Here’s what you can do to make Firefox even safer to use.

How to Disable Third-Party Cookies on Firefox

Third-party cookies should be your first thought when it comes to adjusting these settings. Ad networks may employ third-party cookies as identifiers to monitor your online activity. You can prevent the use of third-party cookies by tweaking Firefox’s settings.

First, click the Settings tab from the sandwich menu at the top right of your Firefox browser. Click the Privacy & Security option on the left of the Settings page opened in the new tab. On the page that opens, under the Enhanced Tracking Protection section, you will see that the Standard option is selected by default. Change this and check the Custom option. For the highest level of security, tick Cookies, Tracking content, Cryptominers, and Fingerprinters. Select All third-party cookies from the menu next to Cookies. Select In all windows from the menu just below. Check the Always option under the section about the Do Not Track signal you will see when you scroll down. Find the phrase Delete cookies and site data when Firefox is closed by scrolling down the page. In the “Login and Passwords” section, uncheck the box for saving logins and passwords. Storing your passwords and account information here could be a risky move. To make sure your browsing history is cleared, check Use custom settings for history from the “History” menu. From the boxes below, select Clear history when Firefox is closed. Under the “Permissions” section, make sure the Block pop-up windows and Warn you when websites try to install add-ons choices are selected. Do not tick any boxes under the “Firefox Data Collection and Use” permissions heading. Check all the boxes under the heading “Deceptive Content and Dangerous Software Protection”.

How to Change Your Default Search Engine on Firefox

Many search engines try to collect your search history—that is, anything you’re looking for. However, you can change your search engine to avoid this.

The steps listed below can be used to alter the default search engine.

First of all, open the Settings option from the sandwich menu and click the Search section on the left of the page that opens. Here you will see a section where you can choose your default search engine. From here, you can select the DuckDuckGo option. DuckDuckGo is much safer than other search engines when it comes to monitoring your traffic.

By using add-ons, the Firefox web browser allows you to simplify your job and online activities. It would be wrong to claim that all plugins are secure; nevertheless, there are a few we might recommend:

Also, if you’re using uBlock in advanced mode, you don’t need to run Privacy Badger.

How to Use Advanced Firefox Add-Ons

These plugins are for advanced users as they are difficult to use or can cause website disruption. Nonetheless, these plugins overcome fundamental privacy flaws that arise from the way web browsers work. These flaws include:

HTTP Referrer: When you click a link, your browser transfers the current site’s location to the new site. The URL it transmits may contain sensitive information. That’s why it’s important to disable this feature. HTTP User-Agent: Your browser sends unique “User-Agent” information to every website you visit. This information includes unique data that determines your online activity. HTML5 Canvas: Many sites use HTML5 Canvas to take a unique fingerprint of your browser and track you. You can use some plugins to disable this feature. JavaScript: With JavaScript enabled, it’s much easier for websites to create your browser fingerprint and track you. And many browser security flaws are actually caused by JavaScript.

Considering all this, there are two add-ons for Firefox you can consider:

µMatrix helps you block JavaScript and other selective plugins, and control third-party resources. Canvas Blocker lets you disable HTML5 canvas support for certain sites.

How to Strengthen Firefox’s Security Settings

Unfortunately, Firefox does not come with settings that will protect user security and privacy. To improve your security, you will need to change Firefox’s default privacy settings. For this, you can perform the following operations in order.

Start up Firefox and type the following line in the address bar, and log in:

Below are descriptions of some settings you might want to use. From these settings, you can type what you want to edit in the search bar and make the changes.

WebRTC is a technology used by software running on many browsers today. However, by design, it can also cause your browser to leak the real IP address of your device. As previously mentioned, it is important to disable WebRTC, especially in an installation where you are using a VPN and Tor. But be warned: some web software may not work properly as a result. You can type the following line in the “Search preference name” bar for this setting: media. peerconnection. enabled Afterwards, a line will open. To set the True value here to False, simply double-click on it. Fingerprint or fingerprint scanners are a method used to track users from device-specific configuration information. Firefox is set to block this by default. But still make sure the following setting is true: privacy. resistFingerprinting For your privacy, you may choose not to have Firefox remember and save the content of the forms you fill out. Likewise, this information may pose a risk to you as it will remain on your device. To turn this feature off, set the following setting to false: browser. formfill. enable It may pose a privacy risk to you if web pages access your device’s location. For Firefox to automatically destroy these requests, set the following setting to false: geo. enabled Telemetry can cause your browser to report certain actions. It allows the sites you visit to collect information about you and to follow you. To turn off these telemetries, you can find the lines below and mark them as “false”. toolkit. telemetry. archive. enabledtoolkit. telemetry. bhrping. enabledtoolkit. telemetry. firstshutdownping. enabledtoolkit. telemetry. newprofileping. enabledtoolkit. telemetry. unifiedtoolkit. telemetry. updateping. enabledtoolkit. telemetry. shutdownpingsender. enabledtoolkit. telemetry. shutdownpingsender. enabledFirstSessiontoolkit. telemetry. pioneer-new-studies-available To improve your browsing experience, Firefox may try to load content even if you do not explicitly request it to, or it may transmit your browsing history to the sites you enter. By changing these settings, you can make Firefox access only the content you request. Configuration Setting Recommended Value network. dns. disableprefetch true network. prefetch-next false dom. webnotifications. enabled false network. http. sendRefererHeader security. ssl. disable_session_identifiers true TLS, the basic encryption technology of the web, still uses many old connection standards that aren’t considered secure anymore. This practice is to support legacy systems, but can be a threat to your privacy and security. When you change these settings, sites of many large companies and some government institutions might not work. You may need to temporarily remove these settings to access sites that do not establish a secure connection. Configuration Setting Recommended Value security. ssl3. rsa_des_ede3_sha false security. ssl. require_safe_negotiation true security. tls. version. min 3 security. tls. enable_0rtt_data false WebGL is a technology that allows web software to access your device’s graphics processor. Setting this to true can increase your security. webgl. disabled Finally, you can prevent your browser from transmitting your computer’s battery status to websites you visit by setting the following setting to false. dom. battery. enabled

Firefox Won’t Keep You Completely Safe

No matter how you reconfigure your settings, it is not possible to keep up with all the new attack vectors and cybersecurity updates developing day by day. You need to take additional measures for security and privacy: from your modem to your browser, from your hardware to your operating system.

In addition to all these, there are also very good web browsers that care about privacy. Do your research before settling on just one browser.