6 Browser Extensions for Online Privacy in 2020

Written by naomit | Published 2019/12/20
Tech Story Tags: security | privacy | cybersecurity | extensions | browsers | phishing | personal-data | latest-tech-stories

TLDR A lot of things happened in 2019 that lead people talking and caring more about their privacy online. Here is a list of browser extensions that will help you stay private in 2020. Privacy Badger is one of the best anti-tracking extensions, that shows which websites have trackers and block them. HTTPS Everywhere is a tool that encrypts your traffic online, changes your IP address and by this ensures your security and anonymity online. NordPass is a password manager that stores all of your passwords in a secure place.via the TL;DR App

A lot of things happened in 2019 that lead people talking and caring more about their privacy online. You might hear a lot of people saying that there isn’t such a thing as privacy online. Our actions online are being monitored, we get personalized ads, that are not just influencing us to buy something, but even influences our political views, influences our values, our actions.
All of this sounds really scary, but do not worry, there are things we can do to fight back at least some of our privacy. It sucks that we need to think about it, buy tools, install extensions, but the reality is that it is up to use to take care of our privacy.
So here is a list of browser extensions that will help you stay private in 2020

Privacy Badger

Privacy Badger extension is heads down one of the best anti-tracking extensions, that shows which websites have trackers and block them. Privacy Badger was developed by the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) and it is a lightweight extension and very user-friendly.
The feature that sets this extensions from other similar ones is that Privacy Badger doesn’t block all the content just the trackers that follow you all the time.

uBlock Origin

uBlock Origin is one of the most popular and widely used extensions for ad-blocking. They have extensions for all sorts of browsers: Chrome, Safari, Firefox, Opera. This extension prevents all sorts of popups and widgets from sending your information to advertisers.
This extension also allows you to set preferences which adds to block and which ones to show. Also it is less power drowning extension than others and was found to block the biggest amount of ads compared to others.

HTTPS Everywhere

Here again one more extension developed by the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF). Some time ago, in order to prevent various data leaks, website infections and similar threads websites started to transit from HTTP to HTTPS, which is a lot more secure hypertext transfer protocol than the old one.
Sadly not all websites have made the transition and here comes the HTTPS everywhere extension. With the help of this extension even if you visit a website with HTTP protocol you will be securely transferred to HTTPS one.

Surfshark VPN

Surfshark is a tool that encrypts your traffic online, changes your IP address and by this ensures your security and anonymity online. VPN both protects your information from being accessible to data thefts, both helps you to keep your identity anonymous since your IP address is changed. It is an especially useful tool if you use public wifi often (which is extremely risky to use).
In addition Surfshark has a built-in ad-blocker, protection from malware and trackers. Also it has a built-in kill-switch which ensures your security and prevents data leaks if suddenly the VPN connection drops.
There are more VPNs, but I highly recommend this one because of the price and quality balance.

NordPass

I guess most of you already know that passwords are one of the most important way to security online. I also guess that not a lot of you actually use secure and strong passwords that are at least 11 characters, have both upper and lowercase letters, signs and etc. And also we need different password for all of our account…oof.
It is actually really hard to remember these passwords, it is easy to generate them with all sorts of strong passwords generator tools online, but how the heck we should remember them all? Here NordPass comes in handy. It is a password manager that stores all of your passwords in a secure place. All you will need to do is remember one password — to log into password manager itself.

Cookie AutoDelete

Cookies online are not that attractive as cookies in real life, since they are used to track users online. You can always delete cookies manually by going to your browser settings, but why do this when you can get Cookie AutoDelete extension, which manually deletes the cookies you choose to be deleted. Easy and simple as that.
New Year and new security threats online are coming, so brace yourself with Privacy extensions.
Also for an extra layer of security look at these most secure browsers, maybe you will find something you like.

Published by HackerNoon on 2019/12/20