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August 20, 2026 AD
Modern browsers ship with an insane amount of bloatware.
You can point and click in the browser settings to disable most of it.
Or, you can de-slop the browser by force using a policy file.
Policy File Locations
To get started, create a JSON file at the appropriate path for your distribution.
Here’s a few that I’m aware of:
| FreeBSD | Chromium | /usr/local/etc/chromium/policies/managed/policies.json |
| FreeBSD | Firefox | /usr/local/lib/firefox/distribution/policies.json |
| Ubuntu | Chrome | /etc/opt/chrome/policies/managed/policies.json |
| Ubuntu | Chromium | /etc/chromium-browser/policies/managed/policies.json |
| Ubuntu | Firefox | /etc/firefox/policies/policies.json |
| RedHat | Chromium | /etc/chromium/policies/managed/policies.json |
| RedHat | Firefox | /etc/firefox/policies/policies.json |
Allegedly, these policies are also supported on Windows via Group Policy and MacOS using plist files.
I wouldn’t know, since I use a real operating system.
Firefox
You should read the docs for each option
to understand what it does. My configuration here does a few things:
- Disables all extra functionality (Pocket, Relay, homepage widgets)
- Disables telemetry
- Disables anything AI-related
- Installs and configures uBlock Origin
- Disables native privacy and anti-tracking features
- Disables DNS-over-HTTPS
- Disables cute messages on first run
- Disables built-in password manager (I use Bitwarden)
- Sets default search engine to DuckDuckGo
- Disables search suggestions
{
"policies": {
"ExtensionSettings": 🔥,
"3rdparty": {
"Extensions": {
"uBlock0@raymondhill.net": {
"toOverwrite": 🔥,
"toAdd": ⚡
}
}
},
"UserMessaging": {
"WhatsNew": false,
"ExtensionRecommendations": false,
"UrlbarInterventions": false,
"SkipOnboarding": true
},
"OverridePostUpdatePage": "",
"OverrideFirstRunPage": "",
"EnableTrackingProtection": {
"Value": false,
"Cryptomining": false,
"Fingerprinting": false,
"Locked": false
},
"Cookies": {
"Behavior": "reject-tracker-and-partition-foreign",
"BehaviorPrivateBrowsing": "reject-tracker-and-partition-foreign"
},
"NoDefaultBookmarks": true,
"DisablePocket": true,
"DisableAppUpdate": true,
"CaptivePortal": false,
"Certificates": {
"Install": [
"/usr/local/share/certs/trusted/your-custom-root-ca.crt"
]
},
"DisableFeedbackCommands": true,
"DisableFirefoxAccounts": true,
"DisableFirefoxStudies": true,
"DisableTelemetry": true,
"DontCheckDefaultBrowser": true,
"OfferToSaveLoginsDefault": false,
"DNSOverHTTPS": {
"Enabled": false
},
"SearchSuggestEnabled": false,
"Homepage": {
"URL": "about:home",
"StartPage": "homepage"
},
"SearchEngines": {
"Add": [
{
"Name": "ddg",
"URLTemplate": "https://duckduckgo.com/?q={searchTerms}",
"Method": "GET",
"IconURL": "https://duckduckgo.com/favicon.ico",
"Alias": "ddg",
"Description": "DuckDuckGo",
"SuggestURLTemplate": "https://duckduckgo.com/ac/?q={searchTerms}&type=list"
}
],
"Default": "ddg"
},
"FirefoxHome": {
"Search": true,
"TopSites": false,
"SponsoredTopSites": false,
"Highlights": false,
"Pocket": false,
"SponsoredPocket": false,
"Snippets": false
},
"AIControls": {
"Default": {
"Value": "blocked",
"Locked": true
}
},
"ExtensionUpdate": true,
"Preferences": {
"dom.security.https_only_mode": {
"Value": true,
"Status": "locked"
},
"dom.push.connection.enabled": {
"Value": false,
"Status": "default"
},
"browser.urlbar.suggest.quicksuggest.nonsponsored": {
"Value": false,
"Status": "locked"
},
"browser.urlbar.suggest.quicksuggest.sponsored": {
"Value": false,
"Status": "locked"
},
"browser.toolbars.bookmarks.visibility": {
"Value": "newtab",
"Status": "default"
},
"browser.safebrowsing.malware.enabled": {
"Value": false,
"Status": "locked"
},
"browser.safebrowsing.phishing.enabled": {
"Value": false,
"Status": "locked"
},
"browser.safebrowsing.downloads.enabled": {
"Value": false,
"Status": "locked"
},
"browser.newtabpage.activity-stream.feeds.section.topstories": {
"Value": false,
"Status": "locked"
},
"browser.newtabpage.activity-stream.showSponsoredCheckboxes": {
"Value": false,
"Status": "locked"
},
"browser.newtabpage.activity-stream.widgets.system.weather.enabled": {
"Value": false,
"Status": "default"
},
"browser.urlbar.suggest.quicksuggest.all": {
"Value": false,
"Status": "locked"
},
"browser.tabs.groups.smart.userEnabled": {
"Value": false,
"Status": "default"
},
"signon.management.page.breach-alerts.enabled": {
"Value": false,
"Status": "locked"
},
"privacy.fingerprintingProtection.pbmode": {
"Value": false,
"Status": "default"
},
"signon.firefoxRelay.feature": {
"Value": "disabled",
"Status": "locked"
}
}
}
}Chrome (Chromium)
You should read the docs for these
settings to make sure they’re right for you. My configuration here does a few things:
- Disables all extra functionality (Chromecast, Google Cloud Print, etc)
- Disables telemetry
- Installs and configures uBlock Origin Lite
- Disables browser sync and nagging messages to sign-in
- Disables DNS-over-HTTPS
- Disables built-in password manager (I use Bitwarden)
- Sets default search engine to DuckDuckGo
- Disables search suggestions
Unfortunately, Chrome does not support adding custom certificate authorities via the policy file anymore
(I resorted to some hacky automation
that adds the certificate to the user’s ~/.pki/nssdb on first login).
{
"AdvancedProtectionAllowed": false,
"AlternateErrorPagesEnabled": false,
"AutofillCreditCardEnabled": false,
"BackgroundModeEnabled": false,
"BlockThirdPartyCookies": true,
"BrowserGuestModeEnabled": false,
"BrowserLabsEnabled": false,
"BrowserNetworkTimeQueriesEnabled": false,
"BrowserSignin": 0,
"CloudPrintProxyEnabled": false,
"CloudReportingEnabled": false,
"DefaultBrowserSettingEnabled": false,
"DefaultCookiesSetting": 1,
"DnsOverHttpsMode": "off",
"EnableAuthNegotiatePort": true,
"EnableMediaRouter": false,
"MetricsReportingEnabled": false,
"NetworkPredictionOptions": 2,
"PasswordManagerEnabled": false,
"PaymentMethodQueryEnabled": false,
"PrivacySandboxAdMeasurementEnabled": false,
"PrivacySandboxAdTopicsEnabled": false,
"PrivacySandboxPromptEnabled": false,
"PrivacySandboxSiteEnabledAdsEnabled": false,
"PromotionalTabsEnabled": false,
"SafeBrowsingProtectionLevel": 0,
"SearchSuggestEnabled": false,
"SyncDisabled": true,
"TranslateEnabled": false,
"UrlKeyedAnonymizedDataCollectionEnabled": false,
"DefaultSearchProviderEnabled": true,
"DefaultSearchProviderName": "DuckDuckGo",
"DefaultSearchProviderImageURL": "https://duckduckgo.com/favicon.ico",
"DefaultSearchProviderEncodings": ["UTF-8"],
"DefaultSearchProviderSearchURL": "https://duckduckgo.com/?q={searchTerms}",
"DefaultSearchProviderSuggestURL": "https://duckduckgo.com/ac/?q={searchTerms}&type=list",
"DefaultSearchProviderNewTabURL": "https://duckduckgo.com/chrome_newtab",
"ExtensionSettings": {
"ddkjiahejlhfcafbddmgiahcphecmpfh": {
"installation_mode": "force_installed",
"update_url": "https://clients2.google.com/service/update2/crx"
}
},
"3rdparty": {
"extensions": {
"ddkjiahejlhfcafbddmgiahcphecmpfh": {
"disableFirstRunPage": true,
"defaultFiltering": "complete",
"noFiltering": [
"intranet.example.com"
],
"rulesets": [
"+default",
"+annoyances-cookies",
"+annoyances-notifications",
"+annoyances-others",
"+annoyances-overlays",
"+annoyances-social",
"+annoyances-widgets",
"+adguard-spyware-url"
]
}
}
}
}
{💬|⚡|🔥} **What’s your take?**
Share your thoughts in the comments below!
#️⃣ **#Browser #DeSlop #Cullum #Smith**
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