Privacy Badger Feature Overview

[oldschool]

Privacy Badger is a tracking prevention extension that just happens to block some ads when served in a 3rd party context. It's developed by the Electronic Freedom Foundation. Here's a brief overview of its features.

General privacy settings enabled by default upon installation

• Privacy Badger receives periodic learning updates from Badger Sett, EFF's Badger training project. This “remote learning” automatically discovers trackers present on thousands of the most popular sites on the Web.
• Shows count of trackers.
• Sends websites the "Global Privacy Control" and "Do Not Track" signals and checks if third-party domains comply with EFF's Do Not Track policy.
• Prevents sites from tracking which links you click ("hyperlink auditing").
• Disables prefetching.
• Disables sending web addresses you visit to Google. This disables suggestions for similar pages when a page can't be found.
• Widget replacement - When blocking social buttons and other potentially useful (video, audio, comments) widgets, Privacy Badger can replace them with click-to-activate placeholders. For convenience and to address website breakage, users can exclude certain widgets, e.g. Google reCAPTCHA, from a provided list on the extension's settings/options page.

Advanced settings

• Learn to block new trackers from your browsing, with an option to show domains that don't appear to be tracking you.

Other

• Ability to import/export user data either locally and/or with cloud sync, the latter which requiring Firefox or Chrome.

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Privacy Badger is a solid tracking prevention set and forget option when used with Chrome, Edge or Firefox for users who:

• Want true set and forget simplicity
• Want reduced chances of website breakage
• Don't mind seeing some ads and cookie notices, etc.
• Don't care about custom adblocking lists
• Like the idea of the extension developed by the Electronic Frontier Foundation
• Like having the option to enable local learning mode

NB: Not worth using with Brave or Vivaldi or alongside adblockers like µBO, Ghostery, Adguard, etc.
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Recommended Settings

Some users may want to enable local learning as fingerprinting detection is only theoretically possible and not likely employed, and any previous security concerns were addressed with updates. "Global Privacy Control" and "Do Not Track" are useless and I don't advise enabling these.


Other useful links:
Why Privacy Badger was created
Protects users automatically
Outgoing link protection
Widget replacement
Privacy Badger Is Changing to Protect You Better
What is Badger Sett?
Privacy Badger Now Fights More Sneaky Google Tracking
Community learning

 

[SeriousHoax]

"Global Privacy Control" and "Do Not Track" are useless and I don't advise enabling these.

I don't know much about it but there could be some benefit to it, mainly "Global Privacy Control" since Brave comes with it enabled by default. I don't think you can even disable it in Brave. Chrome and Edge don't have this, Firefox has this feature (optional).

 

[Jan Willy]

I don't think you can even disable it in Brave.

Yes, you can: brave://flags/#brave-global-privacy-control-enabled

 

[SeriousHoax]

Yes, you can: brave://flags/#brave-global-privacy-control-enabled

I see, so it's via a flag. They must think it's important enough to not to give an option to turn it off in settings. Also, a saw a tweet from a Brave engineer regarding this feature a couple of weeks ago.

 

[Ink]

They must think it's important enough to not to give an option to turn it off in settings.

They are one of the founding organisations to support GPC.

Blog post from 2020 - Global Privacy Control, a new Privacy Standard Proposal | Brave

 

[oldschool]

@Ink I found the same link and posted it right behind you.
@SeriousHoax @Jan Willy I'll open an issue with Privacy Badger to consider available settings changes.

 

[SeriousHoax]

GPC can only be effective if a site supports it. You can check it (f.i. with Brave) when you enter navigator.globalPrivacyControl in the Console from Developer Tools (F12). The result on malwaretips.com:

View attachment 283611

Are you sure about it? It seems it just shows whether you have GPC enabled or not. I'm seeing the true value on every single website, even on random sites to watch pirated sports and movie streaming. Is every site nowadays GPC compatible?

 

[oldschool]

Are you sure about it? It seems it just shows whether you have GPC enabled or not. I'm seeing the true value on every single website, even on random sites to watch pirated sports and movie streaming. Is every site nowadays GPC compatible?

As I understand it, when GPC is enabled in a browser it simply announces a user's intention not to be tracked, as opposed to DNT which sends a request not to be tracked. It can be implemented in the browser's code or by extension, as in Privacy Badger. The DNT request has to be recognized and then acted on by the website, or can simply be used as a further means to track user behavior, in which case it's simply another form of privacy violation. This is my understanding, but the subject is still not entirely clear to me.

BTW, Edge does not include it in its code, and (on an entirely different subject) it doesn't include Chrome's bounce tracking mitigation, which is active by default in Chrome and Brave.

Here's a reference: Global Privacy Control — Interacting With The GPC Signal

 

[Jan Willy]

Are you sure about it? It seems it just shows whether you have GPC enabled or not. I'm seeing the true value on every single website, even on random sites to watch pirated sports and movie streaming. Is every site nowadays GPC compatible?

Sorry, I misunderstood the meaning of the console command. I've deleted my post.

Edit: View a list of sites that support GPC https://trends.builtwith.com/websitelist/Global-Privacy-Control

 

[oldschool]

It appears that the developers consider both DNT and GPC currently remain relevant for their purpose, though DNT could be dropped if future conditions warrant.
Do not send "Do not track" requests by default · Issue #2950 · EFForg/privacybadger

We currently believe the privacy benefits (signalling intent with potential legal implications) outweighs the privacy cost (1 bit of information per signal).

Clarifying on "Check if third-party domains comply with EFF's Do Not Track policy" in General Settings · EFForg privacybadger · Discussion #2965