How to Check the Permissions You’ve Granted to Websites in Different Browsers
Just like apps on your phone , websites can ask your browser for permissions. Some of these permissions are quite important—webcam access for video calling apps, for example—but it’s a good idea to regularly check which websites and web apps have access to which permissions on your computer and phone.
These permissions can also be very important: for example, access to your location. You’ll probably want to enable this feature for a website that provides you with a daily weather forecast, but it’s not necessarily something you want every website to know about.
Whatever browser you use, permissions must be explicitly requested and then granted by you—they cannot be accessed secretly. You’ll see a pop-up whenever a new permission is requested, but as we’ll show you here, you can also check the permissions you’ve granted or blocked at any time.
Checking permissions in Google Chrome
To access a general list of all website and web app permissions in Google Chrome for PC, click the three dots up in the top right corner of any browser tab, then select Settings , Privacy & Security , and Site Settings . Here you can click on any permission, be it Location or Clipboard .
Select a permission and you’ll see sites that do or don’t have that permission: click on any of the individual sites to make changes. If you want, you can also disable this permission for all sites on the same screen. Please note that disabling permissions may impair certain features on some sites you visit.
You can also check permissions for a specific site by opening the site in Chrome, clicking the icon on the far left of the address bar (which looks like two radio buttons) and selecting Site Settings from there. Again, you can make any necessary changes to the permission list.
In Chrome for Android, tap the three dots on any tab (top right), then Settings and Site Settings to make changes. In Chrome for iOS, websites cannot request permissions individually – they are all handled entirely by iOS for Chrome through the Chrome entry in Settings, so they are either enabled or disabled for all websites.
Check permissions in Microsoft Edge
If you prefer Microsoft Edge, you can access website and web app permissions by clicking the three dots (top right) and then Settings . In the Settings panel, open the Cookies & Site Permissions tab and you can view them by permission or by website (select All Sites to see the full list).
For each individual permission, you can grant or block access to the site, or enable or disable a permission entirely. For example, use the Camera permission to turn off the main toggle switch, and Edge won’t let any website get to your camera (so make sure you don’t need any video calling features).
If you want to quickly access a list of permissions for a single site, load it into Edge, click the icon to the left of the address bar (which is usually a padlock on most modern sites) and the permissions that have been requested so far will appear – you can then make changes through the drop-down menus.
In Edge for Android, tap the three horizontal lines (bottom right), then Settings and then Privacy, Security and Services to get to the site settings and permissions list—from here you can make changes to any permissions. There’s no such option on iOS because permissions are handled for Edge (and all the websites it opens) as a whole, so you’ll need to go into iOS settings to make changes.
Checking permissions in Mozilla Firefox
In Mozilla Firefox, to get to the main list of site permissions, click the three horizontal lines (top right), then select Settings and Privacy & Security . Scroll down to find permissions, including Location , Camera , Microphone, and even AutoPlay to control media playback.
Click any Settings button next to a specific permission and you will be able to see the websites that have requested that permission. Here you can grant access, revoke previously granted access, and prevent websites from asking for this permission in the future.
You can also view permissions for a specific website by opening it in Firefox and then clicking the icon to the left of the address bar that looks like two radio buttons (if it doesn’t show up, the site doesn’t have access to any permissions). A pop-up menu will open from which you can also manage permissions.
In Firefox on Android, you can access site permissions by clicking on the three dots (top right) and then selecting Settings and Site Permissions . Again, you can view the different permission types and make changes. As with Chrome and Edge, you can’t edit individual site permissions in Firefox for iOS—you’ll need to go to the Firefox menu in iOS settings to manage permissions for the browser as a whole.
Checking permissions in Apple Safari
For those of you who use Safari, you can gain site permissions by opening the Safari menu and selecting Settings . Open the Websites tab and you’ll see a list of permissions on the left, including Camera , Screen Sharing, and Microphone . Click on any permission to view a list of sites that have access.
In each case, you can change the resolution setting, as well as clear the list completely. You can also control how this permission is handled in the future via the drop-down menu in the bottom right corner – if you don’t want any website to have access to this permission, select Deny from the list.
If you want to check the permissions for an individual site as it loads in Safari, open the Safari menu, then select “Settings for…” (this will list the current site). You can then review the permissions the site has requested and make changes to what it is allowed to do through the appropriate drop-down menus.
On iOS, you can go to a specific site’s settings by clicking the icon to the left of the address bar (it may look like two letters or a rectangle with lines at the bottom, depending on the specific site), then select Website . Settings or three dots, depending on what you see next. You’ll see Camera , Microphone , and Location options, and you can control them across all websites from Safari in iOS Settings.