Best browser extensions for privacy

Privacy Badger is a free tracker blocker from the Electronic Frontier Foundation, and its idea is simple: it learns instead of following a list. It watches third-party domains as you browse, and if one tracks you across three separate sites, it blocks it. It also gets learning updates from the EFF's own crawler by default, so a fresh install does not start from nothing.

It is smarter than a plain cookie blocker. Cookies that carry unique tracking IDs are blocked, while harmless ones such as a language preference are allowed. Domains that sites depend on get softer treatment: it strips their cookies and referrers instead of blocking them outright. Useful embeds become click-to-activate placeholders, and it sends the Global Privacy Control and Do Not Track signals by default.

It does not block ads, so run it next to an ad blocker rather than instead of one. The EFF says it will never share data about your browsing unless you choose to, which only happens when you file a broken-site report. Safari support is new, with a Mac App Store listing since October 2026. If you want tracker protection that needs no configuration, from a nonprofit with no stake in your data, install it.

Firefox Multi-Account Containers is Mozilla's extension for splitting your browsing into colour-coded tabs. Each container has its own cookies and site storage, so a cookie set in one is invisible to the others. That lets you stay signed in to a work and a personal account on the same site, or keep a social network away from the sites you read.

You create containers for the parts of your life you want apart, such as work, shopping and banking, and long-pressing the new tab button opens a container tab. If you subscribe to Mozilla VPN, you can also link a container to it, so one container browses from a different location.

Be clear about what it does not do. Mozilla's listing does not claim that containers hide your IP address or defeat fingerprinting, so treat it as isolation, not anonymity. It asks for broad permissions, including your browsing history and data on all websites, and the developer states it does not require data collection, which is a claim, not an audit. It only exists on Firefox and takes a little habit to use well. If you use Firefox and have more than one identity online, install it, and pair it with a tracker blocker.

Consent-O-Matic answers cookie pop-ups for you, using the choices you set, instead of hiding them or accepting everything. It is built by the Centre for Advanced Visualization and Interaction at Aarhus University in Denmark, and the project grew out of research into how consent dialogs nudge people.

It recognises many common consent pop-ups and ticks the options you picked when you set it up, then shows a small checkmark next to the extension icon. Refusing marketing and analytics by default is one setting. The rules for each consent platform live in the project's public repository and are fetched by the extension, so support for new banners can reach you without a store release. Anyone can contribute rules.

The catch is coverage: it works from rules, so a banner on a platform it has not covered will still appear, and it does not block trackers or ads by itself. The Firefox version is 1.1.5 from June 2025, while Chrome and Edge show 1.1.3 from October 2024, and the latest repository commit we found dates from November 2025. It is free and MIT licensed. If cookie banners wear you down, it is worth installing.

DuckDuckGo Search & Tracker Protection is a free protection bundle from a company many people already trust on search. Formerly DuckDuckGo Privacy Essentials, it is the company's extension for Chrome, Edge and Firefox, and its code is public under Apache 2.0.

The listing describes third-party tracker loading protection, tracking cookie blocking, automatic HTTPS upgrades, fingerprinting protection, Global Privacy Control, and blocking of Chrome's Topics and Protected Audience advertising APIs. Optional extras include Email Protection, which hides your real address behind a duck.com alias. Chrome runs Manifest V3, and Firefox keeps a Manifest V2 build.

Know the trade-offs. According to the Chrome listing, installing it sets DuckDuckGo as your default search engine and homepage, and the Chrome rating is a mediocre 3.4 from about 2,100 ratings. The company says it earns money from privacy-respecting search ads, not user data. In May 2022 its CEO confirmed that its mobile apps let some Microsoft trackers load because of a search syndication agreement. TechCrunch reported in August 2022 that the extensions had the same limit, and the company said it extended blocking that month. The listing still notes limitations after search ad clicks. If you want tracker blocking without the search change, Privacy Badger is cleaner.

NoScript is a free, open source extension by Giorgio Maone that blocks JavaScript and other active content unless you trust the site. Its pre-emptive blocking is meant to stop exploits before the page can run code, and one click enables scripts for a site, temporarily or for good. It is also built into Tor Browser, which says something about its standing among security people.

The cost is effort. Most modern sites need scripts, so on day one you will meet many broken pages and prompts, and a site often relies on several third-party domains. People who accept that get the strongest control over what runs in their browser, a different approach from list-based blockers.

Firefox is where it works best. The Chrome version is Manifest V3 and lacks the blocking and response-filtering permissions the Firefox version requests, because Chrome does not offer them. Chrome shows about 100,000 users and a 3.9 rating, Firefox about 240,000 users and 4.4. It is supported by donations. If you are happy to make a few clicks per site, it is a real security gain. If not, skip it.

Decentraleyes tackles one narrow form of tracking: shared content delivery networks. Many sites load common libraries from a free CDN run by a large company, and every visitor's browser then asks that network for the file, which lets it see the site you came from. Decentraleyes catches those requests and answers them with a copy stored in the extension, so nothing reaches the CDN and the page still works.

Its Firefox listing says it complements regular content blockers. A blocker removes things, while Decentraleyes substitutes them, so sites that depend on those libraries keep working. It is free and open under MPL-2.0.

The limit is coverage. It can only serve the library versions it ships with, so unusual files still go to the network, and it overlaps with tools that already block or replace these requests. It has about 250,000 users on Firefox, where it is Recommended, 100,000 on Chrome and about 50,000 on Edge, and version 3.0.2 arrived in August 2026. Treat it as a small, set-and-forget companion to a blocker, not a replacement for one.

Facebook Container is a Mozilla extension that keeps Facebook in a separate Firefox container. When you install it, it signs you out of Facebook and deletes the cookies Facebook uses to follow you. After that, Facebook opens in its own blue container tab and links to other sites open outside it, so Facebook has a harder time tying your visits elsewhere to your account.

The trade-off is that anything relying on a Facebook login on another site stops working: Like buttons, embedded comments and sign-in with Facebook. Share buttons still work, but Mozilla warns that using them passes details of the page you shared to Facebook. The extension does not protect what Facebook already knows about you, or what you do on Facebook itself.

It is also in maintenance mode: Mozilla's repository says only minor site-list updates and security fixes, with no new features. The last store release was 2.3.12 in March 2025, though the repository saw activity in October 2026. Firefox's Enhanced Tracking Protection now blocks social media trackers and partitions cookies by site, which covers part of the same ground. If you use Facebook on Firefox and want to keep using it, it is still an easy win.