There are a ton of different things we can do to secure our privacy online, but if you’re like us, you probably want the simplest, safest solution. Thankfully, Firefox has many different add-ons to choose from to customize your browser and create your own unique type of safety.
A closer look at Firefox’s enhanced security options
Multi-Account Containers
If your browsing habits are different at work and home, you should look into Multi-Account Containers. Create a tab and group your favorite websites together (for example, travel websites or vegan recipe blogs) for convenient access. No more having to open 10 tabs one at a time. Each tab is a different color, and cookies aren’t shared between tabs so you can answer your work emails in one tab and visit a few dating profiles in the other. This way, if a friend or family member wants to use your computer, they can visit a webpage that you might also have an account for and it won’t automatically sign you in. This is the ultimate extension for multitaskers.
Facebook Container
Do you ever get on Facebook and see an ad for something that you Googled yesterday? Everyone has a Facebook page, but for the last few years, it seems like the social network has been playing fast and loose with our data. Downloading Firefox’s Facebook Container extension will make it difficult for Facebook to track your online activity by isolating your identity into an entirely separate container.
Bloody Vikings!
No matter what we sign up for, usually it will require giving our email address even if we don’t need to receive emails to use the service. With the Bloody Vikings! extension, you don’t have to worry about sharing your private data because you won’t have to. Right click on the box when you’re prompted to enter your email and Bloody Vikings! will give a temporary email address and open that email in a separate tab in case you have to verify it to use a service.
Cookie AutoDelete
This is as simple as it gets, but it’s incredibly useful. When you close a tab, Cookie AutoDelete will delete any cookies from the web pages that aren’t being used anymore. You’ll reduce the amount of data being held by web pages, and you can also whitelist sites that you trust.
Decentraleyes
Surf the web privately and don’t leave a single footprint. Decentraleyes protects you against tracking by third-party web pages by canceling the requests from those pages for trackers and ads. When you receive content from a website, this extension bundles them and delivers them quickly to keep your downloads private.
Disconnect
Disconnect was named one of the best privacy tools by the New York Times, and for a good reason. Get an alert when a website is attempting to track your movement and browsing history, then block them. Some of the websites that you trust the most could be retaining some of your information.
Disconnect for Facebook
All of the protection from the original Disconnect extension, but this time specifically for Facebook. This version of the extension is a firewall that blocks third-party websites from accessing your information and Facebook activity. Even though Disconnect for Facebook will be running while you’re using the website, it won’t affect any of the functions.
DuckDuckGo Privacy Essentials
Block tracking, ensuring smarter encryption, and using a special private search are just a few of the things that are included in DuckDuckGo’s Privacy Essentials. This collection contains tools to help you take control of your private information, no matter what you’re doing on the internet. A toolbar included will give you a privacy rating for each website that you visit, and you can simplify the tons of paragraphs that make up a service’s privacy policies before you take the plunge and sign up for that service. There are a ton of things you can do with DuckDuckGo, and everything is made simple so you aren’t stuck at your computer, reading the fine print.
History Cleaner
With History Cleaner, you can choose how long your computer keeps your browser history before it is deleted. If you want to turn off or pause the extension, just set the number of days to zero.
Link Cleaner
Long URLs in a tweet or Facebook post can make them an eyesore. Use Link Cleaner and your URLs are transformed into a link that is short, sweet, and without tracking parameters.
Privacy Badger
No more keeping track of what to block. Privacy Badger watches closely as you browse and automatically learns which domains are tracking you and deletes them. If you have Do Not Track enabled already, some sites might ignore your request not to be tracked, but Privacy Badger is built to catch and block those domains as well.
Privacy Possum
Similar to Privacy Badger, but a bit more mischievous. When a third party attempts to collect your data, Privacy Possum makes short work of the activity by reducing the data being taken and falsifying it. Take that!
Smart HTTPS
Servers and browsers communicate and send information back and forth by way of HTTP, which stands for Hypertext Transfer Protocol. Enabling Smart HTTPS will automatically change HTTP addresses to HTTPS, which is the more secure way of sending information.
Whether you’re using the internet extensively or just to browse social media from time to time, you’ll be able to pick which of the large variety of extensions that Firefox has to choose from in order to customize your privacy.
