There are some web sites for which it makes sense to use cookies. Online stores use them to keep your basket up to date and many sites use cookies to store usernames and password to help speed up logging in. but there are also plenty of sites that use cookies and other tracking methods to deliver personalized advertisement to you as well as tracking your route across the internet. This is something that Disconnect for Chrome can help with.
This is a simple browser extension for Google Chrome, but the effect that it could have on your browsing experience is quite dramatic. Once you have Disconnect installed, you are placed firmly in control over which web sites you share information with, and you can block any you would rather were not able to track you.
The toolbar button that is added by the extension gives you access to a popup menu that enables you to keep track of the web sites that have been tracking you. This list of sites tells you not only which sites have been trying to store information about you, but also the number of attempts that have been blocked by Disconnect, Should you encounter a site that you find does not work properly with blocking enabled, you can easily disable it by just clicking the entry for that site in the list.
Disconnect also gives you the option of performing completely anonymous and de-personalized web searches – just select the ‘Depersonalize searches’ option. At the moment, the extension only supports five specific web sites – Digg, Facebook, Google, Yahoo and Twitter – but this does encompass most of the main offender. This may not the be all and end all of security tools, but it a good addition to your browser if you are concerned about privacy.
You can find out more and download a free copy of the extension by paying a visit to the Disconnect for Chrome page.
This article originally appeared at softwarecrew.co.uk
