A free powerful tracker blocker
Crumbs is a free security and privacy program that allows you to control your online privacy with ease. Developed by eyeo GmbH, this is a handy browser extension that enables you to protect your online privacy in various ways.
Crumbs is basically a cookie blocker, tracker blocker, and pop-up blocker in one compact package. It’s easy to use since the features and settings can be toggled on and off quickly. Take note, however, that this tool supports online advertising so some of your data activity will be visible—although this also means you can personalize what advertisers can see.
A different approach to privacy protection
Crumbs is mainly a powerful tool that blocks cookies, trackers, and pop-ups to lessen your exposure to intrusive ads and emails. It’s pretty easy to install and doesn’t require any account when using its basic version. Its built-in privacy tools encompass different methods of keeping your online identity hidden. It creates proxies for advertising requests to keep your location hidden. It can strip URLs of their tracking parameters. It can even send the right signals—such as Do Not Track and Global Privacy Control—to deter companies from tracking you.
As mentioned above, this extension also lets you control the level of privacy you get. For cookies, you can enable the settings to automatically ignore cookie walls that display on websites. It also has the Crumbs Interest feature, which allows advertisers to see some anonymous data from you. This is because the tool supports reliable online advertising, so you can choose not to fully hide some topics and categories that you want ads for. If you want full anonymity, you can always disable these Interests.
Lastly, it offers a feature that can hide email addresses behind aliases. This is called Email Relay and it creates alias email addresses for your primary email address so that whenever you log in to different sites, they’re not in danger of becoming compromised. However, take note that activating this function will prompt you to create a Crumbs account on the developer’s website. This is pretty easy to do, though, and generating these only takes one click.
An easy-to-use extension
To start using Crumbs, simply install it from the supported extension store. Launching it will redirect you to a webpage that asks for your permission regarding the tool’s data collection policy. This is in relation to the Interests feature—but again, you can always disable this. Agree to the terms and conditions and then you can start using the extension. The webpage also lets you enable some functions beforehand, like “Hide Cookie Consent Popups” and Email Relay.
The extension’s icon will display a small menu when clicked. Here, you can find the main button for turning your tracker protection on and off. You can also see the statistics of blocked trackers and cookies here—from those found on the current page to those blocked since its installation. To access the settings, just click on the gear icon on the top-right corner. This will open a webpage that’s divided into three sections: Settings, Interests, and Email Relay.
Under Settings, you’ll find Trackers, Cookies, and General Settings. The functions here can be easily toggled on and off. There are no configurable advanced settings but some options are already enabled for those who don’t want to deal with the hassle of setting this tool up. The second tab, Interests, is where you can choose which interests will be available to advertisers—however, it can be tedious to disable them all. The last tab is for the Email Relay feature and will redirect you to another page where you can manage your aliases.
Can still be improved
Overall, Crumbs is a great tool to have if you want a powerful browser extension that can easily block cookies and trackers. Not only does it offer various features to keep your online identity secure and away from intrusive advertising, but it also gives you complete control over what you can show to advertisers and their companies. It could still use some features to make it more user-friendly, but it’s already showing great performance.
Crumbs – best privacy protection for your browser. Blocks cookie banners, stops trackers and lets you hide your email address.
Data is the new gold — would you share yours with just anybody? Crumbs, by the makers of Adblock Plus, is a holistic collection of online privacy components, built into one product that allows you to keep your data safe. Beyond giving you the best privacy protection for free, Crumbs also offers a host of other features to improve your browsing experience, like getting rid of those annoying cookie notifications once and for all. Crumbs is open source and puts personal data, transparency, and control back into your hands: you’re in the driver’s seat to decide for yourself what data is your own and what can be shared toward enabling content creators to keep content free online. You deserve control. After all, it’s your gold.
Crumbs gives you the best privacy protection for free. Comparable products charge a monthly fee of at least $5 but we want to empower users to stay in control of their data. Along with our unique approach to blocking cookies and trackers, we offer a free email relay that lets users create multiple aliases to mask their main email address. The email relay lets users keep their most valuable online identifier safe and hidden so that advertisers can’t uniquely identify them.
★ Protect your email address with Crumbs’ Email Relay
★ Block trackers and malicious cookies
★ Get transparent and visualized control of your data and support a fair web
★ Block annoying cookie pop-ups
★ Remove URL tracking parameters
★ Send Global Privacy Control signal
