Privacy is a very important factor for users. Today there are many techniques that can be used to collect personal data when surfing the net. Luckily we can make use of tools that help us protect ourselves. In this article we are going to talk about Neat URL . It is an extension that is available for Google Chrome and Mozilla Firefox with which we can avoid being tracked.
The problem of privacy on the net
Our personal data has great value on the net . They can be used to include us in spam campaigns, send targeted advertising or even sell them to third parties. There are many ways to collect information, but especially when surfing the net we can leave a lot of trace.
We can also expose data when we install or use a program, register with a service on the network or when accessing any platform. But the main problem in terms of tracking is entering links when we navigate. Many URLs may contain characters that tell us that they may somehow collect information from us if we click.
A seemingly harmless URL may contain a part designed to track the user. It will send information about who clicks to the website. These are usually the directions in which we see a “?” and followed characters or words.
To avoid this is where Neat URL comes in . Keep in mind that not all links will collect personal data that can be used in a bad way.
Neat URL, the extension to avoid tracking
As we know, Google Chrome and Mozilla Firefox are the most popular and used browsers today. They are present in most operating systems and devices. That is why we can find a wide range of possibilities in terms of extensions and available tools.
One of these plugins that we can use in both browsers is Neat URL. Its mission is to eliminate those trackers that carry the links when we click on them.
To install Neat URL we have to go to the official browser store. We can download it for both Chrome and Firefox . The operation is similar in both cases. We simply add it and an icon will automatically appear in the browser bar.
When we have it installed we can click with the right mouse button and click Preferences . There it will take us to the page to see the details of the application, see the permissions or configure the different options. By default there are different parameters that it avoids, but we can add or modify them.
We can add any value that we want to block. You just have to scroll down and fill in the different options we have.
If we go down to the Advanced section , we can add domains to the black list manually. Websites that we suspect are tracking us and we want to avoid it.
To stop using the extension, we simply have to click on the extension icon and it automatically stops acting. In the same way we can remove the browser plug-in at any time. To do this, we just have to right-click on the extension icon and click on delete.
In short, Neat URL is an interesting extension that we can use both in Chrome and Firefox in order to avoid trackers that may be in the links that we open when browsing. Although these types of links may not necessarily affect our privacy.
We do recommend not exposing more data than is really necessary when we surf the net, as we always say. It is important not to filter information that could be used against us to include us in spam campaigns or that could end up in the hands of hackers who could carry out cybersecurity attacks.