Startpage Privacy Protection for Chrome

Privacy concerns are becoming increasingly common, and it's not because people suddenly realized their every move was being tracked by some entity. Some domains claim that they're able to provide a better, fuller experience to users through this tracking. Whether they're being truthful or not is a moot point: the idea is that some users are uncomfortable with that.

Tools to help users protect their privacy are thankfully available, and it's a good thing that there's no shortage of them. Startpage Privacy Protection is a freely available extension on the Chrome Web Store, and it seeks to deliver a web experience devoid of tracking and fingerprinting.

The add-on is quite straightforward with what it does: it blocks trackers and cookies to grant users more privacy over the internet. It is easy to set up, and the interface is very intuitive. A tutorial will be presented to you when first using the extension: the way it ranks sites based on the trackers they use is most interesting.

In short, sites are ranked on a scale from 1 to 5, with domains in the former bracket being the worst offenders when it comes to respect for the user's privacy. The extension explains all of its rankings: for instance, GitHub is a 5 as it exhibits no trackers, whilst CNN is a 1 due to the numerous first-party and high-risk trackers present. Of course, the add-on makes quick work of all of that to safeguard the user.

Users can manage the trackers and cookies they want enabled with a few inputs. Disabling some trackers entirely can cause a site to break, so be mindful of that.

Aside from that, the extension also offers to change your search engine into its proprietary one. While the results may not be as accurate as those found by Google, the privacy-focused approach of the Startpage search engine is definitely worth appreciating.

Startpage Privacy Protection is a necessary tool in this day and age: by protecting users from trackers and allowing them to customize their experience, one can feel more at ease while browsing the web.