Technologies

If You Value Your Online Privacy, Change These Browser Settings ASAP

You can give your online privacy a major boost by taking five minutes to adjust a few settings in Chrome, Safari, Firefox, Edge or Brave.

Privacy is more of a priority than ever for browser developers, but your browser’s default settings still may not be as robust as you’d like in fighting pervasive ad industry trackers. You can take your online privacy into your own hands and outsmart that online tracking, though.

One of the best and easiest ways to start is by adjusting some of your browser settings.

Incidents like Facebook’s Cambridge Analytica scandal in 2018 elevated privacy protection on Silicon Valley’s priority list by revealing how companies compile reams of data as you traverse the internet. Their goal? To build a richly detailed user profile so they can target you with more tailored, clickable and thus profitable advertisements.

Apple and Google are in a war for the web
, with Google pushing aggressively for an interactive web to rival native apps and Apple moving more slowly — partly out of concern new features will worsen security and be annoying to use. Privacy adds another dimension to the competition and to your browser decision.

Apple has made privacy a top priority in all of its products, including its Safari browser. For the Brave browser, privacy is a core goal, and Mozilla and Microsoft are touting privacy as a way to differentiate their browsers from Google Chrome. But despite Google’s reliance on ad revenue, Chrome engineers are working on rolling out a new privacy-preserving ad-targeting technology called Topics, which the tech giant is testing as a replacement to its failed FLOC project.

One quick way to give yourself a privacy boost across all of the browsers listed here is by changing the default search engine. For instance, try the privacy-focused search engine DuckDuckGo. Although its search results may not be quite as useful or deep as Google’s, DuckDuckGo is still pretty close — and it’s long been favored by the privacy-minded for its refusal to track user searches.

Other universal options that can boost your privacy include disabling your browser’s location tracking and search engine autocomplete features, turning off password autofills and regularly deleting your browsing history. If that’s not enough and you want to take your privacy to the next level, consider trying one of the virtual private networks CNET has reviewed that work with all browsers. (You can also check out our roundups of browser-based VPNs to try
as well as the best VPNs for Windows.)

In the meantime, though, here are some simple settings you can change in your browser to help keep a good portion of advertising trackers off your trail.

Chrome browser privacy settings to change

The world’s most popular browser is also generally thought to be one of the least private when used straight out of the box. On the plus side, however, Chrome’s flexible and open-source underpinnings have allowed independent developers to release a slew of privacy-focused extensions to shake off trackers.

In the Chrome Web Store, click Extensions on the left and type the name of the extension you’re looking for into the search bar. Once you find the correct extension in the search results, click Add to Chrome. A dialog will pop up explaining which permissions the extension will have for your browser. Click Add extension to bring the extension into your browser.

If you change your mind, you can manage or remove your extensions by opening Chrome and clicking the three-dot More menu on the right. Then select More Tools and then Extensions. From here, you’ll also be able to see more about the extension by clicking Details.

Here are four extensions to look at as you get started: Cookie Autodelete, uBlock Origin, Privacy Badger and HTTPS Everywhere.

If you’re on Android, sorry: extensions don’t work. So you’ll have to switch browsers altogether to something like DuckDuckGo’s app.

In the same three-dot menu in Chrome, you can also block third-party cookies by selecting Settings, then scrolling down to the Privacy and security section and clicking Cookies and other site data. From here, select Block third-party cookies.

There are several other settings to disable in the Privacy and security menu. Here are a few more.

Clear browsing data > Advanced > Select an option under Time range and hit Clear data.

Security > Under Safe Browsing, select Standard protection > toggle off Help improve security on the web for everyone.

Security > Under Advanced, toggle on Always use secure connections

But it’s not that simple. By going back to the Settings menu — or accessing it directly by typing chrome://settings into your address bar — you’ll see an entire list of options on the left, and each of them have privacy-related options to enable or disable. Listing them all would require an article of its own, but here are a few key settings to get you started.

Settings > You and Google > Sync and Google services > toggle on Allow Chrome sign-in. This tells Chrome not to associate your browser activities with your account until you’ve signed into your Google account. While you’re in this screen, toggle off the following:

Autocomplete searches and URLs
Help improve Chrome’s features and performance
Make searches and browsing better

For core privacy, you should turn off all functions under Settings > Autofill. If you’re looking to maintain the convenience of logging into familiar sites, you shouldn’t let Chrome keep your passwords. Instead, choose a password manager like Bitwarden and install its extension in Chrome.

Chrome is also a browser that can access data about what you do outside of it. If you’re a MacOS user, you can restrain some of that data-grabbing by doing two things. First, you can disable IPv6. Then, you can select System Preference under your Apple menu, followed by Security & Privacy.

In this window, click the lock icon in the bottom to begin making changes. Then go through each of the items one at a time on the left-side pane. Every time you select an item and see Chrome among the list of apps appearing in the right-side pane, click Chrome to highlight it and then click the minus-sign icon beneath the pane on the right side to remove Chrome from the list. This is also a great place to see the overwhelming amount of personal data other apps may have access to.

Don’t forget to click the lock icon again to save your choices before exiting the Security & Privacy window.

Safari browser privacy settings to change

By default, Safari turns on its proprietary Intelligent Tracking Prevention tool to keep you a step ahead of privacy pests. Even so, the tool hasn’t always worked smoothly since its 2017 debut. Google researchers spotted how Intelligent Tracking Prevention itself could be used to track users, though Apple buttoned down the problem.

Safari is able to tell you which ad trackers are running on the website you’re visiting and give you a 30-day report of the known trackers it’s identified while you were browsing. It’ll also tell you which websites those trackers came from.

To check that blocking is on, open Safari and click Preferences, then Privacy. The box beside Prevent cross-site tracking should be checked. While you’re there, you can also manually delete your cookies. Click Manage Website Data to see which sites have left their trackers and cookies hanging out in your browser. Click Remove next to any of the individual trackers you’re ready to get rid of, or just nuke the whole list by clicking Remove All at the bottom of your screen.

Cookies can be helpful, not just invasive, but for stronger privacy you can block them altogether — both first-party cookies from the website publisher and third-party cookies from others like advertisers. To do so, check the box beside Block all cookies.

You can also enable the Hide IP address from trackers function from the Privacy menu to keep your IP address hidden from known online trackers. And if you have an iCloud Plus account, you can use Private Relay to hide your IP address from trackers as well as websites.

If you’re still looking for another layer of privacy, you can also install helpful extensions from the App Store like AdBlock Plus or Ghostery Lite for Safari.

Edge browser privacy settings to change

Microsoft’s Edge browser includes some simplified privacy and tracker-blocking options on its Tracker prevention screen. Within Edge, select the three-dot menu icon in the top-right corner and select Settings. From the menu that then appears on the left, select Privacy and services.

You’ll be offered three settings to choose from: Basic, Balanced and Strict. By default, Edge uses the Balanced setting, which blocks trackers from sites you haven’t visited while still being lenient enough to save most sites from some of the loading problems that may come with tighter security. Likewise, Edge’s Strict setting may interfere with how some sites behave, but will block the greatest number of trackers. Even the Basic setting will still block trackers used for crypto mining and fingerprinting.

Depending on your settings, Edge may send your browsing history and diagnostic data to Microsoft. If you want to prevent that from happening, you can go to Privacy, search, and services from the Settings menu and disable Help improve Microsoft products by sending optional diagnostic data about how you use the browser, websites you visit, and crash reports.

Firefox browser privacy settings to change

Firefox’s default privacy settings are more protective than those of Chrome and Edge, and the browser has more privacy options under the hood, too.

From inside Firefox’s main menu — or from inside the three-lined menu on the right side of the toolbar — select Settings. Once the Settings window opens, click Privacy & Security. From here, you’ll be able to choose between three options: Standard, Strict and Custom. Standard, the default Firefox setting, blocks trackers in private windows, third-party tracking cookies and crypto miners. The Strict setting may break a few websites, but it blocks everything blocked in Standard mode, plus fingerprints and trackers in all windows. Custom is worth exploring for those who want to fine-tune how trackers are being blocked.

To apply your new tracking settings after you’ve selected your level of privacy, click the Reload All Tabs button that appears.

From the Privacy & Security menu, you can also tell Firefox to send a «Do Not Track» signal to websites to let them know you don’t want to be tracked. You can set this to Always or Only when Firefox is set to block known trackers.

Brave browser privacy settings to change

When it comes to anti-tracking tools, Safari’s latest privacy updates are still short of most of those found in the Brave browser
. By default, Brave blocks all ads, trackers, third-party cookies and fingerprinters while still achieving blazing speeds
. Brave also offers a built-in Tor private browsing mode, a heavy-duty tracker-blocking option, and added a built-in VPN for iOS users.

Inside Brave’s main menu, select Settings and then select Shields to see a list of things you can block, like trackers, ads, scripts and fingerprinting. You can set the Trackers and ads blocking to Standard or Aggressive, and you can set the Block fingerprinting function to Standard or Strict. You’ll also be able to block login buttons and embedded content from Facebook, Twitter, Google and LinkedIn from the Social media blocking tab in your Settings menu. For even more protection and privacy fine-tuning, explore the Privacy and security menu.

For more, check out the best password managers of 2022 and our FAQ on the Tor browser.

Technologies

Today’s NYT Mini Crossword Answers for Saturday, July 26

Here are the answers for The New York Times Mini Crossword for July 26.

Looking for the most recent Mini Crossword answer? Click here for today’s Mini Crossword hints, as well as our daily answers and hints for The New York Times Wordle, Strands, Connections and Connections: Sports Edition puzzles.

I read the Mini Crossword clue for 9-Across in Tom Hanks’ voice. I figured that one out pretty quick, which shows the value of my English degree. Thanks, University of Arkansas! Want an assist with today’s Mini Crossword? Keep reading. And if you could use some hints and guidance for daily solving, check out our Mini Crossword tips.

The Mini Crossword is just one of many games in the Times’ games collection. If you’re looking for today’s Wordle, Connections, Connections: Sports Edition and Strands answers, you can visit CNET’s NYT puzzle hints page.

Read more: Tips and Tricks for Solving The New York Times Mini Crossword

Let’s get to those Mini Crossword clues and answers.

Mini across clues and answers

1A clue: De bugs?
Answer: INSECTS

8A clue: Make funnier, as jokes
Answer: PUNCHUP

9A clue: «Life is like a box of chocolates,» for example
Answer: ANALOGY

10A clue: Dot on a domino
Answer: PIP

11A clue: In an upbeat mood
Answer: CHIPPER

15A clue: Important topic in sex education
Answer: CONSENT

16A clue: Leaves the Union
Answer: SECEDES

Mini down clues and answers

1D clue: Hoppy order at a happy hour
Answer: IPA

2D clue: Convent member
Answer: NUN

3D clue: Tech company with a bright yellow color scheme and ghost logo
Answer: SNAPINC

4D clue: Sun block?
Answer: ECLIPSE

5D clue: Like many ingredients in a Cobb salad
Answer: CHOPPED

6D clue: Pull sharply
Answer: TUG

7D clue: One with a secret identity
Answer: SPY

11D clue: Syringe amts.
Answer: CCS

12D clue: Garden tool with a long handle
Answer: HOE

13D clue: Opposite of WSW
Answer: ENE

14D clue: Certain football linemen: Abbr.
Answer: RTS

Technologies

For CNET’s Daily Tariff Price Impact Tracker, I’m Watching 11 Key Products for Inflation

With the reality of tariff-driven inflation arriving in earnest, it’s more important than ever to keep tabs on the prices that most impact you.

The question of how new tariffs will affect prices is more relevant than ever, with President Donald Trump punting another major deadline down the road and a new Consumer Price Index summary showing that the inflation rate was 2.7% in June, the biggest jump since February. It’s enough to get anyone concerned about affordability in the US, as if we all weren’t worrying about it already.

To help manage those worries, I’ve been tracking prices every day for 11 key products likely to be hit by price increases from tariffs, and the answer I’ve come to so far is this: Not so much, at least not yet. The winding road of tariff inflation still stretches before us into an uncertain future, so the threat of price hikes continues to cloud the horizon.

To date, I’ve seen two noteworthy price increases, one for the Xbox Series X and the other for a popular budget-friendly 4K TV. Some other products have gone on sale for brief periods. Notably, other outlets have caught a number of major retailers hiking prices across the board, with CNBC finding some substantial inflation at Walmart specifically.

CNET Tariff Tracker Index

Above, you can check out a chart with the average price of the 11 products included in this piece over the course of 2025. This will help give you a sense of the overall price changes and fluctuations going on. Further down, you’ll be able to check out charts for each individual product being tracked. Based on the numbers so far, the average has gone up noticeably since the start of the year, but this has been driven mostly be a big shifts for a few products, as most price are still stable.

We’ll be updating this article regularly as prices change. It’s all in the name of helping you make sense of things, so be sure to check back every so often. For more, check out CNET’s guide to whether you should wait to make big purchases or buy them now and get expert tips about how to prepare for a recession.

Methodology

We’re checking prices daily and will update the article and the relevant charts right away to reflect any changes. The following charts show a single bullet point for each month, with the most recent one labeled «Now» and showing the current price. For the past months, we’ve gone with what was the most common price for each item in the given month.

In most cases, the price stats used in these graphs were pulled from Amazon using the historical price-tracker tool Keepa. For the iPhones, the prices come from Apple’s official materials and are based on the 128-gigabyte base model of the latest offering of the iPhone 16. For the Xbox Series X, the prices were sourced from Best Buy using the tool PriceTracker. If any of these products happen to be on sale at a given time, we’ll be sure to let you know and explain how those price drops differ from longer-term pricing trends that tariffs can cause.

The 11 products we’re tracking

Mostly what we’re tracking in this article are electronic devices and digital items that CNET covers in depth, like iPhones and affordable 4K TVs — along with a typical bag of coffee, a more humble product that isn’t produced in the US to any significant degree.

The products featured were chosen for a few reasons: Some of them are popular and/or affordable representatives for major consumer tech categories, like smartphones, TVs and game consoles. Others are meant to represent things that consumers might buy more frequently, like printer ink or coffee beans. Some products were chosen over others because they are likely more susceptible to tariffs. Some of these products have been reviewed by CNET or have been featured in some of our best lists.

iPhone 16, 128GB
Duracell AA batteries, 24-pack
Samsung DU7200 65-inch TV
Xbox Series X
Apple AirPods Pro 2 with USB-C case
HP 962 CMY Printer Ink
Anker 10,000-mAh, 30-watt power bank
Bose TV speaker
Oral-B Pro 1000 electric toothbrush
Lenovo IdeaPad Flex 5i Chromebook, 256GB
Starbucks 28-ounce ground dark roast coffee

Below, we’ll get into more about each individual product, and stick around till the end for a rundown of some other products worth noting.

iPhone 16

The iPhone is the most popular smartphone brand in the US, so this was a clear priority for price tracking. The iPhone has also emerged as a major focal point for conversations about tariffs, given its popularity and its susceptibility to import taxes because of its overseas production, largely in China. Trump has reportedly been fixated on the idea that the iPhone can and should be manufactured in the US, an idea that experts have dismissed as a fantasy. Estimates have also suggested that a US-made iPhone would cost as much as $3,500.

Something to note about this graph: The price listed is the one you’ll see if you buy your phone through a major carrier. If you, say, buy direct from Apple or Best Buy without a carrier involved, you’ll be charged an extra $30, so in some places, you might see the list price of the standard iPhone 16 listed as $830.

Apple’s been taking a few steps to protect its prices in the face of these tariffs, flying in bulk shipments of product before they took effect and planning to move production for the US market from China to India. A new Reuters report found that a staggering 97% of iPhones imported from the latter country, March through May, were bound for the US. This latter move drew the anger of Trump again, threatening the company with a 25% tariff if they didn’t move production to the US, an idea CEO Tim Cook has repeatedly shot down in the past. This came after Trump gave a tariff exemption to electronic devices including smartphones, so the future of that move seems in doubt now.

Duracell AA batteries

A lot of the tech products in your home might boast a rechargeable energy source but individual batteries are still an everyday essential and I can tell you from experience that as soon as you forget about them, you’ll be needing to restock. The Duracell AAs we’re tracking are some of the bestselling batteries on Amazon.

Samsung DU7200 TV

Alongside smartphones, televisions are some of the most popular tech products out there, even if they’re an infrequent purchase. This particular product is a popular entry-level 4K TV and was CNET’s pick for best overall budget TV for 2025. Unlike a lot of tech products that have key supply lines in China, Samsung is a South Korean company, so it might have some measure of tariff resistance.

After spending most of 2025 hovering around $400, this item has now seen some notable upticks on Amazon, most recently sitting around $450. This could potentially be in reaction to Trump’s announcement of 25% tariffs against South Korea this week.

Xbox Series X

Video game software and hardware are a market segment expected to be hit hard by the Trump tariffs. Microsoft’s Xbox is the first console brand to see price hikes — the company cited «market conditions» along with the rising cost of development. Most notably, this included an increase in the price of the flagship Xbox Series X, up from $500 to $600. Numerous Xbox accessories also were affected and the company also said that «certain» games will eventually see a price hike from $70 to $80.

Initially, we were tracking the price of the much more popular Nintendo Switch as a representative of the gaming market. Nintendo has not yet hiked the price of its handheld-console hybrid and stressed that the $450 price tag of the upcoming Switch 2 has not yet been inflated because of tariffs. Sony, meanwhile, has so far only increased prices on its PlayStation hardware in markets outside the US.

AirPods Pro 2

The latest iteration of Apple’s wildly popular true-wireless earbuds are here to represent the headphone market. Much to the chagrin of the audiophiles out there, a quick look at sales charts on Amazon shows you just how much the brand dominates all headphone sales.

HP 962 CMY printer ink

This HP printer ink includes cyan, magenta and yellow all in one product and recently saw its price jump from around $72 — where it stayed for most of 2025 — to $80, which is around its highest price over the last five years. We will be keeping tabs to see if this is a long-term change or a brief uptick.

This product replaced Overture PLA Filament for 3D printers in this piece, but we’re still tracking that item.

Anker 10,000-mAh, 30-watt power bank

Anker’s accessories are perennially popular in the tech space and the company has already announced that some of its products will get more expensive as a direct result of tariffs. This specific product has also been featured in some of CNET’s lists of the best portable chargers.

Bose TV speaker

Soundbars have become important purchases, given the often iffy quality of the speakers built into TVs. While not the biggest or the best offering in the space, the Bose TV Speaker is one of the more affordable soundbar options out there, especially hailing from a brand as popular as Bose.

Oral-B Pro 1000 electric toothbrush

They might be a lot more expensive than their traditional counterparts but electric toothbrushes remain a popular choice for consumers because of how well they get the job done. I know my dentist won’t let up on how much I need one. This particular Oral-B offering was CNET’s overall choice for the best electric toothbrush for 2025.

This product hasn’t seen its price budge one way or another most of the year, but while Prime Day might have come and gone, there’s still a $10 coupon listed on Amazon right now, letting you save a little bit of money for the time being.

Lenovo IdeaPad Flex 5i Chromebook

Lenovo is notable among the big laptop manufacturers for being a Chinese company making its products especially susceptible to Trump’s tariffs.

For now, its price has been largely unchanged in the last few months. You can, however, grab it on Amazon right now at a $20 discount, but we’ll have to see how long that actually lasts.

Starbucks Ground Coffee (28-ounce bag)

Coffee is included in this tracker because of its ubiquity —I’m certainly drinking too much of it these days —and because it’s uniquely susceptible to Trump’s tariff agenda. Famously, coffee beans can only be grown within a certain distance from Earth’s equator, a tropical span largely outside the US and known as the «Coffee Belt.»

Hawaii is the only part of the US that can produce coffee beans, with data from USAFacts showing that 11.5 million pounds were harvested there in the 2022-23 season — little more than a drop in the mug, as the US consumed 282 times that amount of coffee during that period. Making matters worse, Hawaiian coffee production has declined in the past few years.

All that to say: Americans get almost all of their coffee from overseas, making it one of the most likely products to see price hikes from tariffs. While this particular bag of beans from Starbucks hasn’t seen its price budge for most of the year, in recent days it ticked up by less than a dollar on Amazon, which could be a sign of further increases to come.

Other products

As mentioned, we occasionally swap out products with different ones that undergo notable price shifts. Here are some things no longer featured above, but that we’re still keeping an eye on:

Nintendo Switch: The baseline handheld-console hybrid has held steady around $299 most places — including Amazon — since it released in 2017. Whether that price will be affected by tariffs or the release of the Switch 2 remains to be seen. This product was replaced above with the Xbox Series X.
Overture PLA 3D printer filament: This is a popular choice on Amazon for the material needed to run 3D printers. It has held steady around $15 on Amazon all year. This product was replaced above by the HP 962 printer ink.

Here are some products we also wanted to single out that haven’t been featured with a graph yet:

Razer Blade 18 (2025), 5070 Ti edition: The latest revision of Razer’s largest gaming laptop saw a $300 price bump recently, with the base model featured an RTX 5070 Ti graphics card now priced at $3,500 ahead of launch, compared to the $3,200 price announced in February. While Razer has stayed mum about the reasoning, it did previously suspend direct sales to the US as Trump’s tariff plans were ramping up in April.
Asus ROG Ally X: The premium version of Asus’s Steam Deck competitor handheld gaming PC recently saw a price hike from $799 to $899, coinciding with the announcement of the company’s upcoming Xbox-branded Ally handhelds.

Technologies

Tea App Breach Exposes 72,000 Selfies, ID Photos and Other User Images

The images had been in a «legacy data system» that contained information from more than two years ago, the company says.

Tea, a women’s safety dating app that surged to the top of the free iOS App Store listings this week, has been the subject of a major security breach. The company confirmed Friday that it has «identified authorized access to one of our systems» that exposed thousands of user images.

According to Tea’s preliminary findings, the breach allowed access to approximately 72,000 images, broken down into two groups: 13,000 images of selfies and photo identification that people had submitted during account verification and 59,000 images that were publicly viewable in the app from posts, comments and direct messages.

Those images had been in a «legacy data system» that contained information from more than two years ago, the company said in statement. «At this time, there is no evidence to suggest that current or additional user data was affected.»

Earlier Friday, posts on Reddit and 404 Media reported that Tea app users’ faces and IDs had been posted on anonymous online message board 4chan.

Tea requires users to verify their identities with selfies or IDs, which is why driver’s licenses and pictures of people’s faces are in the leaked data.

The premise of Tea is to provide women with a space to report negative interactions they’ve had while encountering men in the dating pool, purportedly to keep other women safe. The app hit the No. 1 spot on Apple’s US App Store this week, drawing international attention and sparking a debate about whether the app violates men’s privacy. If the reports of a breach turn out to be true, it will also play into the wider ongoing debate around whether online identity and age verification pose an inherent security risk to internet users.

In the privacy section on its website, Tea says: «Tea Dating Advice takes reasonable security measures to protect your Personal Information to prevent loss, misuse, unauthorized access, disclosure, alteration and destruction. Please be aware, however, that despite our efforts, no security measures are impenetrable.»

Tea said it has launched a full investigation to assess the scope and impact of the breach.