How to keep your Google Chrome extensions from snooping on you

You may have installed many Google Chrome extensions, and you can't even remember which ones you downloaded. But these add-ons can access your data and may snoop your activities—even if you are not using them.

To prevent old extensions from snooping into your browsing activities, it is important to conduct regular security audits. Checking Chrome's internal settings ensures that you only share the information you want with the apps that are truly useful to you.

Start with the extension menu

To the right of the Chrome main navigation bar, you will see an icon similar to a puzzle piece. That's the Extensions menu - Click it to see a preview of the add-ons you have installed on your browser.

Then click "Manage Extensions" at the end of the extension list. Chrome will open a new tab page where the description and toggle switches for each extension are displayed in a tile view that you can turn off to quickly disable individual add-ons (if you prefer). To continue the security audit, click the "Details" button on the extension tiling you want to check.

[Related articles: 5 browser extensions that help you avoid the overflow of tabs]

On the next page, you will see information about that particular add-on, but there are two things you need to look closely: Permissions and Site access. Permissions will briefly describe what the extension can do and what information it can access, while Website Access will tell you which websites it can read and modify.

About website visits, you will usually see a drop-down menu with three options: Select "All Websites" to allow the application to make changes on all pages you open. This is the default option and is necessary for extensions such as ad blockers or screen recorders. Or select "Specific Website" to limit the scope of the add-on. For example, you might want your grammar corrector to work only on websites related to your work, such as Google Docs. When you select this option, Chrome allows you to specify the website on which you want the extension to run—paste the URL in the window that appears and click "Add" . You can continue to add the website by clicking "Add a new page" . For a more stringent approach, you can choose "When clicked" , which means the app will be idle until you activate it by clicking its icon.

If you are worried about the permissions of the extension, it's time to go to another menu.

Permissions to manage extensions

In the extension's details menu, click "Website Settings" . This will take you to a new page detailing all the permissions that the extension can have. This list is similar to your phone's app permissions settings, so you'll see items you might already know, such as Location , Microphone , Camera and Notification. Next to most entries in the list, you will find a drop-down menu with three options, although some may have specific permissions. "Sound" for example, there are "Auto" and "Mute" , but in the end, they are both variants of the basic three options: "Allow" "block" and "ask".

The first two are self-explanatory: they will completely grant or deny the add-on access to a specific resource. So if the screen recording extension you are using is able to turn on your camera and shoot you, if you don't want to do so, you can choose to block camera access. It's also a great place to turn off notifications for any annoying extensions that might want to let you know how much you've saved online shopping in the past month.

To ensure your settings are secure, check out the permission list and carefully view the always allowed items. If you are not assured to grant this level of access to the application, make sure to change it to "Block" or "Ask" . In addition to the more obvious positions , microphone and cameras, please pay special attention to such as pop-up windows and redirection , automatic Download entries such as , File Edit , Payment Processor , Unsafe Content and Third-party Login .

Delete idle extensions

Although you can customize the permissions of your extension in a granular way, it is a good idea to always follow the following rules of thumb: If you don't use it, remove it. Some Chrome apps may just run for free on your browser and do nothing wrong. However, if the platform or developer is attacked, they can also become an open door for hackers or tracking.

[Related Articles: These 5 Popular Chrome Extensions Are Endangering Your Computer]

It's easy to delete an extension on Chrome: Go to the

"Manage Extensions" menu and click the "Delete" button on the relevant extension tiling. If you are in the "Details" menu, you will also get this option: just scroll down, click "Delete Extensions" and confirm you in the window that appears choice.

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