Protect your privacy online with these browsers add-ons
Pretty much of a person’s online time is spent inside a web browser. Although there is the market leader (no names mentioned), everyone has their favourite which they prefer to use.
With the risk from so many threats when online, it is not surprising the humble web browser could be the weakest link, or that was how it used to be. No matter what browser you use (unless very obscure) you can bolster up your online privacy by the use of add-ons.
These come in several forms, and most perform different functions inside your browser. Here is a quick overview of a handful and then what you are able to do to protect your privacy even more.
Pop-Ups
Adverts, pop-ups and anything else that creates distractions by bombarding us with stuff none of us wants. One of the best ways to fight this is by the use of the add-on uBlock Origin. This has to be one of the most popular as it does exactly what it says it will do without very little intervention.
You can also select a page element and block just this without affecting other parts of the page as well which is only one of the small settings you can change.
One good thing compared to many other ad blockers is the system resources it uses. It comes with a tiny memory footprint, so it really is a set it and forget it an option.
Tracking Sites
If there is one area where our privacy is threatened by spyware or malware infections. It is from sites that track every user which visits. These are a mix of bloggers who are linking to sites to make their way up the Google rankings and inadvertently uses who visit their blog or website are tracked.
There are then the marketing companies who want this information for their own benefit and use it to either sell on or they use this information as part of their in-house marketing campaigns.
Either it is an infringement and if there was a way to reduce it that was simple? One add-on solves this problem very well and has to be the best tracking site blocker available.
Disconnect is easy to install, and without any further tinkering, your browser will be free from all these tracking sites.
This plug-in doesn’t have any further options as much of what it does is set upon installation. You can though view the sites and see what connects to any site you visit which can be scary when you look at it in a visual form.
Scripts
This is quite new to add until recently. Scripts are snippets of code which run in the background. They can be a part of malware, or they have been programmed to run on specific sites.
Recently it has been made public of the “cryptocurrency mining” scripts which have been running. Although they might not be overly harmful in what they do it does consume computing resources and can push your system to the point of crashing.
NoScript can block any scripts apart from on any sites you set as trusted. This is an excellent addition to the first ad-blocker and the site tracking one just mentioned.
What else can you do?
It would be nice if all of our data were safe while we were connected through our browser of choice. Unfortunately, this is a small part how a system or device connects to the internet.
One of the best ways to tighten this up and stop any snooping eyes who wish to infiltrate your home computer or you want to further protect your child while they are online at home or while they are out using their mobile devices.
The best VPN services (virtual private network) can help you to achieve this. All your data is tunnelled through a far off distant server, so any hacker or snooper, or even the local government has no idea where your connection is.
In the case of family children, this method is excellent for when they are away from home.
Anyone wishing to befriend them on social media would be unable to locate your child, even to the extent if they were sitting in the same public hotspot.
These are the four quickest ways you can tighten up security without going overboard and changing the way you spend your time online.
All of them work together, and your browser can be used with less worry that a threat is lurking around the next corner.