I know, I know. You are tired of privacy advocates telling you to quit Google Chrome. I see your situation; you need Chrome to get work done. You have reasons to use it and I recognize that. I don’t want to push you to make compromises with work by using a slow or incompatible browser, but I don’t want you to give up on privacy either. So open up Google Chrome and follow along with me to make it privacy respecting.
Step 1 — Launch Settings
Launch “Settings” from the menu on the rightmost corner of your search bar. You should a screen like the one below:
Step 2 — Sync and Google services
Click on “Sync and Google Services” option, you should a see a page similar to the below:
Step 3 — Other Google services
Under the heading “Other Google services”, you must see some switches, which when on gives a lot of data to Google and has nothing to do with the primary operation of the browser. I recommend turning them all off. Perform a “Relaunch”, if Chrome requests for it after turning off all the switches. Your settings should look like this:
Step 4 — Passwords
Go back to the main settings and under the “Auto-fill” section, click on “Passwords” option.
I don't recommend storing passwords in browser because they are easily accessible if someone knows your computer's password. In place of that I recommend using password managers like KeepassXC or Bitwarden. If you are not comfortable you can skip to the next step but do keep a strong password on your computer and don't share it with people you don't trust.
After turning these options off, it should look like below:
Step 5 — Payment methods
Go back to the main settings and under the “Auto-fill” section, click on “Payment methods” option.
Trust me, you don't want your payment and stuff stored here or anywhere. It is better to keep this in your memory or write it in a diary. Again as I said earlier, anyone with access to your computer's password can see this information.
After turning these options off, it should look like below:
Step 6 — Addresses and more
Go back to the main settings and under the “Auto-fill” section, click on “Addresses and more” option.
Not as critical as passwords and payment methods but still I feel it is pretty sensitive data. It can be misused, so I recommend turning these all off.
After turning these options off, it should look like below:
Step 7 — Cookies and other site data
Cookies are small packets of data that store information for the functioning of websites. These are misused by tracking websites to uniquely identify you and build a profile about your preferences.
Go back to the main settings and under the “Privacy and security” section, click on “Cookies and other site data” option.
Chrome by default uses this option “Block third-party cookies in Incognito”. I recommend to select “Block third-party cookies” option which enables the only websites that you actually visit to store information in the form of cookies. Note that some websites may break after selecting this option. I have tested Google and Microsoft domains and they work fine.
Scroll down and you should see 3 toggles:
- Clear cookies and site data when you quit Chrome – Cookies are by default stored to keep you logged in but trackers misuse this information. Turn this on but remember you will have to login into accounts every time you exit Chrome.
- Send a ‘Do Not Track’ request with your browsing traffic – Turn this option off. Although a feature that has a good intention, most trackers count this option for uniquely identifying you.
- Preload pages for faster browsing and searching – Turn this off. This option, when enabled, preloads the webpages for a faster browsing experience. The issue is that it bypasses content blockers. This is why extensions like uBlock Origin disable this feature.
Step 8 — Site settings
Go back to main menu and now select “Site settings” option.
Scroll down and you should see a list of various permissions like the one below:
Check what websites you have given sensitive permissions like location, camera and microphone. You can also turn off notifications that you find annoying.
Step 9 — Search engine
Go back to main settings and you should see a “Search engine” section. You obviously know the default search engine which is Google.
You can try out Duckduckgo which is available in the selection menu. I have been using it for a year now and I find it usable. If you don't like it, there are a lot of search engines like Startpage, Searx, Mojeek, Qwant, YaCy and MetaGer. There is no reason for you to use Google, there are very great alternatives available.
Step 10 — Advanced Settings
In the navigation bar on the left, you should see an “Advanced” section. Expand it and select “System” option under this section.
I recommend turning off “Continue running background apps when Google Chrome is closed” if you don't need Chrome running in the background.
Some more suggestions
These were the settings that you can do to make Chrome privacy friendly. There are also advanced features like profiles that you can use to isolate work and personal browsing activities. You can also install extensions like uBlock Origin, Privacy Badger, Decentraleyes, etc to further avoid malicious trackers.
Well that's about it, also do checkout my post on limiting Google's tracking which will further enhance your privacy.
This article was originally published at my blog, Right to privacy. Follow me for more privacy related articles and tips. You can see more of my work at medium here. I would love some thoughts and feedback about the article.
