Worried about what others are doing with your data? Justly. Surfing the internet is almost impossible without Jan and everyone watching. Cookies and other trackers make it easier for you, so to speak... but often it's really about targeting: sending the right advertising messages so that you eventually give in and pull your wallet. Prefer a little more privacy? Then try Disconnect!
Install Disconnect
Disconnect is an application from a former Google engineer. The tool puts all trackers in a clear overview and lets you choose which one you want to block. The browser extension is available for Chrome, Firefox, Safari and Opera. The Basic version is completely free. To install the extension, surf to //disconnect.me and click at the bottom Get Basic. Continue with Get Disconnect. You will be automatically redirected to the download page. Install the browser extension. You will receive a request to switch to the Premium version, you can simply close that window.
Get insight
After a successful installation, an icon with a black letter D will appear in your browser: that stands for Disconnect. As soon as you start surfing, you will notice that a number appears regularly on the icon. This means that there are trackers on the website. Try it out with a popular online store or news site. Click on the black D to display the Disconnect window. The green numbers indicate how many requests for tracking (track requests) are blocked. You can unblock it by clicking it once.
More than incognito mode?
Every browser has a privacy mode these days. This prevents your surfing history from being saved locally. Disconnect goes a step further and blocks other services – such as Google or Facebook – so that they don't know which sites you visit. According to the makers, Disconnect would block more than 2,000 different trackers and therefore load web pages up to 27% faster. Moreover, this way you also save in terms of bandwidth. You will also see the statistics in the window. Through Whitelist site it is even possible to allow trackers from certain sites.
