But in exchange for the occasional slight headache, companies will have a harder time tracking what you do online. Sometimes a browser extension might cause a website to display text strangely, prevent embedded images or tweets from loading on a page, or remove the little social media buttons that make it easy to share an article. Privacy almost always comes at the cost of usability. The ones included here are widely scrutinized, or created by reputable companies. ![]() So, while often useful, it’s best to avoid extensions unless you know exactly what they’re up to. ![]() In the last few years, we’ve seen a number of popular extensions turn out to be malware, and one very popular tab management extension was flagged and removed from the Chrome Web Store after the extension’s development changed hands. It’s rare for researchers to bother looking closely at extensions to make sure they’re above board. Like apps and desktop software, extensions are useful, but they can be a privacy nightmare. Dozens of other lower-profile browsers exist, but few get the security updates and support that most of us need in the software we use all day. The Tor Browser is the go-to for anonymity, especially in censored countries, but it’s unusable for most people as a daily browser. Brave is one of the more popular privacy-first browsers, but even it isn’t free of privacy-related controversies. Edge is based on Chromium and will work with the bulk of the Chrome extensions in this article, we haven’t tested it thoroughly. I’ve included links for both Chrome and Firefox, along with alternatives to our favorites, if they exist.Īs for other browsers, Apple’s Safari isn’t bad when it comes to privacy, but it lacks wide support for popular browser extensions. Regardless of which browser you use, a pack of extensions can increase your privacy by decreasing your exposure to trackers, as well as have the welcome side effect of boosting your security. (Most Chrome extensions will also work with Microsoft Edge, Brave, Opera, and Vivaldi, though we haven’t fully tested them.) Of the two, I recommend Firefox if you prioritize privacy, as it’s much more focused on privacy out of the box compared with Chrome. Not all browsers offer the exact same extensions, but Google Chrome and Mozilla Firefox are the two most popular browsers, and the ones I focus on here. ![]() ![]() They are sometimes created by developers as a hobby project to solve a problem for themselves, but are also developed by larger companies as part of their own suite of software. But browser extensions are simple, generally free add-ons that you can use to slow down or break this type of data collection, without completely ruining your experience of using the internet.īrowser extensions, also called add-ons, are tiny bits of software you can download to add new features to your web browser. I think that this can be done if they look at what those other products that I mentioned are doing better, learn from them, and start testing their products against those types of ad filled websites that I mentioned then Adguard could one day become the best, which I have been hoping for years now, they are not there yet.Everything you do online-from browsing to shopping to using social networks-is tracked, typically as behavioral or advertising data. With either version of Adguard I have to waste time adjusting my settings & filters each time that I install them while uBlock Origin is mostly install & forget, so that is why I recommend it to others, or Brave Browser's built-in ad blocker ahead of Adguard which is my third choice.Īdguard for Windows can block ads at the operating system level, it wins in that area, only because uBlock Origin is only a web browser extension but if uBlock Origin ever gets a version that can filter ads at the operating system level, then it would win there too, hopefully Gorhill will make this reality one day, especially with Manifest V3 coming soon.Īnyway, I really do hope to see Adguard improve its default settings & default filters that are enabled on default and improve in its ad blocking (especially pop-up ads & overlay video ads et cetera) to uBlock Origin levels & beyond, and malicious / grayware / scam / adware / PUP / spam / et cetera website blocking to Malwarebytes Browser Guard levels & beyond. You can test this yourself by testing both against websites that are known to have ads, like bootleg streaming videos websites, streaming adult video websites, et cetera, or watch some tests that others have done on YouTube et cetera.Īlso, uBlock Origin has better default filters enabled, and available if you want to enable more. Click to expand.Yes, I think / know that uBlock Origin is better at blocking ads et cetera within a web browser than Adguard for Windows or Adguard Browser Extension or Adguard DNS Public DNS servers.
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