This guide explains how to protect your online privacy and improve browser performance by regularly checking compromised passwords, managing third-party cookies, using Memory Saver modes, controlling startup behavior, auditing extensions, and reviewing AI features in browsers like Google Chrome.
Browsers remain our primary gateway to the internet, allowing us to access millions of websites within seconds. But this reliance on browsers has its downsides.
A wide array of internet-based techniques and threats exist that could track your activity, build a profile of you, and steal stored data, including passwords. The problem isn't always the browser itself, but the way it's configured and how you use it. If you are saving passwords to your browser, it's worth checking them every once in a while, especially to look out for passwords that might have been exposed in a data breach.
To do that, open Google Chrome, click the ellipsis near the top right, select Settings, go into"Autofill and passwords," select Google Password Manager, navigate to the Checkup tab, and look under compromised passwords to see whether any of your passwords appeared in a data breach. Third-party cookies, as the name suggests, aren't created by the webpage you are visiting, but by another website.
These cookies are often used to collect data about your web activity and then serve ads that match your interests . So, the next time you are shown ads for something you searched online, you will know why. The good news is that browsers now offer more control over third-party cookies. For that, open Chrome's settings, go to Performance, and enable Memory Saver if it's turned off.
This feature is designed to free up memory being consumed by tabs you are not actively using. The freed-up RAM can then be used by the active tabs or other programs you are running on the PC. As for selecting a Memory Saver mode, Balanced works best for most users. You can also experiment with Moderate or Maximum.
The idea is to find a mode that works best for you. Additionally, ifwhen your laptop isn't plugged in or when the battery level is low, consider disabling Energy Saver. That option is available on Windows, macOS, and ChromeOS devices featuring a built-in battery. Now, go to the Startup tab of Chrome settings, and select"Open a new tab.
" This can help Chrome launch faster since it doesn't have to load a bunch of webpages from your previous session. Lastly, under System, turn off"Continue running background apps when Google Chrome is closed" to disable background activity after you have closed the browser.like blocking ads, managing passwords, checking grammar, or simply streamlining the browsing experience.
But browser extensions can often be a security risk if you take into account the permissions most extensions have and the fact that they can be compromised. This does not mean that all extensions are risky, but those from small publishers without the required resources may sometimes lack robust security safeguards. There have also been cases where popular extensions were sold to malicious actors and then used to harvest user data and serve potentially harmful ads.
When it comes to extensions, the approach is simple: the fewer, the better. And make sure to only install extensions from the browser's dedicated store. For Google Chrome and other Chromium-based browsers, you have the Chrome Web Store. For Firefox, it's Mozilla Add-Ons.
Other than that, you should periodically review installed extensions and remove any that you no longer need. It's also a good idea to avoid extensions that haven't been updated in a while. To review and remove extensions, launch the browser, click on Extensions in the toolbar, select Manage extensions, look through the list, and remove any you don't trust or no longer need.
Most browsers now come with some degree of AI integration, and while that's not necessarily bad, there's no denying that not everyone benefits from it. There are also some aspects of AI use that are often overlooked.
For instance, when you use Chrome's"Help me write" feature, it sends much of that information back to Google, which may be seen by a human reviewer and will definitely be seen by machines.on PCs. Many users quickly removed it once they realized what had happened, but the episode serves as a stark reminder that browsers can be invasive at times, often at the cost of your system's privacy, usability, and performance.
So, you need to periodically review the AI technology and related settings within your browser. It's becoming increasingly important as AI integration is on the rise, and your browser may add more features without you even realizing it. To see what your browser has going on under the hood, open Chrome's settings, go into AI innovations, look through the available options, and disable any you don't need.
If you want, you can also navigate to the System tab and disable the"On-device AI" option. This setting, when enabled, allows Chrome to download and run AI models locally on the system. You will find similar settings in other browsers too, although a few, like Vivaldi, have avoided adding AI features so far.
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