Online safety issues are not very uncommon, since 65% of the world population has access to the internet.
Risks of using the internet have been growing alongside it ever since it was released for public use.
If you want to be safe from the risks of the internet, then you should make your browser safe. That’s because we use browsers to access the internet, and by making your browser secure, you can avoid some risks on the internet.
Google Chrome is a browser that has made a lot of efforts to make it more secure. That’s why, Chrome has so many features that you can use to make browsing more secure.
This post will guide you through the process of making Chrome more secure by turning some settings on & off.
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How To Make Chrome More Secure
To make Chrome more secure, you have to do these things.
1. Update Chrome To The Latest Version
The most important thing you can do to make Chrome more secure is to update it.
Updating Chrome not only brings new features to it but also fixes security issues.
Outdated Chrome can be vulnerable to many security-related issues. If it has been a long time since you have updated Chrome, then you should immediately update it.
To update the mobile version of Chrome, you can just use the mobile’s respective application store.
But for Desktop, you have to visit this special URL, and Chrome will start updating itself.
chrome://settings/helpYou can also go to this page by going to settings first and then clicking on About Chrome in the bottom left.
To know about the latest releases of Chrome, you can read Chrome’s official blog.
2. Enable Enhanced Protection
Chrome comes with three safe browsing modes. The one I recommend people to use is Enhanced Protection mode.
This safe browsing mode uses advanced technologies to predict if a site is safe to open or not, warns you if your passwords are exposed in a data breach, and more.
You can enable Enhanced Protection by going to Settings > Privacy and security > Security and then selecting it from safe browsing.
3. Enable Always Use Secure Connection
Websites using HTTPS protocol are safer to use in comparison to websites using HTTP. That’s because HTTPS is a secure version of Hypertext Transfer Protocol, while HTTP is considered insecure. It works by encrypting the requests and responses between the website and browser.
Nowadays, most of the websites use HTTPS, and they automatically redirect requests from HTTP to HTTPS, but some don’t. Enabling Always Use HTTPS, makes Chrome request the HTTPS version of the website whenever you try to open a website using HTTP. If a website doesn’t have HTTPS available, then Chrome will show you a page to take your confirmation before loading that website.
To enable this feature, you can go to Settings > Privacy and security > Security, and there you will find a toggle button in front of “Always use secure connection.” Turning that toggle button on will enable secure connection.
4. Enable Secure DNS
DNS is a technology that translates human-friendly domain names (like: example.com) to IP addresses. Whenever you type a domain and hit enter, your DNS client makes a DNS resolution request to your DNS provider (which in most cases is an ISP) to find the IP address of that domain.
Because of this process, your DNS provider (or ISP) will know what domains you are visiting.
But if you want that your DNS provider doesn’t know what domains you are visiting, then you should enable Secure DNS in Chrome. This will ensure that all your DNS queries are encrypted.
To enable Secure DNS, go to Settings > Privacy and security > Security, and there you will find a toggle button in front of “Use secure DNS.” By turning that toggle button on, you can enable Secure DNS.
5. Change Your Default DNS Provider
Changing your default DNS provider to Cloudflare’s 1.1.1.1 or something else can be helpful. It can not only make DNS queries more secure and private, but can also optimize them for good performance.
Now you can change your DNS provider directly from Chrome. To change your DNS provider, you first have to enable secure DNS, about which you already know.
Now revisit “Use secure DNS” setting located in Settings > Privacy and security > Security, and select the second option. There will be a select menu from which you have to select a DNS provider.
I recommend you to choose “Cloudflare (1.1.1.1)” from it. From now on, all DNS queries will be made to that DNS provider.
6. Disable JavaScript (Will Break Modern Websites)
JavaScript is the scripting language used by websites to make them interactive. Most modern websites use JavaScript to genuinely make the user experience good, but there are websites that use JavaScript to exploit vulnerabilities, to do clickjacking attacks, and more.
You can easily disable JavaScript for all or some websites, to make browsing more secure.
To disable JavaScript, go to Settings, Privacy and security > Site settings > JavaScript, and there you will see the option “Don’t allow sites to use JavaScript.” Selecting it will disable all websites from using JavaScript.
Alternatively, you can add websites in “Not allowed to use JavaScript” list to only disable certain websites from running JavaScript in your browser.
While this can be a good move to increase security, it can prevent websites from working properly. That’s because, nowadays, many websites use JavaScript for their core functionality.
7. Remove Extensions That Are From Untrusted Sources
Extensions are one of the main reasons why people use Chrome. While there are some good extensions, there are bad ones too.
Chances are you have mostly good ones installed, but there is a small chance that you have a malicious extension installed.
These extensions can steal your information, collect personal data, and show you unwanted content.
That’s why it is vital to remove extensions that you don’t trust or no longer use. You can figure out if an extension is trustworthy or not based on multiple factors like,
- Is it popular?
- Is it open-source?
- Is it from a big company?
- Is it featured by the Chrome Web Store?
- Does it have a good track record and no history of violations?
And more.
To remove an extension from Chrome, you can right-click on its icon, and then click on “Remove from Chrome.” For more details about an extension, you can go to the extensions page by visiting this special URL.
chrome://extensions