Seven Firefox Plug-ins That Improve Online Privacy

Worried about preserving your privacy in an online world where privacy is disappearing? Here are seven Firefox add-ons that will help.

By Joseph Guarino, CISSP, LPIC

March 12, 2010 — CSO —

As strange as it might sound, there are times when I wish for the old days of the Internet circa the early 1990's. The days of Mosaic and Lynx, where there was no Flash, no Javascript and no Java. A simpler time where protecting your privacy and security wasn't as essential as it is today.

Time travel isn't an option for securing my browser. But Firefox gives me it all and then some. The number-two browser (with 32 percent market share), Firefox is a cross platform, standards based, open source browser. It is feature rich and has supernumerary add-ons to extend its functionality. In the spirit of Open Source, its community maintains a focus on security and has a strong record of swiftly patching known vulnerabilities, faster in some cases than most others in the market.

Firefox isn't just a killer app; it's also a pillar of the Internet community. When it comes to security and privacy, the Firefox picture is compelling, with over 600 plug-ins related to privacy and security. Acknowledging the current state of privacy and security, these plug-ins are a welcome addition to any browsing experience.

My goal in this article is to highlight a few of my favorites with the hopes that you too will take advantage of them.

NoScript
NoScript is a powerful add-on that blocks and blacklists Javascript, Java, Flash, and other plug-ins by default. It features protections against Cross-Site Scripting (XSS), Flash XSS and clickjacking, to name a few. With most websites relying on these plug-in technologies, you effectively have to whitelist the sites for them to function. Using the NoScript status bar icon, you can whitelist on a temporary basis or add sites to your permanent whitelist. This preemptive script blocking tool is a must for any Firefox user.

BetterPrivacy
BetterPrivacy is an add-on that lets you manage LSO-cookies -- or, as they are commonly known, flash cookies. Flash cookies are a newer and more enhanced way of storing information about you and your online activities than traditional cookies. Unlike the traditional Web cookie, flash cookies don't expire and can't be deleted within the browser's interface. Even "delete your recent history" doesn't remove these "super cookies." Adobe currently only provides an online-only website storage panel to manage them, which is hardly user-or-privacy friendly. Thankfully, BetterPrivacy helps us chomp on those pesky cookies, allowing us to manage and remove them.

Adblock Plus
Adblock Plus is a simple add-on that gives granular control over page elements such as ads/banners content in your browser experience. Although it does use a region-specific block list, you can configure filters with great flexibility, blocking or allowing content as you see fit. Adblock is a God-send for those of us who don't want a Web littered with poorly targeted ads.