All browsers can be a a privacy nightmare by default and the only way to make them more private is to tweak their settings and use addons/extensions that will limit the amount of data and footprints you send to the web.
It isn’t only the privacy that can be drastically improved by using certain privacy addons, but the browser security, too.
Google Chrome extensions are compatible with all Chromium based browsers, such as: Opera, Edge, Brave, Vivaldi
Below are some of the most effective browser addons recommended for privacy and security.
uBlock Origin
uBlock Origin is a popular browser addon for blocking advertisement, trackers, malvertising, annoyances and even malware domains. It supports ads blocking using several built-in lists that are updated regularly, including language-specific lists for non-English sites.
WebRTC Network Limiter
WebRTC is a modern web protocol designed for real-time communication, used for voice and video streaming. The privacy problem with this protocol is that it leaks the real IP if you are behind a proxy/VPN. It is enabled by default and it can be either disabled (Firefox) or limited to what network interface to use (Chrome/Chromium browsers). If you are using Chrome or any other browser based on Chromium, this extension is a must have.
Availability: Chrome
Decentraleyes
Most modern websites are serving libraries from 3rd party CDN services like Google to speed up their loading times but this comes with a drawback, since your browser will need to communicate with those 3rd party websites to load the resources. Blocking those requests will break most websites so it isn’t an option, and that is where this addon comes to the rescue, by loading the common resources locally instead of getting them from CDNs.
CleanURLs
You have probably seen before those long URLs on websites and Google search results containing all kind of long strings when saving or sharing them with your friends. Such long URLs contain tracking elements and this addon removes them, improving your browsing privacy.
Cookie managers
Browsers built-in cookies management is very basic and doesn’t give you many options on how you want to deal with cookies. These two addons will give you more options.
Firefox: Cookie quick manager
Chrome: Vanilla cookies manager
Bitwarden
Weak passwords and reused passwords are very bad and you don’t even need to be targeted individually by attackers in order to get your online accounts hacked. Mass hacking happens all the time and leaked password databases are a thing. Therefore, using a password manager that allows you to set strong, unique passwords is a must. Bitwarden is very solid, it is free and compatible with all platforms.
Bloody Vikings!
This addon makes it easier to make use of temporary email services when you need to sign-up on websites without exposing your real email address. It supports multiple temporary email services such as anonbox.net, 10minutemail.com, discard.email, disposable.me, dropmail.me, mailinator.com and more.
Availability: Firefox
Firefox Multi-Account Containers
Multi-Account Containers gives you the ability to use separate containers for different types of browsing (work related, personal), reducing the ways you can be tracked online.
Availability: Firefox