Privacy Badger Language English Deutsch Español Français Русский Svenska Türkçe 中文（中国） Privacy Badger is a free browser extension made by the leading digital rights nonprofit EFF to stop companies from spying on you online. Browser Not Supported Privacy Badger is not supported in this browser (more info). Add to Chrome Add to Firefox Add to Firefox for Android Add to Edge Add to Edge for Android Add to Opera Add to Brave Add to Chrome Add to Firefox Add to Firefox for Android Add to Edge Add to Edge for Android Add to Opera Add to Brave Other browsers Alternative installation options Release notes for v2026.8.7 Frequently Asked Questions Getting Started What is Privacy Badger? How is Privacy Badger different from other blocking extensions? Who makes Privacy Badger? How does Privacy Badger work? Why does Privacy Badger need access to my data for all websites? Key Features How does Privacy Badger handle social media widgets? What is Global Privacy Control (GPC)? Does Privacy Badger prevent fingerprinting? Why does Privacy Badger block ads? Why doesn't Privacy Badger block all ads? What do the red, yellow and green sliders in the Privacy Badger menu mean? Technical Details What is a third party tracker? What about tracking by the sites I actively visit, like NYTimes.com or Facebook.com? Does Privacy Badger contain a list of blocked sites? How was the cookie blocking yellowlist created? Does Privacy Badger consider every cookie to be a tracking cookie? What is the Privacy Badger license? Where is the Privacy Badger source code? Why does my browser connect to fastly.com IP addresses on startup after installing Privacy Badger? Troubleshooting I need help! I found a bug! What do I do now? I run a domain that uses cookies or other tracking. How do I stop Privacy Badger from blocking me? How do I uninstall/remove Privacy Badger? Why aren't videos loading on YouTube? Why isn't Privacy Badger blocking ads on YouTube? Compatibility Will you be supporting any other browsers besides Chrome, Firefox, Edge and Opera? Can I download Privacy Badger directly from eff.org? Is Privacy Badger compatible with other extensions, including adblockers? Is Privacy Badger compatible with Firefox's built-in privacy protections? Supporting Privacy Badger How can I support Privacy Badger? Where can I find general information about Privacy Badger that I can use for a piece I'm writing? As an administrator, how do I configure Privacy Badger on my managed devices? Getting Started What is Privacy Badger? Privacy Badger is a browser extension that stops advertisers and other third-party trackers from secretly tracking where you go and what pages you look at on the web. If an advertiser seems to be tracking you across multiple websites without your permission, Privacy Badger automatically blocks that advertiser from loading any more content in your browser. To the advertiser, it’s like you suddenly disappeared. How is Privacy Badger different from other blocking extensions? Privacy Badger was born out of our desire to be able to recommend a single extension that would: Automatically analyze and block any tracker or ad that violated the principle of user consent Function well without any settings, knowledge, or configuration by the user Use algorithmic methods to decide what is and isn’t tracking Be produced by an organization that is unambiguously working for its users rather than for profit As a result, Privacy Badger differs from traditional ad-blocking extensions in two key ways. First, while most other blocking extensions prioritize blocking ads, Privacy Badger doesn’t block ads unless they happen to be tracking you; in fact, one of our goals is to incentivize advertisers to adopt better privacy practices. Second, most other blockers rely on a human-curated list of domains or URLs to block. Privacy Badger is an algorithmic tracker blocker – we define what “tracking” looks like, and then Privacy Badger blocks or restricts domains that it observes tracking in the wild. What is and isn’t considered a tracker is entirely based on how a specific domain acts, not on human judgment. Privacy Badger sends the Global Privacy Control signal to opt you out of data sharing and selling, and the Do Not Track signal to tell companies not to track you. If trackers ignore these signals, Privacy Badger will learn to block them. Beyond this, Privacy Badger comes with other advantages like cookie blocking, click-to-activate placeholders for potentially useful tracker widgets (video players, comments widgets, etc.), and outgoing link click tracking removal on Facebook and Google. By using Privacy Badger, you support the Electronic Frontier Foundation and help fight for a better Web for everybody. Who makes Privacy Badger? Privacy Badger was created by the Electronic Frontier Foundation, a nonprofit organization that protects your privacy and free expression online. We make free tools like Privacy Badger, publish educational guides, testify before lawmakers about technology, and fight for the public interest in court—all thanks to support from EFF’s members. If you want a better internet and a strong democracy, join the fight against creepy online surveillance. How does Privacy Badger work? When you view a webpage, that page will often be made up of content from many different sources. For example, a news webpage might load the actual article from the news company, ads from an ad company, and the comments section from a different company that’s been contracted out to provide that service. Privacy Badger keeps track of all of this. If the same source seems to be tracking across different websites, then Privacy Badger springs into action, telling the browser not to load any more content from that source. And when your browser stops loading content from a source, that source can no longer track you. Voila! At a more technical level, Privacy Badger keeps track of the “third party” domains that embed images, scripts and advertising in the pages you visit. Privacy Badger looks for tracking techniques like uniquely identifying cookies, local storage “supercookies,” and canvas fingerprinting. If it observes the same third-party host tracking on three separate sites, Privacy Badger will automatically disallow content from that third-party tracker. By default, Privacy Badger receives periodic learning updates from Badger Sett, our Badger training project. This “remote learning” automatically discovers trackers present on thousands of the most popular sites on the Web. Why does Privacy Badger need access to my data for all websites? When you install Privacy Badger, your browser warns that Privacy Badger can “access your data for all websites” (in Firefox), or “read and change all your data on the websites you visit” (in Chrome). You are right to be alarmed. You should only install extensions made by organizations you trust. Privacy Badger requires these permissions to do its job of automatically detecting and blocking trackers on all websites you visit. We are not ironically (or unironically) spying on you. For more information, see our Privacy Badger extension permissions explainer. Note that the extension permissions warnings only cover what the extension has access to, not what the extension actually does with what it has access to (such as whether the extension secretly uploads your browsing data to its servers). Privacy Badger will never share data about your browsing unless you choose to share it (by filing a broken site report). For more information, see EFF’s Privacy Policy for Software. Key Features How does Privacy Badger handle social media widgets? Social media widgets (such as the Facebook Like button) often track your reading habits. Even if you don’t click them, the social media companies often see exactly which pages you’re seeing the widget on. When blocking social buttons and other potentially useful (video, audio, comments) widgets, Privacy Badger can replace them with click-to-activate placeholders. You will not be tracked by these replacements unless you explicitly choose to click them. What is Global Privacy Control (GPC)? Global Privacy Control (GPC) is a new specification that allows users to tell companies they’d like to opt out of having their data shared or sold. By default, Privacy Badger sends the GPC signal to every company you interact with alongside the Do Not Track (DNT) signal. What’s the difference? Do Not Track is meant to tell companies that you don’t want to be tracked in any way (learn more about what we mean by “tracking” here). Privacy Badger gives third-party companies a chance to comply with DNT by adopting our DNT policy, and blocks those that look like they’re tracking you anyway. When DNT was developed, many websites simply ignored users’ requests not to be tracked. That’s why Privacy Badger has to act as an enforcer: trackers that don’t want to comply with your wishes get blocked. Today, users in many jurisdictions have the legal right to opt out of some kinds of tracking. That’s where GPC comes in. GPC is meant to be a legally-binding request to all companies in places with applicable privacy laws. For example, the California Consumer Privacy Act gives California residents the right to opt out of having their data sold. By sending the GPC signal, Privacy Badger is telling companies that you would like to exercise your rights. The CCPA and other laws are not perfect, which is why Privacy Badger uses both approaches. It asks websites to respect your privacy, and it blocks known trackers from loading at all. Does Privacy Badger prevent fingerprinting? Browser fingerprinting is an extremely subtle and problematic method of tracking, which we documented with the Cover Your Tracks project. Privacy Badger can detect canvas-based fingerprinting, and will block third party domains that use it. Detection of other forms of fingerprinting and protections against first-party fingerprinting are ongoing projects. Of course, once a domain is blocked by Privacy Badger, it will no longer be able to fingerprint you. Why does Privacy Badger block ads? Actually, nothing in the Privacy Badger code is specifically written to block ads. Rather, it focuses on disallowing any visible or invisible “third party” scripts or images that appear to be tracking you even though you specifically denied consent by sending Do Not Track and Global Privacy Control signals. It just so happens that most (but not all) of these third party trackers are advertisements. When you see an ad, the ad sees you, and can track you. Privacy Badger is here to stop that. Why doesn't Privacy Badger block all ads? Because Privacy Badger is primarily a privacy tool, not an ad blocker. Our aim is not to block ads, but to prevent non-consensual invasions of people’s privacy because we believe they are inherently objectionable. We also want to create incentives for advertising companies to do the right thing. Of course, if you really dislike ads, you can also install a traditional ad blocker. What do the red, yellow and green sliders in the Privacy Badger menu mean? Red means that content from this third party domain has been completely disallowed. Yellow means that the third party domain appears to be trying to track you, but it is on Privacy Badger’s cookie-blocking “yellowlist” of third party domains that, when analyzed, seemed to be necessary for Web functionality. In that case, Privacy Badger will load content from the domain but will try to screen out third party cookies and referrers from it. Green means “no action”; Privacy Badger will leave the domain alone. Technical Details What is a third party tracker? When you visit a webpage parts of the page may come from domains and servers other than the one…