Firefox Extensions to Increase Privacy on the Internet

We name these because of their special relevance, since they are the most used Internet browsers at the moment. Let’s not forget that these software solutions are the ones that really act as an access channel to the vastness of the Internet. But here we not only find an almost unlimited amount of content, but also many dangers lurk. We can find them in the form of all kinds of malware and malicious code, although we always have several ways to protect ourselves.

And something similar happens with the privacy that we so eagerly want to protect on our computer equipment. That is why we can confirm that in these moments we can also use some solutions to avoid taking risks . It goes without saying that everything related to both security and privacy can be largely protected with a good antivirus. Whether it’s Windows Defender , which is included in Windows 10, or any other, it can be a good protection system in most cases.

But that is not all we can do, since depending on the type of use, or the program with which we work, we can use more specific solutions . An example is the case in which we want to focus on these same lines.

Native Firefox Privacy Features

First of all, what we should know is that Firefox has, how could it be otherwise, its own privacy functions. With these, what is tried is to protect users against possible external attacks. Firefox is a proposal that precisely wants to focus on the privacy of its customers, so it makes available to them a series of integrated functions. At the beginning, to access this we just have to write about: preferences in the address bar #privacy; here we find several well differentiated sections.

On the one hand we have a protection system against tracking in which we can choose the level of tracking we want to use. Thus, depending on each case, we can choose between Standard, Strict or Custom. As we get more strict we avoid crawling websites but some will not work properly. On the other hand, we find the Cookies and passwords section, which refers to having total control over these contents. From here we can accept the arrival of cookies, delete them automatically or manage them through websites .

Passwords are important here too, as they provide us with personal access to our online platforms and private data. By default the browser saves them, but it is something that we can customize. In this way we can allow, or not, that they are stored in the program, use the autocomplete, or protect all with a teacher. Another very interesting function here is the software and content protection system that is responsible for preventing misleading content from reaching our team.

This is achieved thanks to the blocking of these malicious content that Firefox itself performs automatically. At the same time avoid dangerous downloads that can endanger the device.

Extensions to improve Firefox privacy

To give you an idea, we refer to one of the most used web browsers that we mentioned. So, next we are going to explain how to use Mozilla’s Firefox in the best way. To achieve all this, what we are going to do is use a series of extensions for Firefox to help us increase the privacy that we are dealing with here.

As many of you probably already know, these extensions are actually a series of small add-ons that are installed in the program itself to surf the Internet and that increase its functionality. There are the most varied types, including those that focus on privacy when browsing, which is the case at hand now.

DuckDuckGo Privacy Essentials

First of all, we will talk about a useful Firefox extension that adds the popular search engine DuckDuckGo to the program. Here we find the basic elements of privacy so that we can control our personal information to the maximum while we search and browse the Internet. What we do with this is bypassing ad tracking networks, increasing encryption protection , or conducting safe searches.

This is something that the developer of this add-on is responsible for providing us if we opt for your project.

Ghostery

Changing the third, on the other hand we find the proposal of this type called Ghostery. Actually what we get here is a tracker blocker from the websites we visit. These are often used, maliciously or not, to control where we move and the websites we visit. So now we will have the opportunity to know and control who collects this personal data while browsing.

So we have an improved anti-tracking tool that also anonymizes our data to further protect privacy. At the same time the extension speeds up the loading times of web pages .

Do Not Track Plus

Next we will talk about a proposal that also improves everything that has to do with security and privacy in Firefox. Thus, it presents us with an integrated protection system for online purchases, at the same time that it presents a functionality for the protection of our access passwords. At the same time, it blocks online tracking carried out by hundreds of Internet companies, in addition to tracking social networks like Facebook .

Decentraleyes

On the other hand, now we are going to talk about another alternative that is responsible, broadly speaking, to protect us against Internet tracking . In this way, you prevent interference from networks such as Google Hosted Libraries and avoid the leakage of data to third parties. With all this, as you can imagine, what we achieve is greater privacy in the Mozilla program and it does not require any configuration by the user.

ExpressVPN

Something that is becoming increasingly common when it comes to protecting our online browsing is the use of a VPN . Well, that’s the case here with ExpressVPN. It is an extension that provides us with a virtual private network with which we can hide our location and access content without geographical restrictions. We do all of this with a single mouse click, which makes the plugin start up automatically.

uMatrix

In this case we find a powerful, adjustable and configurable firewall that also integrates several tools to improve our privacy. All this will provide us with greater control over Firefox and will allow us to decide which connections are established in each case. In the same way, we can specify the types of data that are downloaded and the codes that are executed. As expected, we can also block all those connections and content that we do not want to use in the browser .

Privacy Settings

As you can easily imagine, all browsers, including Firefox, have various privacy features hidden, or not as visible as others. Therefore, to facilitate these types of configurations, the best we can do is use this extension. This way we will have the opportunity to have all the privacy and security settings on a single page.

This is the one presented by Privacy Settings and each parameter has a description and can be modified from the extension itself.

PrivacyWall

Another element that we can use in this that we comment, is PrivacyWall for Firefox. Actually what we find here is a search engine that we use in the web browser itself and that is responsible for protecting our privacy. For this we only have to set it as the default in the software after installing the extension and thus avoid tracing and other similar actions by third parties.