Tracking Prevention

Web tracking is a process that has been around for quite some time. Used, as the term says, to track your web activity, it allows for companies to build experiences based on data you have either willingly or at times unwillingly provided to the sites.

With the release of Microsoft Edge Chromium, Microsoft allows for users of the web browser to have greater control in preventing web tracking. By default, when you install and run Edge Chromium, Tracking Prevention is turned on. As stated, Edge Chromium allows you to customize how Tracking Prevention works. To customize the Tracking Prevention within Edge Chromium, do the following:

1. Press the Windows key and type (without quotes) "Edge", then press Enter. This launches the Microsoft Edge Chromium browser. If you have the app pinned you could also click on the pin.
2. In the Address bar type (without quotes) "edge://settings/privacy" and press Enter. This opens the Tracking Prevention settings section of the Microsoft Edge Chromium browser. (See Figure 1.)



Figure 1. Microsoft Edge Chromium Tracking Prevention settings section.

3. Choose the tracking settings that work best for you (see below).
4. Continue surfing the Internet or close your browser. Your settings change takes effect immediately.

Under Tracking Prevention, you will notice there are three default options:

• Basic. Allows for most web tracking. Microsoft attempts to block trackers they consider harmful. Basic allows for less privacy protection while allowing you to see more personalized content and ads.
• Balanced. A more restrictive option than Basic, this is Edge's default setting. It blocks tracking from sites you have not visited. You are provided more privacy than with Basic, however content and ads will likely be less personalized. And, like Basic, it blocks known, harmful trackers. Websites you visit will work as expected.
• Strict. Blocks the majority of trackers from all websites, while blocking known harmful trackers. Strict provides the most privacy, while most content and ads will probably have minimal personalization. Strict may cause parts of sites to not work properly.

Regardless of the setting you choose, you can fine-tune which trackers you allow by clicking on Exceptions, located slightly below the three listed options. This opens a list of sites you have permitted to run trackers on you, and you can add to the list.

Tracking Prevention, and noticing who is tracking you, is a valuable tool in keeping a handle on your online privacy, a growing issue these days as you use the Internet.

 This tip (13740) applies to Windows 10.