How to Enable Global Privacy Controls in Every Browser (and Why You Should)
From a security standpoint, most browsers are open to everyone and will happily disclose your screen size, operating system, language settings, or GPU model when a website asks. But getting these websites to stop selling your data to third parties remains far more difficult than it should be.
Although about a dozen US states, including California, Delaware, New Jersey, and Texas, now require businesses to honor consumers’ online privacy preferences, most browsers don’t offer a built-in opt-out option by default. Now , the California Opt-Me-Out Act , which goes into effect on January 1, 2027, requires browsers to do so.
However, native support for global privacy opt-out remains inconsistent across web browsers. Some privacy-focused browsers, such as Brave, DuckDuckGo, and Mozilla Firefox, enable this feature by default, while others, such as Chrome or Edge, require third-party extensions like EFF Privacy Badger. Because coverage and configuration vary widely, I’ll walk you through the exact steps to enable this feature in each major browser.
What is Global Privacy Control?
Global Privacy Control (GPC) is an open-source user privacy protection protocol developed collaboratively by several universities, media organizations, and privacy-focused tech companies. Instead of manually searching for the “Do Not Sell” or “Opt-Out of Third-Party Cookies” link on every website and app, you can enable this feature once in your browser to receive a legally binding notice on every site you visit informing you that you wish to opt out of data sharing and targeted advertising.
At a technical level, GPC combines an HTTP header (Sec-GPC) with a JavaScript property (navigator.globalPrivacyControl) that your browser sends with every request to retrieve data from a website to tell website owners that they should not share or sell your data.
Unlike previous versions, such as Firefox’s “Do Not Track” feature, GPC sends a specific request backed by leading data protection laws, including the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA), increasing the likelihood that websites and companies will comply. With over 150 million users and over 66,000 participating websites, the GPC project has received support and participation from the Mozilla Foundation, The Washington Post, Automattic, the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), The New York Times, and others. It has even been included in the official working draft of the World Web Consortium (W3C).
Unfortunately, even when enabled, GPC isn’t a completely foolproof tool. USENIX found that approximately 45% of the 11,708 websites they surveyed didn’t honor privacy signals, even when required to do so by regional laws. However, this is better than having no legal option to opt out of privacy protections, as cookie and tracker blockers operate client-side and may disrupt the functionality of some websites.
How to enable global privacy controls in your browser
When it comes to Global Privacy Control (GPC) support, web browsers generally fall into two categories. There are privacy-focused platforms like Brave Browser, DuckDuckGo, and Firefox that offer built-in support via a toggle or simply enable it by default. Then there are popular browsers like Chrome, Edge, and Safari that offer limited support through third-party extensions, and sometimes none at all. Here are the exact steps to enable GPC in Firefox, Chrome, Edge, Brave Browser, and other browsers:
Brave
As a privacy-focused Chromium-based web browser, Brave uses GPC by default on Windows, macOS, and Android. However, due to some limitations of the iOS platform, on iPhone, Brave can only enable this feature through the JavaScript API , not via an HTTP header.
You don’t need to do anything to enable GPC in the Brave browser, but there is an easy way to make sure it’s active and working:
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Launch Brave. In the address bar, enter “brave://flags/#brave-global-privacy-control-enabled” and press Enter.
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Make sure the Settings page shows “Default” or “Enabled” and not “Disabled”.
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To disable GPC in your browser, go to Settings > Brave Security & Privacy and find the corresponding switch.
DuckDuckGo
DuckDuckGo, like the Brave browser, enables GPC by default on Windows, macOS, Android, iOS, and iPadOS. There’s no built-in toggle to disable it, which speaks volumes about how seriously this browser takes privacy. (There’s even a DuckDuckGo Search & Tracker Protection extension that can be added to Chrome, Edge, and Firefox to enable GPC in these browsers as well!)
If you want to make sure GPC is enabled when using DuckDuckGo, it’s very easy to do:
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Open a new tab in DuckDuckGo Private Browser and go to the Global Privacy Control website.
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Check the notification at the very top of the screen to make sure it says “GPC signal detected.”
To avoid disruptions to some websites on Android, iOS, and Mac devices, DuckDuckGo only sends the GPC signal to websites known to respect it. However, you still receive full protection on Windows or when using the Chrome extension.
Firefox
Firefox has supported GPC since version 120. However, this feature is disabled by default, and you need to find a special switch to enable it.
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Click the menu button in the Firefox app, then go to Preferences.
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Go to the “Privacy and Security” tab in the left panel.
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Continue scrolling until you see “Advanced Protection.” On Android 122 and above, look for the “Enhanced Tracking Protection” section.
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You should see a checkbox next to “Prevent websites from selling or sharing my data.” This is what you need.
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Make sure you have enabled the GPC option, then restart Firefox.
Chromium
At the time of writing, Google Chrome doesn’t offer a built-in toggle or native support for Global Privacy Control (GPC). However, you can install a third-party browser extension, such as EFF’s Privacy Badger or DuckDuckGo Search & Tracker Protection, to easily enable GPC.
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Find Privacy Badger in the Chrome Store.
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Once you find the extension, click “Add to Chrome.” Also, make sure all necessary permissions are granted for it to work.
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That’s it, GPC is now enabled on all websites. You don’t need to fiddle with settings, as everything is already pre-configured.
Edge
As with Chrome, Microsoft Edge users must also use third-party extensions to enable global privacy controls. As before, users can choose between Privacy Badger or DuckDuckGo to activate this feature.
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Open the Edge add-ons store and search for the Privacy Badger extension. The EFF website states that Edge and Edge for Android support this extension.
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Click Get and then Add Extension.
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GPC is now enabled by default. You don’t need to do any additional configuration.
Difference between GPC and ad blocker.
At this point, you might be wondering if there’s any difference between this and simply using an ad or cookie blocking extension in your web browser. In fact, there are several important differences.
First, the GPC is a signal. It merely informs websites of your privacy preferences, but does nothing to actively block or prevent tracking or sharing of your data. Second, the GPC has a narrower scope of application, as it only covers the sale or transfer of your data to third parties, not the collection or storage of data for a website’s own use.
Finally, ad blockers are highly likely to disrupt the functionality of websites that rely on certain cookies or trackers to function properly. Because GPC is a request rather than a blocking mechanism, it preserves existing functionality while simultaneously sending websites a legal notice that they cannot share your data with anyone.
When you enable global privacy controls instead of using an anti-tracking app or ad blocker, you sacrifice reach and effectiveness for convenience. You have to trust that websites will honor your privacy settings, which many don’t do, even when required to do so. For example, Disney recently settled a $2.75 million lawsuit with the California Attorney General’s office because it failed to honor do-not-track requests from authorized users on every device as required.