Without a Trace

I built this for myself because I was tired of being tracked everywhere I go online. I couldn't find one privacy extension that handled ads, tracking links, and browser fingerprinting cleanly — with a simple interface that actually showed you what it was doing rather than just running silently in the background hoping you'd trust it. So I built one. I am a CyberSecurity professional who values data privacy more than anyone. Without a Trace is a privacy extension that runs entirely on your device. I don't want your data. I don't collect it, no analytics, nothing phoning home. It's just an extension doing its job locally on your machine, and showing you exactly what that job looks like. AD BLOCKING Blocks known ad and tracking-server domains using established public filter lists (EasyList, Peter Lowe's list, HaGeZi's DNS blocklists, and others), and hides leftover empty ad containers so pages don't look broken. Filter lists update automatically in the background. SPONSORBLOCK (YouTube ads) SponsorBlock is an open-source crowdsourced database of sections in YouTube videos labeled with various tags (Intro, Sponsor, Self promotion, Outro, Preview/Recap). This extension uses the SponsorBlock public API to pull those video segments, and seek over them when that section of video comes up. TWITCH AD BREAKS Twitch Ad Blocking uses a bundled adaptation of TwitchAdBlock, an open-source project released under the MIT License. It uses community-developed techniques to work around ads inserted into Twitch’s live video streams, aiming to keep playback going during ad breaks. The code is packaged with the extension; it doesn’t download code from GitHub while you browse. TRACKER LINK CLEANING Before you click a link, this strips the tracking parameters tacked onto it — things like utm_source, fbclid, and similar — and unwraps common tracking redirects so you land on the real destination without carrying hidden identifiers along for the ride. FINGERPRINT PROTECTION Even without cookies, websites can build a surprisingly unique profile of your browser from small details like your exact browser version, screen size, and hardware signals. This adjusts those values to more common, shared ones so your browser blends in rather than standing out. A built-in checker shows you how identifiable your browser currently looks. BASIC AND ADVANCED MODE If you just want it to work, Basic mode handles everything with sensible defaults and stays out of your way. If you want to understand exactly what's happening and why, Advanced mode opens up every individual signal, filter list, and per-site setting so nothing is hidden from you — including an allowlist for any domain where you'd rather turn protections off entirely. WHY THE PERMISSIONS Ad blocking, tracker cleaning, and fingerprint protection all work at the level of individual pages and requests — not a fixed list of sites — so the extension needs access to every page you visit to do its job. Storage permissions exist only to save your own settings and local stats on your device. No permission is used to collect or transmit anything about you. PRIVACY, BY DESIGN Nothing about your browsing ever leaves your device. The only network activity this extension performs is periodically downloading public filter lists to stay current — a one-way download, not a data upload. Questions or feedback: extensionsforfun@gmail.com ** CHANGE LOG ** ** 1.8.4 ** - Bug fix - Youtube Ad skipping caused black screen and video pause until refresh. ** 1.8.3 ** - added ability to submit SponsorBlock segments - added TwitchTV ad break blocking - added TwitchTV stream overlay, follow, subscribe, gift subscription content blocking ** 1.8.1 ** - bug fixes in fingerprint spoofing stats - Reduced Chrome DNR pressure by removing large ad list ** 1.8 ** - Fingerprint: Updated fingerprint spoofing engine to more align with Brave style farbling to help prevent "Confirm you are not a robot" messages on sites. - Trackers: added auto download lists for future proofing - Trackers: Ping protection / Beacon toggle added. Blocks all third-party hyperlink auditing pings and beacon requests while leaving first-party traffic alone. - Allowed sites: Reorganized allowed sites for ease of view/management. - Allowed sites: Added quick add buttons for common services - Stats: Updated UI to tables instead of card for ease of view/management - Stats: Youtube stats added. Includes a total time saved that is calculated by adding up all the ads that have been skipped. ** 1.7 ** - Added SponsorBlock support for YouTube, including automatic sponsor skipping, progress-bar markers, skip notifications, and optional category controls. - Enhancements to help with Chrome performance issues at browser launch and popup launch (lazy render stats and large settings pages). - UI enhancements to help with popup performance issues at initial launch ** 1.6 ** Added toggle "Keep YouTube session data". Prevents Cookie Monster from clearing YouTube cookies/cache/fingerprint. When enabled, youtube.com is kept as a locked Fingerprint/Cookies exception so its session data and fingerprint identity remain consistent between visits. ** 1.5 ** - Added "Cookie Monster" to Fingerprint protection. Cookie monster tracks fingerprints, and when a fingerprint is renewed, Cookie Monster removes cookies and cache associated with the site linked to that fingerprint. While rotating fingerprints is good for privacy, cookies/cache on websites can still be used to identify you regardless if the fingerprint is spoofed. Both spoofing your fingerprint, and clearing cookies/cache associated with that fingerprint at the same time provides the best privacy and anonymity. - Extension UI reorganized and moved to a tab instead of popup. This makes managing settings, viewing stats, and reviewing information easier to access. ** 1.4.2 ** Extension released to Web Store