Does That Extension Need Every Website?

A useful extension can still have broader access than you need for a particular task. Start with the ones already installed. For each, ask what you use it for and which sites it needs to work on. This walkthrough concerns desktop Chrome and Firefox. It is not a claim that their permission models or mobile versions are interchangeable. AI-generated concept illustration, not a product screenshot or a record of your settings. Chrome: review site access In Chrome's extension manager, open an extension's details and review its site-access setting. Where supported, choose access when selected, on particular sites, or across all sites. Match that scope to the task rather than automatically accepting the broadest option. Google notes an important boundary: these controls apply to matching host permissions. They do not govern an extension's lower-level VPN or proxy settings. A narrower site list is therefore not a complete inventory of its capabilities. The same manager distinguishes turning an extension off, allowing Incognito access, and removing it. Unpinning changes the toolbar, not whether the extension is installed. Firefox: inspect optional permissions Mozilla's permission guide explains that an extension can request optional access when a feature needs it. You can allow or deny the request, and later review available toggles in the extension's permissions panel. Open the browser's extensions manager, select the installed extension, and inspect its permission details. Change the optional permissions you no longer need. Do not describe an optional-permission toggle as a way to remove every capability the extension requires. After changing a permission, test the feature you actually use on a non-sensitive page. Record a broken feature as a compatibility issue to investigate, not a reason to grant unrelated access. Private windows need their own review Firefox's private-window guide says extensions are not enabled there by default. Supported extensions have a separate choice to allow or deny running in private windows. Review it even when the extension works normally in your regular windows. Private-window permission controls where an extension can run; it is not an endorsement of the extension or evidence about how it handles data. See the private-browsing explainer before treating the window as an anonymity feature. Keep a small, accurate review record A useful private note has four fields: extension name, reason for keeping it, access retained, and date reviewed. Record the action you took, not an invented safety score. Changing permissions does not demonstrate that a developer erased information previously received. That is a separate question for the service and its documented data controls. Our permission audit does not enumerate browser extensions. For integrations linked to an online account rather than installed in the browser, use the Google connected-app guide. These are different access paths and deserve separate checks.