How to Improve Your Privacy and Security by Changing These Firefox Settings

Your web browser must be secure and free. That’s why many prefer Firefox, a non-profit, independent, and free web browser from Mozilla. However, simply using Firefox is not enough for your privacy and security. You need to adjust some Firefox settings to properly stay secure.

Here’s what it’s possible to do to make Firefox even safer to use.

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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 ofthird-party cookiesby tweaking Firefox’s settings.

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.

using firefox programming on laptop

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:

uBlock Origin

Opening settings using the Firefox sandwich menu

It blocks most tracking networks. All browsers leak your real IP address during audio and video conferences. If you are making voice or video calls with a VPN or Tor, you should activate the WebRTC IP leak prevention setting in the uBlock’s settings.

HTTPS Everywhere

Opening the privacy and security settings using the Firefox settings menu

This automatically switches to secure TLS connections on supported websites, and helps protect your browsing content from surveillance. It does not hide which sites you visit.

Privacy Badger

Custom settings for cookies from Firefox privacy and security settings

Privacy Badger dynamically detects and blocks trackers that are likely to follow you.

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:

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

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.

Configuration Setting

Recommended Value

network.dns.disableprefetch

network.prefetch-next

dom.webnotifications.enabled

network.http.sendRefererHeader

security.ssl.disable_session_identifiers

security.ssl3.rsa_des_ede3_sha

security.ssl.require_safe_negotiation

security.tls.version.min

security.tls.enable_0rtt_data

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.

Anonymous web browsing is one way to protect your online privacy. Here are the best anonymous web browsers to use.

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