Your online data is a goldmine of consumer information that can greatly benefit advertisers and marketing firms. Your use of internet-based services–from Web browsing to social media interactions–can be tracked, collected, and analyzed by third parties. Safeguard the privacy of your online data and reduce the amount of virtual footprint you leave behind each time you go online by looking into installing these four browser extensions.
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Click&Clean
Click&Clean is a nifty browser extension that works for both Google Chrome and Mozilla Firefox. It enables you to delete in one click your browser cache, cookies, and temporary internet files, as well as your browsing and download histories. Developed by Mixiesoft, Click&Clean needs to be configured upon installation so that it gets rid of the data that you want to delete. You might want to read Click&Clean’s quick start guide at hotcleaner.com/clickclean-quick-start-guide.html to set up the browser add-on properly.
HTTPS Everywhere
Popular online services like Google, Facebook, and Twitter encrypt their Web browsing sessions by default using HTTPS. However, most websites don’t automatically support HTTPS encryption. What you can do to help protect your privacy is to install HTTPS Everywhere, a useful browser add-on that is developed by a digital advocacy organization called the Electronic Frontier Foundation. The extension works for Chrome, Firefox, and Opera. Once you install HTTPS Everywhere, it will drive your browser to apply HTTPS encryption to your browsing session if the website you are currently using makes the protocol available.
Privacy Badger
Privacy Badger is another powerful privacy-friendly browser add-on made by the Electronic Frontier Foundation. It shields your Web browsing activities away from the prying “eyes” of third-party cookies and other user-data-tracking methods. There are other cookie and third-party blockers similar to Privacy Badger. What makes it trustworthy, however, is the fact that it is created by a nonprofit organization. The extension works for Chrome and Firefox.
NoScript
Most of the rich-media content you enjoy on the Web is made possible by JavaScript. The downside is that it can be a potent delivery mechanism for malware. An extension for Firefox called NoScript disables JavaScript on webpages that you view, essentially blocking Flash-based elements by default. This is a good thing if your priority is secure browsing without intrusive media-rich ads. However, disabling Flash can wreak havoc with the functionality of many webpages. You can opt to whitelist your trusted sites so that NoScript will not disallow their Flash and JavaScript elements.