Firefox Add-ons That Makes Surfing Online Safer
Out of the box, Firefox is already an incredible web browser. But when you consider all of the power tools that can be added to enhance your online security, it’s even better. Check out these add-ons for Firefox , and you’ll take your online security to the next level.
HTTPS Everywhere
HTTPS Everywhere is an extension that will automatically switches thousands of sites from insecure "http" to secure "https". It will protect you against many forms of surveillance and account hijacking, and some forms of censorship.
In short, it’s a more secure web-browsing protocol that encrypts all of the web data that’s transmitted between the server and your browser using SSL/TLS. So, even if someone intercepts your connection, they won’t be able to read the data.
HTTPS-Everywhere extension automatically redirects you to the HTTPS version of the website you are trying to visit. It’s a must-have Firefox security addon. Don’t skip it.
Ghostery
Ghostery is a Firefox extension that blocks web trackers so that companies like Facebook and Google can’t track your activity.
Ghostery’s built-in ad blocker removes advertisements from a web page to eliminate clutter so you can focus on the content you want.
NoScript
NoScript is an add-on that can disable JavaScript on web pages, put limits on the types of JavaScript permitted, and block known attacks.
The downside is that setting those options is an all-or-nothing deal. The advanced features are either always allowed or always prohibited. NoScript lets you allow JavaScript on websites that you trust and block JavaScript on all other websites. That puts the power in your hands. You just need to be careful not to trust too many sites; otherwise, this add-on won’t provide much protection.
uMatrix
uMatrix is a dynamic firewall that allows you to toggle various defenses whenever you want.
uMatrix put you in full control of where your browser is allowed to connect, what type of data it is allowed to download, and what it is allowed to execute. Nobody else decides for you: You choose. You are in full control of your privacy.
These firewall options show up as a colored red-and-green matrix and all you have to do is click on the features you want to toggle. It’s a bit more advanced than a straightforward blocker, but the steeper learning curve allows for more power and flexibility in the end.
Blur
Better than a password manager: Blur makes it easy to keep track of and secure all your personal information online.
Formerly known as DoNotTrackMe, Blur is one of the best addons for protecting your data. Not only does it block companies from collecting information about you, it also manages and protects your sensitive details like password credentials and payment information.
Regarding passwords, Blur will one-click generate touch-to-crack combinations and will immediately encrypt and store them safely for later.
Regarding payments, Blur lets you purchase online without ever giving away your credit card information by providing disposable masking credit cards through Abine, Inc. This feature is only available for premium users, which can be purchased for $5 per month.
Self Destroying Cookies
Self Destroying Cookies addon removes unwanted cookies from websites. Also the so called Third-Party-Cookies will be deleted. So Self Destroying Cookies protects from tracking.
This addon allows cookies to persist until you close the tab. When a tab is closed, all relevant cookies are destroyed right on the spot. This method of dealing with cookies is especially effective against Zombie-cookies and Evercookies. If there are any cookies you want to keep, you can whitelist them.
Cookie AutoDelete
Cookie AutoDelete extension allow you to control your browser cookies! This extension is inspired by Self Destructing Cookies. When a tab closes, any cookies not being used are automatically deleted. Whitelist the ones you trust while deleting the rest.
Main Features
- Auto Deletes Cookies from Closed Tabs
- WhiteList/GreyList Support for Cookies
- Easily Export/Import your Whitelist/Greylist
- Clear All Cookies for a Domain
- Supports Manual Mode Cleaning from the popup
- Easily See the Number of Cookies for a site
- Support for Container Tabs (Firefox 53+ Only)
Password Hasher NG
How many web passwords do you have? Hopefully you have a unique and difficult password for every site you visit. Password Hasher NG is the convenient and secure way to have different passwords on all sites. Simply remember the masterkey and password hasher will generate a unique password based on your settings without ever storing your passwords.
Privacy Badger
Privacy Badger is a free browser extension for Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox and Opera created by the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF). ... While some of its code is based on Adblock Plus, Privacy Badger only blocks those advertisers and other third-party trackers from secretly tracking where you go and what pages you look at on the web.
uBlock Origin
There are countless ad-blockers available for your browser, so what makes uBlock Origin worthy of your attention? Well, if you’ve ever noticed web pages loading slower with your ad blocker enabled, uBlock Origin could be for you. It’s built with efficiency in mind, so it uses up less memory and CPU time. That means you can browse faster while still blocking unwanted content.
As well as removing obtrusive ads from your favorite sites, uBlock Origin can also help protect your privacy. The program comes with filter lists for removing tracking servers, malware domains and more.
AdGuard
AdGuard is an ad blocking software that provide the users with the ultimate ad blocking solution that allows them to have a safe and pure internet experience. Not only the users can use the software as an ad blocking solution, the software can also protect their system from harmful malware and adware and keep their system safe from external threats.
Allows you to protect your computer and mobile devices from ads that can appear in the browsers, software, and applications within your devices. Gives a more thorough and complete protection against intrusive ads than the regular ad blocker tool.
Decentraleyes
Most websites consist of HTML show the structure of a website. Together with CSS for styling, and JavaScript for interactive functionality, the website can provide value for its visitors. Some of the used JavaScript libraries are heavy on bandwidth, so website owner may use a content delivery network (CDN). The primary goal for a CDN is to get data closer to the end-user, which results in faster downloads and increasing the performance of the website.
Some common JavaScript libraries are used on many websites. As not every single website creator can pay the costs of a CDN, bigger companies might actually sponsor bandwidth on their CDN edge servers. While this is great from a cost perspective, it also introduces a privacy concern. The owner of the CDN can exactly see what websites a user is visiting by looking at the related requests to the CDN and the related referrer. This is where Decentraleyes comes into place, by intercepting requests to content delivery networks (CDN).
Decentraleyes looks into the returned HTML data. It replaces external requests to CDNs if it discovers a known JavaScript library. This way the CDN never receives the request. It actually may increase the speed of some websites, yet the main benefit is increased privacy.
Privacy Settings
Privacy Settings lets you alter browser's built-in privacy preferences easily from a toolbar button. This extension aims to keep all the security settings in one place. There are different modes of operation based on your needs. Some options focus on your privacy and some others focus on your security. Of course there is a button to reset all the prefs back to defaults as well.
Bitdefender TrafficLight
Bitdefender TrafficLight is a free browser extension which can help to protect you from a range of web threats.
The extension also analyses the pages you visit in real time, to protect you from even the very latest threats. Bitdefender says an "Advanced Phishing Filter" will "scan the pages for phishing attempts", while an "Antifraud Filter" "protects against fraudulent websites or targeted scams."
The extension displays a green icon for safe pages and a red icon for potentially malicious or risky pages. The extension checks each page for malware, phishing or fraud flags and reports its findings to you on page load.
Bitdefender TrafficLight displays its safety icons on supported search engines as well. It works on some search sites only; while you get the icons on Google Search, Yahoo Search, DuckDuckGo and Bing, you don't get them on Startpage, Yandex, or Baidu.
Disconnect
With Disconnect addon allows you to visualize and block the otherwise invisible websites that track your search and browsing history.
▪ Load the pages you go to up to 44% faster and save up to 39% bandwidth.
▪ Stop tracking by thousands of third-party sites.
Popup Blocker (strict)
Popup Blocker (Strict) is a lightweight WebExtension to prevent websites from opening popups. The extension pauses all sort of window opening requests for user attention. You can either accept or deny a request. Multiple unique requests are shown in an array. If a websites requests a single URL more than once, a badge number will be shown indicating the total number of requests to this particular URL.
We know that there are plenty of other addons out there that you love but we missed. Tell us about them! Which security addons are your favorite? Which have proven most useful to you?