Disconnect for Chrome

Everyone knows by now that surfing the web is not a safe and secure activity, especially when you are not using any protection tools. However, while you access a page, there is a big possibility to be tracked by numerous invisible websites that are looking for your private information (a tradable good nowadays) and even affect your internet speed.

Disconnect comes to your help by allowing you to visualize and block these types of hidden sites and give you a speed boost on the side.

After you add it to your browser, a small D icon will show up in the extension bar. The next visited site will activate the add-on and if there are tracking websites on that page, a small green square containing a number will be added to the icon, letting you know that there is a connection with unseen sites.

When you open the small UI, you will notice that the top part is occupied by three green symbols which depict the media giants Facebook, Google and Twitter. Blocking them can be done in a jiffy, by clicking on them. Once clicked, they will turn grey, letting you know that any interference from them is cut off.

However, if you require their tracking, you can easily unblock them by clicking on them again.

 A really neat feature of Disconnect is a small graphic representation of how many websites are informed about your presence on the root page. The graph can be found (after accessing a page) near the lower part of the interface, called Visualize page.

Visualize page tells you exactly how many sites are on the watching list and how many of them are known tracking sites and. The known tracking sites are sporting red circles, while the grey circles are not considered trackers, even though they may be.

At the bottom of the UI, you can notice two mini-graph that show you how much time and bandwidth you saved. Hovering the cursor over them will also show the numerical values, for better reading.

Disconnect might be of help for the user that really hate to be tracked without their knowledge and consent. The visualize page feature brings a good level of transparency to the table, as you don’t really get to see which sites are involved in your tracking, in real-time.