How to improve your online privacy and security in Google Chrome

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Google Chrome is easily the biggest browser in the game — and the hottest commodity in that game is data. Whenever you surf the web, your personal data becomes a product, whether you surrender it willingly or unknowingly to any number of vendors, or a hacker slips through the cracks and makes off with your information. Fortunately, there are many ways to secure your Google account, and not just with Chrome's new fortnightly updates.

Of course, when it comes to privacy, using Chrome might be starting off on the wrong foot. While it has many upsides in terms of security, Google's privacy measures are flawed compared to a browser like Firefox; your Google account collects a great deal of day-to-day information about you, including app usage and browser history. However, if you're already set up with Google, there are some measures you can take to improve your security.

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First things first, head to the three dots in the top right of your browser, scroll down to Settings and head to Privacy and security. Right away, you'll want to tap on Third-party cookies and select Block third-party cookies, then turn on Do Not Track. The latter is only a request, so sites that receive the request when you enter them can choose to acknowledge or ignore that request at their own discretion. 

Before looking at more settings in this area, there are more privacy-specific toggles to be checked elsewhere. If you click on your Google profile icon instead of the three dots and navigate to Manage your Google Account > Data & privacy, you can toggle off Web & App Activity, which is another setting Google uses to extract more of your data. Once you've done that, you can also turn off Timeline, which is the setting Google uses to track your location history, as well as Personalize Search, which collects data to tailor search results and AI responses to your activity. To further depersonalize ads (meaning more protection for your data from Google's modus operandi), you can turn off personalized ads in My Ad Center.

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Turning attention to security, whether it's Chrome's Gemini Nano scam protection or its Safety Check review system, the browser is much more robust here than with privacy. First, head back to the three-dot menu > Settings > Privacy and security, where you can click on Go to Safety Check, which will scan for any security issues you might have and tell you how to resolve them. In addition to any immediate problems, it will let you know if you're reusing any passwords too much and if you need a Chrome update. Chrome's Safety Check will also constantly run in the background, keeping you alert to threats as they arise.

While you're in the Privacy and security zone, you should take a gander at the Safe Browsing section. There are three types of Safe Browsing, with the default Standard protection standing constant vigil against potentially dangerous websites, downloads and extensions. Here, you can turn on Enhanced protection to add an AI-powered layer of security to your searching, though it's fine to forgo if you're not fond of AI-charged zealotry. Right below that, you can also turn on Always use secure connections, which will grant an advance warning if a site doesn't support secure connections.