How to Set Up Chrome for Privacy

Step by step

1. 1 min

   Access Chrome's privacy settings

   Click the three-dot menu in the top-right corner, then select Settings. In the left sidebar, click Privacy and security. This section contains all the privacy controls you need to configure.

   Note: Bookmark chrome://settings/privacy for quick access to these settings.
2. 2 min

   Configure cookies and site data

   Click Cookies and other site data. Select Block third-party cookies in Incognito mode or Block third-party cookies for stronger protection. Enable Send a 'Do Not Track' request with your browsing traffic. Turn off Allow sites to save and read cookie data to prevent persistent tracking.

   Note: Blocking all third-party cookies may break some websites, so start with Incognito-only blocking and upgrade if needed.
3. 2 min

   Disable location and camera access

   Click Site Settings in the Privacy and security section. Set Location to Ask before accessing (recommended) or Blocked. Set Camera and Microphone to Ask before accessing. Review Notifications and set to Ask before sending to prevent unwanted alerts.

   Note: Regularly audit the site permissions list to revoke access from sites you no longer use.
4. 2 min

   Turn off usage statistics and crash reports

   Scroll down to Privacy and security and click Privacy Sandbox. Turn off Ad topics, Site-suggested ads, and Ad measurement. Return to the main Privacy and security page and ensure Make searches and browsing better is disabled to stop sending usage data to Google.

   Note: Disable all options here.
5. 1 min

   Configure search engine privacy

   Go to Search engine in the left sidebar. Change your default search engine from Google to DuckDuckGo or Startpage for private searching. Click Manage search engines to remove unwanted search providers that might leak your queries.

   Note: DuckDuckGo doesn't track users or personalize results, making it the most private mainstream search option.
6. 2 min

   Set up automatic data clearing

   Return to Privacy and security and click Clear browsing data. Click Advanced and select All time from the time range dropdown. Check all boxes including browsing history, cookies, cached images, and autofill data. Consider enabling automatic clearing by installing the Clear Browsing Data extension.

   Note: Set up a weekly reminder to manually clear data, or use Chrome's upcoming automatic clearing feature when it becomes available.
7. 2 min

   Enable enhanced Safe Browsing with privacy focus

   In Privacy and security, click Security. Select Standard protection rather than Enhanced protection to avoid sending additional data to Google. Ensure Use secure DNS is enabled and set to a privacy-focused provider like Cloudflare (1.1.1.1) or Quad9 (9.9.9.9).

   Note: Enhanced Safe Browsing provides better security but sends more data to Google. Standard protection offers good security with better privacy.
8. 3 min

   Install privacy-focused extensions

   Go to the Chrome Web Store and install uBlock Origin for ad and tracker blocking. Add Privacy Badger for additional tracker protection. Consider installing DuckDuckGo Privacy Essentials for comprehensive privacy protection across all sites.

   Note: Avoid installing too many privacy extensions as they can conflict with each other. uBlock Origin alone blocks most ads and trackers effectively.