The tool: Privacy Badger
URL: privacybadger.org
Cost: Free · Open source · Made by the Electronic Frontier Foundation
What it is
When you visit a webpage, the content you came to read often loads alongside dozens of invisible scripts from companies you have never interacted with. Those third parties can track which sites you visit, build a profile on you over time, and share or sell that data. Privacy Badger is a browser extension that blocks this kind of cross-site tracking.
Unlike other blocking tools, Privacy Badger does not use a pre-made list of sites to block. It watches how third-party domains behave as you browse. If the same domain appears to be tracking you across three or more unrelated websites, Privacy Badger blocks it from loading entirely.
How it works
Privacy Badger sends two signals to websites as you browse: Do Not Track, a longstanding privacy request, and Global Privacy Control, a newer standard that functions as a legally binding opt-out in jurisdictions with applicable privacy laws including California. If trackers ignore those signals, Privacy Badger learns to block them.
The extension shows a breakdown of what it has found on each page through a color-coded slider system. Green means the domain is left alone. Yellow means it appears to track but is considered necessary for web functionality — Privacy Badger loads it but strips its cookies. Red means content from that domain is blocked entirely.
A few things it does not do
Privacy Badger is not a general-purpose ad blocker. It does not block ads based on appearance — only ads that are tracking you. YouTube ads, for example, are not blocked because YouTube's tracking happens on the site you are already visiting, which is handled differently from third-party trackers.
It is also not a VPN. It does not encrypt your traffic or hide your IP address.
Where to get it
Available for Chrome, Firefox, Firefox for Android, Edge, Edge for Android, Opera, and Brave. Safari on macOS is in development.
Up next · Friday
Step-by-step instructions to remove your listing from Radaris, one of the more comprehensive people-search sites — it pulls addresses, social profiles, and photos into a single record.