How to Disable Prevent Cross-Site Tracking in Your Browser

Cross-site tracking is when websites and adverts follow you from site to site. They tell you that they are using hidden trackers (radical cookies) to gather your surfing information. As an illustration, research showed that websites contain an average of 48 trackers. These trackers will be able to capture your IP address, position, your browsing history and even what you are clicking on. Quite a few of them are operated by large companies – one in three third-party trackers on sites belongs to Google. Since this tracking creates a profile of you (which is frequently sold to subvertisers such as Google and Facebook ), it would be prudent to block or disable it.

The tracking across all the sites makes you feel as though you are being followed. It is as though you are a person being tracked by more than one person on their laptop screens. Trackers capture such information as the IP address, location and the clicks. You can prevent this though you change your browser settings. Blockers provide a higher degree of privacy and less targeted advertising.

The majority desire greater privacy. As an example, a NordVPN survey discovered that 47% of users are concerned that they are being followed by social media companies. Due to this, the current browsers also have features that can curb cross-site tracking. We will step-by-step discuss the best browsers (Chrome, Firefox, Safari, Edge) on both desktops and mobile. It is very simple to enable tracking prevention by following these simple steps in each browser.

Why Block Cross-Site Tracking?

• Privacy protection: Cross-site trackers store your information (IP, location, search history) on a large number of websites. This information creates a portrait of you, which is frequently sold to ad creators. You can have ads followed and you can also be hacked. Blocking trackers will keep it confidential.
• Reduce unwanted ads: With the stop cross-site cookies, advertisements are less intrusive and less stalky. Advertisers find it more difficult to make guesses about what you enjoy, which is without trackers.
• Better performance: Both trackers provide additional content to load. One report had an average of 36 trackers per page (55+) and this would need megabytes of additional data to load. Their blocking may help pages to load faster.
• Clearer browsing: There are a lot of sites that do not need cookies found in third parties. Pop-ups requesting to accept all cookies would be reduced by blocking trackers.

Briefly, the blocking or barring of cross-site tracking will result in a more personal and safe browsing experience. Here are the specifics of how to disable or block cross-site tracking in each of the major browsers.

General Privacy Tips

Before venturing into browser settings, the following are some of the speedy tips that we would also suggest:

• Use private/incognito mode: This does not leave your history or even cookies behind on the window. It will not prevent any further tracking, just no new cross-site cookies will be stored.
• Clear cookies regularly: The cookies that are left may persist even after blockage of trackers. Go to your browser’s privacy settings and clear cookies and site data often.
• Use a VPN or Privacy Browser: VPN will mask your IP address and privacy-oriented browsers like Brave, DuckDuckGo, or Firefox Focus have numerous trackers that are blocked by default.
• Install ad-blockers or tracker blockers: Ad-blockers such as uBlock Origin or Privacy Badger are also able to block more trackers and scripts in any browser.

Next we are going to set up the default settings of each of the browsers to block or disable cross-site tracking.

Disable Cross-Site Tracking in Chrome (Desktop & Mobile)

The cross-site tracking by Google Chrome is largely referred to as third-party cookies. These are blocked in the settings in Chrome:

1. Open Settings: In your computer, you will find the three-dot menu on the upper right, and right-click on it and select Settings.
2. Go to Privacy & Security: Privacy and security, in the Settings, Privacy and security.
3. Cookies and other site data: Click Cookies and other site data.
4. Block third-party cookies: This blocks all cookies of other sites (trackers) with the exception of instances where you place an exception. This measure is verified at the support page of Google: to click Privacy and security > Third-party cookies > Block third-party cookies.

On Android Chrome:

1. Open the Chrome app on Android.
2. Tap the three-dot ⋮ menu (top-right) and go to Settings​.
3. Tap Site settings, then Third-party cookies.
4. Choose Block third-party cookies.

This blocks cross-site cookies on Chrome Android as well. Now Chrome will stop most trackers, unless a site is on an allowed list.

Disable Cross-Site Tracking in Firefox (Desktop & Mobile)

Mozilla Firefox uses Enhanced Tracking Protection (ETP) by default. It already blocks many cross-site trackers for you. To check or increase this setting:

1. Open Preferences: In Firefox on desktop, click the menu ☰ (top-right) and select Settings (or Options).
2. Privacy & Security: Roll to Privacy and Security. You’ll see Enhanced Tracking Protection.
3. Choose a strict level: There is already Firefox Standard mode which blocks social trackers and cross-site cookies. To ensure additional security, it should be Strict. In Strict mode, all third-party cookies are blocked. (Mozilla’s support notes: “ETP in Strict mode blocks all cross-site cookies”.)

Firefox has its built-in tracker protection based on the Disconnect list. This defaults to blocking cookies on other sites. (Microsoft support isolates other sites in the third-party cookies so that it is not read by other sites. Strict mode just blocks them entirely.

On Firefox iOS/Android:

1. Open the Firefox app and tap the menu ☰.
2. Go to Settings > Privacy & Security (or Tracking Protection on iOS).
3. Turn on Enhanced Tracking Protection (it should be enabled by default).
4. For even stronger blocking, choose Standard or Strict. The Standard level already “protects you from social media trackers [and] cross-site trackers”​. Strict mode blocks more content but might break some sites.

(Firefox Focus browser on mobile is an even simpler option, since it disables tracking by default without needing any settings.)

Disable Cross-Site Tracking in Safari (Mac & iPhone)

Safari has a built-in feature called Prevent Cross-Site Tracking. When enabled, Safari blocks many trackers automatically:

• On Mac (Safari app):

1. Open Safari, then click Safari > Settings from the top menu (or Preferences on older versions).
2. Click the Privacy tab.
3. Check “Prevent cross-site tracking”​.

• This tells Safari to delete cookies and data from third-party trackers unless you directly interact with those sites​. Apple explains this stops those hidden “Share” and “Like” buttons from tracking you across sites​.
• On iPhone/iPad (iOS):

1. Open the Settings app and scroll down to Safari.
2. Under Privacy & Security, find Prevent Cross-Site Tracking.
3. Turn it on (green).

• When third parties are off, iOS Safari restricts third-party cookies. Just in case you want to use these cookies, you can temporarily turn off this site in Settings or use the Privacy Report in Safari to view what is blocked.

Intelligent Tracking Prevention allows Prevent Cross-Site Tracking by keeping most trackers (in Safari) off your back. It will also display a Privacy Report of trackers blocked on the individual page.

Disable Cross-Site Tracking in Microsoft Edge (Desktop & Mobile)

The new Microsoft Edge (Chromium-based) also lets you block third-party cookies and has tracking prevention:

• On Windows/Mac:

1. Click the three-dot ⋮ menu and select Settings.
2. Go to Cookies and site permissions (or Privacy, search, and services in newer versions).
3. Select Manage and delete cookies and site data.
4. Turn on Block third-party cookies​.

• This prevents cookies from other sites. (The support of Microsoft provides precisely the same information: in the Settings menu, go to Cookies and site permissions and make sure that Block third-party cookies is turned on.)
• Instead, you can turn off all cookies by unchecking the option “Allow sites to save and read cookie data,” which can also cause other websites to malfunction. The middle ground is obstructing third-party cookies.
• Edge also possesses a Tracking prevention option under Privacy: it should be set to Strict in order to be even more defensive. The default setting of Edge is Balanced and this prevents known cross-site trackers on websites that you have not been to. Switch it to Strict or block all cookies for more privacy.
• On Edge for Android:

1. Open the Edge app. Tap the menu (three dots) > Settings.
2. Go to Privacy and security > Site permissions.
3. Tap Cookies.
4. Disable cookies (turn the switch off)​.

• This blocks all cookies on Edge Android. (According to a privacy guide, you set “Cookies” to Disabled to block them​.)
• On Edge for iPhone/iPad (iOS):

1. Open Edge, tap the menu (bottom), then Settings.
2. Go to Privacy and security > Cookies.
3. Toggle Disable cookies on​.

• Or instead, on iOS, it can be disabled on a system-wide basis by going to Settings > [Edge] in the main iPhone Settings and turning off “Allow Cross-Website Tracking” there. Edge on iOS is based on WebKit and it does not violate the iPhone privacy settings of cross-site tracking.

Also, by enabling cross-site trackers, blocking third-party cookies in Edge will prevent cross-site trackers. Adding exceptions to exceptionally trustworthy sites is always possible, as it is in Chrome and Firefox.

Other Useful Privacy Settings

• Clear browsing data: After turning these settings on, clear your old cookies. In the settings of each browser, there is also an option to clear the history and data on the sites.
• Disable third-party cookies only: The majority of browsers allow only blocking third-party cookies and not first-party cookies. This normally suffices to prevent tracking and maintain logins and forms.
• Use browser extensions: One can use browser extensions such as DuckDuckGo Privacy Essentials or uBlock Origin to include additional tracking blocker functionality that the browser itself.

Conclusion

The cross-site tracking is widespread but avoidable. Using the above steps, you will be able to disable or block these trackers in both computers and phones in Chrome, Firefox, Safari, and Edge. This will prevent most advertisers from stalking you. These steps are verified by the official guides of every browser. Having these settings enables you to have targeted ads reduced and have increased privacy as you browse.