It is increasingly difficult to surf the Internet safely and privately. From our ISP to the big Internet companies and hackers are always on the lookout waiting to identify and follow us wherever we go. And, if the opportunity arises, even make us visit the websites that interest them instead of the ones we are looking for. Therefore, all security and privacy measures that we can take will be essential in order to surf the network privately. Starting with using a good browser, like Google Chrome.
Although Google Chrome is a secure browser, and its frequent updates allow us to navigate safely, there are ways to improve your security a bit more. Here are two tricks to improve Chrome’s security and privacy when surfing the Internet.
Enable DNS Over HTTPS in Chrome to strengthen your DNS connections
DNS Over HTTPS , or DoH, is a protocol, at the DNS level, that wants to improve security and privacy when surfing the Internet. The default DNS protocol does not apply any type of encryption to the data, which allows Internet companies and any hacker to know what websites we visit. Thanks to DNS Over HTTPS we get a little more privacy and security by encrypting DNS requests from the browser to the server.
Google Chrome is compatible with this new protocol, although, by default, it is disabled. Therefore, in order to use it, what we must do is activate it manually. To do this, we will write the following in the address bar of the browser:
chrome: // flags / # dns-over-https
And we will mark the option of “Secure DNS lookups” as “Enabled”.
We restart the browser and we can start browsing with this new feature. Of course, we must ensure that we are using a DNS server compatible with DoH . Those of Google (8.8.8.8) and those of CloudFlare (1.1.1.1) support this protocol.
Remember that as of Google Chrome 81, this feature will be enabled by default for all users.
Disable JavaScript to avoid executing code on the websites
Another very interesting configuration that we must know is the possibility of deactivating the execution of JavaScript code in the websites we visit. Most websites use JavaScript to display dynamic content, effects and other content. However, some websites also use it to display intrusive ads and even run exploits and malware to carry out other computer attacks.
There is no option as such to completely disable JavaScript in the browser. If you do, many websites would stop working. However, there is a little trick that will allow us to easily disable all JavaScript code in a specific tab. And it will remain deactivated until we close the tab.
To do this, we must select the page we want to visit and press F12 (or Control + Shift + I) to open the developer tools. Once we have it on the side of the web, the following will be to use the shortcut Control + Shift + P to display the command execution panel. Or we can also do it from the tools menu.
A search bar will appear where we must execute the following command:
Debugger Disable JaveScript
Ready. All JavaScript code will be disabled for the web page that we had open. Now we can navigate through it without problem, since no code will be executed in our browser. Reloading the page will not enable JavaScript, nor will it visit other websites, as long as we do it from the tab itself.
When we want to rerun JavaScript, we simply have to close this tab and open a new one. The browser will work again as it always has.
