Disable WebRTC for Firefox

If you're concerned about online privacy and installed a VPN in the hopes of putting your worries away, you should know that this isn't enough. Although they seem identical, VPN applications are actually quite different in terms of features.

One aspect that you should be looking after when it comes to a VPN program is its approach toward WebRTC (Web Real-Time Communication). This system was implemented into web browsers like Mozilla Firefox, Google Chrome and Opera, in an effort to facilitate direct peer-to-peer communication between audio/video channels and your sites (even if your VPN is enabled and it really works).

While WebRTC's intentions might sound good on paper (improve optimization when using a browser through APIs, without having to install additional plugins or apps), users concerned about their privacy will likely prefer to not take part in WebRTC's activity, considering this to be a security issue due to real IP address leaks.

Newer browser editions (the ones who support this feature) have WebRTC enabled by default. It's possible to disable it by tinkering with the built-in browser settings but, if you just want to install an addon that can automatically do this for you, you can check Disable WebRTC. It's aimed at Firefox users only.

Disable WebRTC is a straightforward browser extension that requires zero configuration. After integrating it with Firefox, you can just click its button to turn it on and off, thus providing an easy way to toggle WebRTC.

You might be asking yourself why it would ever be a good idea to turn WebRTC back on once the change is made since you would only have to configure Firefox settings one time only, in order to disable WebRTC. However, because the system works with the help of some JavaScript APIs, terminating WebRTC might interfere with some websites that cannot work properly unless JavaScript is enabled (in this case, you would have to re-enable WebRTC, at least temporarily).

As far as permissions are concerned, the Disable WebRTC requests to read and modify browser and privacy settings in order to get it up and running. Evidently, the project is free and open-source.