Stop your browser from spying on you: 5 settings to change right now

Your browser does more than load websites. By default, many popular browsers send data about your activity back to the company that made them—Google, Microsoft, Mozilla, or Apple. Telemetry, ad personalization, search suggestions, and predictive services all feed information to servers you may not even know exist.

The good news: you don’t need to switch browsers or install anything. A few settings changes can stop most of that data flow. Here is what is happening and what you can do about it on Chrome, Firefox, Edge, and Safari.

What happened

Browsers have gradually added features that rely on sending your data to company servers. Telemetry reports how you use the browser. Search suggestions send each keystroke to your default search engine. “Predictive services” preload pages based on where the browser thinks you will click, which requires sending your browsing patterns to a server.

These features are often enabled by default after updates. For example, Chrome and Edge send telemetry to Google and Microsoft respectively. The original PCWorld article (June 2026) documented five common settings that are especially intrusive.

Why it matters

Even if you are not worried about targeted ads, the collected data can be used to build a profile of your behavior across the web. Third‑party cookies and fingerprinting techniques make it possible for advertisers to track you even after you leave a site. Disabling these settings reduces tracking significantly without breaking normal browsing. It is not a complete privacy solution, but it is a practical first step that takes just a few minutes.

What readers can do

Below are five settings you can change today. I have listed the steps for Chrome, Firefox, Edge, and Safari. The exact names and locations may vary slightly depending on your browser version; use the search in your settings if you get lost.

1. Disable telemetry and usage reports

  • Chrome: Go to Settings → “You and Google” → Sync and Google services → turn off “Help improve Chrome’s features and performance” and “Help improve Chrome’s security and performance”.
  • Firefox: Settings → Privacy & Security → under “Firefox Data Collection and Use”, uncheck both boxes.
  • Edge: Settings → Privacy, search, and services → under “Optional diagnostic data”, set to “Off”. Also turn off “Improve Microsoft products by sending optional diagnostic data”.
  • Safari: Safari → Settings → Advanced → uncheck “Include Improve Safari suggestions” and “Include Apple Pay transactions” near the bottom.

2. Turn off personalized ads and tracking

  • Chrome: Settings → Privacy and security → Third-party cookies → select “Block third-party cookies”. Also go to “Ad privacy” and turn off all three topics (Ad topics, Site-suggested ads, Ad measurement).
  • Firefox: Settings → Privacy & Security → Enhanced Tracking Protection → choose “Strict”. Also uncheck “Allow Firefox to place personalized ads in New Tab” (under Firefox Data Collection).
  • Edge: Settings → Privacy, search, and services → Tracking prevention → choose “Strict”. Under “Personalization & ads”, set “Show me personalized ads” to Off.
  • Safari: Safari → Settings → Privacy → uncheck “Allow privacy‑preserving measurement of ad effectiveness” if you want to block ad measurement. Also check “Hide IP address from trackers”.

3. Stop search suggestions from sending keystrokes

  • Chrome: Settings → Search engine → Search bar → turn off “Auto-complete searches and URLs” and “Suggest searches via the address bar”.
  • Firefox: Settings → Search → turn off “Provide search suggestions”. Also uncheck “Show search suggestions in address bar results”.
  • Edge: Settings → Privacy, search, and services → under “Services”, set “Search suggestions and filters” to Off.
  • Safari: Safari → Settings → Search → uncheck “Include search engine suggestions” and “Include Safari Suggestions”.

4. Disable predictive services that preload pages

  • Chrome: Settings → Privacy and security → preload pages → choose “No preloading”.
  • Firefox: This setting is less explicit. In about:config, search for network.preload and set it to false. (Firefox users: be careful in about:config; change only what you understand.)
  • Edge: Settings → Privacy, search, and services → under “Security”, set “Preload pages for faster browsing and searching” to Off.
  • Safari: No equivalent setting exists in Safari’s standard interface for preloading, but you can disable “Preload Top Hit in the background” under Safari → Settings → Search.

5. Block third-party cookies and fingerprinting

  • Chrome: As in setting 2, block third-party cookies. Under Privacy and security → Privacy Sandbox, turn off all trials.
  • Firefox: Enhanced Tracking Protection on “Strict” blocks third-party cookies and fingerprinting by default.
  • Edge: In Tracking prevention (set to Strict), third-party cookies are limited. You can also go to Cookies and site permissions → Manage and delete cookies and site data → toggle “Block third-party cookies”.
  • Safari: By default, Safari already blocks third-party cookies. To tighten fingerprinting protection, go to Safari → Settings → Privacy → check “Block all cookies” (this may break some sites) or leave defaults.

Bonus: Use built-in “Strict” tracking protection

As mentioned above, setting Firefox or Edge’s tracking protection to “Strict” applies multiple blocking rules automatically. Firefox’s “Strict” mode blocks fingerprinters, third-party cookies, and cryptominers. Edge’s “Strict” mode does something similar. Chrome and Safari rely on individual settings.

Sources

  • PCWorld, “Your browser is too nosy. Change these 5 settings now”, June 2026 (Google News archive)
  • General browser privacy documentation from Google, Mozilla, Microsoft, and Apple (accessed July 2026)

These instructions reflect the latest major releases as of mid‑2026. If you use a browser that is not listed (like Brave or Vivaldi), many of the same principles apply—they often have built‑in privacy controls that go further than the default settings of the big four.