Privacy Magic

A Chrome extension to protect your privacy

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How can we, ordinary people, protect ourselves from mass surveillance? I've been working on this problem in one way or another for over a decade. In that time, I've worked on three privacy-oriented web browsers: Tor Browser, Firefox, and Brave. Millions of people use these web browsers every day and are, at least to some degree, protected from online spying. But despite some progress in improving their privacy, these niche browsers aren't likely to capture a large share of the browser market. The reality is, most people are still choosing to use mainstream browsers, leaving them largely unprotected from surveillance. Choosing a mainstream browser is understandable! Chrome and Edge come preinstalled on most computers and offer strong performance. On desktop, close to 90% of users use mainstream browsers based on Chromium. The drawback is that the browsers leak copious private information. Leaky browsers (and other leaky software) make it easy for corporations and governments to spy on everyone. Organizations are collecting detailed information on every person using data they acquire from your internet usage. In my view, this mass surveillance is a threat to democracy. So, what can we do for people who would like to protect their privacy but also want to stick with Chrome browser? We need a solution that is easy to install, is easy to use, and protects your privacy, but doesn't degrade your browsing experience or restrict your freedom to use the Web the way you want. In other words, it needs to work like "magic". I realized that a browser extension, carefully designed, might fit the bill. The Chrome Web Store already offers thousands of extensions that do a huge variety of things, including blocking ads or preventing certain leaks of private information. But no extension offers a comprehensive suite of privacy protections that address the numerous ways that your privacy can be compromised online. To implement this idea, I created Privacy Magic, a "set-and-forget" browser privacy extension. Building Privacy Magic was no small effort: mainstream web browsers, honestly, leak like a sieve. In order to keep a sieve from sinking, you have to plug all the holes. Privacy Magic attempts to do that by including a large variety of protections, most of which were built from scratch for this extension, and all of which are enabled by default. These protections include automatically blocking ads and trackers (similar to an adblocker, but uniform across all users), resisting fingerprinting (blocking all manner of leaks of information about your device), blocking breadcrumbs (so websites can't "tag" your browser), sealing web browser leaks (hardening things such as iframes and web workers), blocking third-party cookies, disabling anti-privacy features in the browser (such as so-called Ad Measurement), and enabling the Global Privacy Control (a message that demands websites don't sell your data). All of these privacy protections have been designed to avoid interfering with your browsing. But, if by chance, you do run into a website that doesn't work with Privacy Magic out of the box, you can disable protections just on that website by clicking on the button and switching it off. In addition to the in-browser protections that Privacy Magic offers, it's essential to keep your IP address safe from prying eyes. During installation, the extension provides you a link to the Privacy Guides' recommended VPNs that will hide your IP address from websites and embedded trackers. I'm pleased to say that Privacy Magic's privacy protections are thorough and, as far as I am aware, considerably exceed the protections offered by any other Chrome extension. I'm determined to continue to tighten and extend the suite of privacy protections to provide a solution that "just works". And I plan to support other browsers, too, both on desktop and mobile in the future. Mass surveillance is not going to be stopped by niche tools: we need to give all people the tools they need to protect themselves. The antidote to mass surveillance is mass protection. I hope Privacy Magic will be a significant contribution to this effort. Please give Privacy Magic a try! You can easily install it for free in Chrome (and it's easy to remove as well if it's not for you). Let me know about your experience; feedback is essential for me to continuously improve the extension. If you do like it, consider helping family members and friends try it on their computers. Here's to a future where the human right to privacy is available to everyone!