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Change your Firefox settings for a more private browsing experience

With just a few clicks, you can vastly improve your online privacy. Here are some tips for the popular Firefox browser—and you don’t have to install a thing.

First up, open the Firefox settings by clicking on the hamburger menu in the top right corner. Now click Preferences/Options > Privacy & Security.

Alternatively, you can also paste about:preferences#privacy into the address bar.

1. Choose what history to save

By default, Firefox will remember your browsing history and keep cookies from the websites you visit. Here are some options to improve this:

Recommended:

Optional:

2. Enable tracking protection

You can make use of Firefox’s inbuilt anti-tracking tool if you do not trust third-party adblockers, like uBlock origin.

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3. Make sure the permissions are up to date

Check that you have not given websites access to your microphone or camera by clicking on Settings… next to them. If you have, be sure to review what has access, and decide whether you want to remove these.

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4. Say no to Firefox data collection and use

We understand that knowing more about how their users behave and use their product makes it easier for Mozilla to build a good web browser. But if you are worried about powerful actors, these error messages can be used against you to identify weaknesses in your system and the data you are using.

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5. Change your default search engine to Duckduckgo

Google does not respect your privacy. Their business model is incompatible with your ability to retain control over your own data. We love Duckduckgo, and we think it should be your default search engine.

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Privacy is not a binary setting

It can be difficult to be fully aware of what information we give up, and the plenty of tools that exist to help us manage this flow of information can be ineffective or even deceptive.

Sometimes, like in the case of browsers, we are by default pushed into agreements that might not meet our need for privacy. Good browsers allow us to fine-tune this agreement and protect ourselves with just a few clicks.

Your browsing experience will change depending on what settings you choose, what cookies you retain, and what resources you block.