS Everywhere

The HTTPS Everywhere extension ensures that every website you visit uses the much stronger HTTPS protocol than plain HTTP. HTTPS encrypts your internet connection to websites, ensuring your browsing sessions are secure and private. A plain HTTP connection doesn't offer the same protection.

In 2018, Google announced that Chrome would start using the more robust HTTPS protocol to provide users with more privacy and security. Many sites are now configured to use HTTPS. However, there are still millions of websites that don't and will default to HTTP. Google Chrome will show a warning when you try to access a site using HTTP instead of HTTPS and ask if you want to continue. And that's where the HTTPS Everywhere extension comes in handy, for the millions of sites that still use HTTP.

Download: HTTPS Everywhere (Free)

4. Unshorten. link

The Unshorten.link Chrome extension provides a simple but useful service. This undoes the shortened link. When a link is shortened, it's easier to hide the malicious URL, and therefore easier to trick someone into clicking something they shouldn't.

Once installed, Unshorten.link redirects you back to its secure page when you click on the shortened link. There you can see the actual target URL and decide if the link is safe or not.

Download: Unshorten.link (Free)

5. DuckDuckGo Privacy Essentials

DuckDuckGo is a privacy-focused alternative to Google Search. Where Google uses your data to serve targeted ads, DuckDuckGo does the opposite. If you want an instant increase in privacy, turning to DuckDuckGo for your internet searches is a very easy choice.

You can take it one step further, and install the DuckDuckGo Privacy Essentials Chrome extension. The Privacy Essentials extension options features for scripting and tracker blocking, ensures you always visit HTTPS versions of sites and introduces useful privacy assessments for every site you visit. The privacy rating ranges from AF and it helps you understand the level of privacy expected on a website at a glance.

Download: DuckDuckGo Privacy Essentials (Free)

6. Disconnect Facebook

Facebook is notorious for its privacy issues. Like Google, Facebook monetizes your data and sells it to advertisers. But it's not just on the Facebook site that the social media giant collects your data. Any site featuring social login options is also selling your data. Likewise, sites with social media plugins that allow you to Like or Tweet create the same problem.

Disconnect Facebook blocks Facebook from tracking you on the internet and increases your privacy when you are not using the social media site.

Download: Disconnect Facebook (Free)

7. Privacy Badger

Privacy Badger is a tracker-blocking and tracking Chrome extension developed by the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF). Privacy Badger doesn't specifically block ads, but it may block some ads from showing.

EFF has a very strong focus on protecting privacy, and Privacy Badger receives frequent updates to ensure it blocks as many trackers as possible. Once installed, you can click on the Privacy Badger icon and see what level of tracking is happening on every site you visit. Trackers are color coded depending on their status, such as being an annoying third-party tracker and so on.

Download: Privacy Badger (Free)

8. Click&Clean

And the last Privacy extension is Click & Clean which is a great privacy tool to keep your browser free from personal and private data. You can delete all existing browser data with one click, and it will immediately clean your browser.

Click & Clean's drop-down menu features many options. You can select the data you want to clean manually or clear everything. Another useful Click & Clean feature is that it lets you access the data used and stored by Chrome extensions. You may find that the extension hides personal data without letting you know.

Lastly, you can also use Click & Clean to delete data saved by Google Chrome after you use Incognito Mode. A common misconception is that Incognito Mode stops any data being stored in your browser. Unfortunately, that's not the case.

Download: Click&Clean (Free)

Conclusion

So those are 8 Chrome Privacy Extensions that you can use to protect your privacy. But if you really want to increase your privacy, VPN Proof suggests switching to an alternative browser, such as Mozilla Firefox. Firefox has some great privacy features built into the browser, and many of the same Chrome privacy extensions are also available for Firefox. In addition to better security, Firefox has the upper hand when it comes to important settings and privacy settings.

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That's all for the 8 Best Chrome Privacy Extensions to Improve Security. Look forward to other interesting articles and don't forget to share this article with your friends. Thank you…

Resa Risyan

Just an ordinary person who wants to share a little knowledge, hopefully the knowledge I provide can be useful for all of us. Keep in mind! Useful knowledge is an investment in the afterlife.