Even though Firefox is arguably more secure and most definitely more privacy focused than Chrome, some users prefer Chrome or other Chromium based browsers (Opera, Edge, Vivaldi, Brave) over Firefox. Also, let’s not forget about Chromebook owners, shall we?
In this article I will list what I consider the best Chrome extensions for security and privacy purposes.
uBlock Origin
uBlock Origin has been my adblocker of choice for many years and has served me well in Chrome, before switching completely to better browser alternatives based on the same Chromium engine, like Opera browser and later Vivaldi. It isn’t just an adblocker, but a solid filtering tool that makes the web cleaner and the browsing faster keeping away virtually all unwanted stuff like ads, trackers, annoying social sharing buttons and more. It is worth mentioning that it has support for localized filters so it can filter non-English sites, too.
Bitwarden
Bitwarden is an excellent password manager available on desktop and mobiles. It can sync passwords across them if you sign-in with the same Bitwarden account. It also features a built-in password generator and a smart login auto-complete. Another great feature is that it can check if the password you choose is part of compromised databases, thus helping to use unique passwords.
Vanilla Cookie Manager
Vanilla Cookie Manager as it names suggests, is a cookie managing tool that helps deleting unwanted cookies or whitelisting those cookies on websites you trust. Automatic deletion of cookies can be set to occur automatically when the browser is started or using a timer, for instance deleting unwanted cookies each hour.
WebRTC Network Limiter
WebRTC Network Limiter can limit the requests made through the WebRTC protocol that may expose your real IP address in case you are using a VPN/proxy. Unlike Firefox, in Chrome/Chromium browsers it isn’t possible to disable WerbRTC completely from browser’s settings, but you can limit them with this extension. Some Chromium based browsers provide an option to limit WebRTC without using an extension like this one. Check in their privacy settings.
Decentraleyes
Decentraleyes improves the privacy and reduce the websites load time by using local resources instead of loading them from 3rd party CDNs.
CleanURLs
CleanURLs is an extension that automatically removes many tracking elements from URLs. Not only that it improves privacy, but it also makes the URLs shorter and cleaner, hence sharing / saving friendly.
Are you using Chrome on an Android device? then you probably know already that it doesn’t support extensions. But I have good news for you: you can use any Chrome extension on your Android phone/tablet by installing a Chromium-based Android browser called Kiwi Browser. It is compatible with Chrome extensions for desktop so you can install any of them from Google Chrome Webstore.
Are you a Firefox user? Check my recommended Firefox security/privacy extensions.
Have you considered using Brave Browser (even if you don’t opt in to BAT advertising)? It implements some of these features by default (including uBlock Origin logic implemented in Rust!).