Browser Privacy Settings Audit: A Complete Checklist for Chrome

Chrome's defaults favor convenience. Twenty minutes with this checklist gives you a browser that shares less, without breaking the sites you use. Settings names can differ slightly between Chrome versions.

1. Run Safety Check

Settings → Privacy and security → Safety Check. It flags compromised passwords, risky extensions, outdated Chrome and sites with unused permissions. Fix anything it finds first.

2. Cookies

• Settings → Privacy and security → Third-party cookies → Block third-party cookies.
• Optional: under Site settings → On-device site data, choose to delete data when you close all windows. You'll need to sign in again more often.

3. Ad privacy

If your Chrome version still shows Ad privacy, turn off each option. Google announced in October 2025 that it was retiring most of the Privacy Sandbox ad features behind these settings.

4. Site permissions

Site settings lists every site allowed to use your location, camera, microphone, notifications and more. Remove sites you don't recognize, and set notifications to "Don't allow sites to send notifications" unless you rely on some. See spotting malicious notifications.

5. Security settings

• Choose Enhanced or Standard protection. Enhanced sends more data to Google for checking, in exchange for stronger protection.
• Turn on Use secure DNS so your internet provider can't read your website lookups as easily.
• Check that Always use secure connections is on.

6. Sync and Google services

• Under You and Google → Sync and Google services, review Make searches and browsing better, which sends the addresses you visit to Google, and the options to share usage statistics.
• Decide what to sync. Syncing passwords and history is convenient; turn off what you don't need.
• In your Google Account, review Web & App Activity at myactivity.google.com and set auto-delete.

7. Performance settings

Settings → Performance → Preload pages loads pages you might visit before you click. Turning it off sends fewer requests to sites you never open.

8. Extensions

Open chrome://extensions. Remove anything you don't use, and check what each one can access. Extensions are one of the biggest privacy risks in any browser.

9. Saved data

• Review saved passwords with Password Checkup. See auditing saved passwords.
• Remove old addresses and cards from autofill.
• Clear history and cookies if you haven't in a while.

10. WebRTC

Video calling in browsers can reveal your IP address, even behind some VPNs, and Chrome has no built-in setting for it. WebRTC Privacy Shield sets Chrome's WebRTC policy to stop that, with a balanced mode for sites where calls break. See verifying your VPN.

Repeat every few months

New sites pick up permissions, and updates add settings. Ghost Browser adds random background visits to blur your browsing profile, but the settings above do the most to reduce what's collected.