What Privacy Badger is

Built by the Electronic Frontier Foundation, Privacy Badger blocks invisible trackers and swaps tracking widgets for click-to-activate placeholders. Nonprofit governance is a meaningful differentiator in a category crowded with monetized privacy tools.

Feature coverage

  • Automatic tracker blocking
  • Click-to-activate replacements for tracking widgets
  • Per-site slider controls
  • Link tracking protection
  • Open-source codebase

What stands out

  • Run by the nonprofit EFF
  • Listing discloses no data collection
  • Needs essentially no configuration

Tradeoffs to know

  • Not an ad blocker by design
  • Occasional site breakage needs the per-site sliders
  • Less granular than power-user blocking tools

Is Privacy Badger safe to use?

Privacy Badger is safe for most users despite broad cross-site visibility because that access is what lets it detect and block trackers. The strongest offsetting signals are its nonprofit EFF publisher, open-source code, documented blocking behavior, and a Chrome listing that declares no data collection.

Page access Broad

Requests page-content access across sites. Broad access is not itself a red flag — the question is whether the job justifies the reach, and whether the publisher's record earns it.

Blocking trackers requires visibility into requests across sites; the EFF documents exactly how blocking decisions are made.

Store-disclosed data

The listing carries the developer’s declaration that it will not collect or use your data.

The Chrome Web Store listing says the developer has disclosed that it will not collect or use your data.

Why can Privacy Badger see activity across websites?

Tracker protection works by observing third-party requests as pages load and blocking domains that follow you across sites. The reach is inherent to the protection rather than an optional extra feature.

Does Privacy Badger collect my browsing data?

The Chrome listing carries the developer's declaration that it will not collect or use your data. The project is also open source and maintained by the Electronic Frontier Foundation, so its behavior is publicly inspectable.

How we judge this: our extension safety guide · how we rate

Pricing

Free; built by the EFF. Pricing and plan limits change more often than store metadata, so use the linked developer page as the final check before subscribing.

Alternatives

AlternativeuBlock Origin LiteAlternativeBitwarden

Sources

We used the official Chrome Web Store listing and first-party developer material. Public metrics can change after the fact-check date.

  1. Chrome Web Store listing

    Store facts and privacy disclosure.

  2. Privacy Badger website

    EFF documentation and FAQ.

  3. Extension Reviewer methodology

    How we verify public claims and weigh tradeoffs.

View in Chrome Web Store Developer site

More in Privacy & security

See the privacy & security guide