Google Chrome uses a variety of web services, preload settings, and prediction services to improve the browsing experience. These range from suggesting an alternate website when the one you’re attempting to view is unreachable, to predicting network actions ahead of time in order to speed up page load times.
While these features provide a welcome level of convenience, they may also present privacy concerns for some users. Whatever your stance on this functionality, it helps to understand how it works.
Accessing Chrome’s Privacy Settings
A variety of settings and services can be toggled on or off in Chrome’s privacy settings section. This tutorial explains some of these features, as well as how to enable or disable each of them.
You can no longer user a Prediction service in Chrome. The setting titled Use a prediction service to help complete searches and URLs typed in the address bar no longer exists. However, you can still disable a number of similar services, which we describe below.
- Open Chrome and select the Chrome menu button in the upper-right corner of the browser window, represented by three vertically aligned dots.
- When the drop-down menu appears, select the Settings option. Chrome’s Settings page will open.
- From the menu bar on the lefthand side, select Privacy and security.
- Chrome’s Privacy settings will now be visible.
- Select Clear browsing data to remove history, cookies, and password data.Select Cookies and other site data to set how Chrome handles cookies and browser tracking.Select Security to adjust Chrome’s safe browsing and data protection settings.Select Site Settings to control permissions for specific websites, such as location access, microphone use, and notifications.
Preload Pages for Faster Browsing and Searching
Navigation Errors
Chrome can pre-fetch information from the websites you visit, including some you have not yet visited. This helps page load faster, though it may present some security concerns.
Open Chrome and select the Chrome menu button in the upper-right corner of the browser window, represented by three vertically aligned dots.
When the drop-down menu appears, select the Settings option. Chrome’s Settings page will open.
From the menu bar on the lefthand side, select Privacy and security.
Chrome’s Privacy settings will now be visible.
Select Clear browsing data to remove history, cookies, and password data.Select Cookies and other site data to set how Chrome handles cookies and browser tracking.Select Security to adjust Chrome’s safe browsing and data protection settings.Select Site Settings to control permissions for specific websites, such as location access, microphone use, and notifications.
Open Chrome and select the Chrome menu button in the upper-right corner of the browser window, represented by three vertically aligned dots.
When the drop-down menu appears, select the Settings option. Chrome’s Settings page will open.
From the menu bar on the lefthand side, select Privacy and security. Chrome’s Privacy settings will now be visible.
Select Cookies and other site data to open a list of privacy settings.
Scroll down. Next to the option titled Preload pages for faster browsing and searching, toggle the switch to the On position (blue), if it is not already.
When active, Chrome employs a mixture of pre-rendering technology and IP lookup of all links found on the page. By obtaining the IP addresses of all links on a Web page, subsequent pages will load significantly faster when their respective links are clicked upon.
Data collected via the pre-fetching setting may include cookies, if you allow cookies.
From the menu bar on the lefthand side, select Privacy and security. Chrome’s Privacy settings will now be visible.
Select Cookies and other site data to open a list of privacy settings.
Scroll down. Next to the option titled Preload pages for faster browsing and searching, toggle the switch to the On position (blue), if it is not already.
Pre-rendering technology utilizes a combination of website settings and Chrome’s own internal feature set. Some website developers might configure their pages to preload links in the background so that their destination content is loaded almost instantly when selected. In addition, Chrome also occasionally decides to pre-render certain pages on its own, based on the URL being typed into the address bar and your past browsing history.
Turn Off Autocomplete Searches and URLs
Follow these steps to disable Chrome’s autocomplete setting, which uses some website and cookie data to automatically fill out search terms and website URLs as they are typed into a search field or address bar.
- Open Chrome and select the Chrome menu button in the upper-right corner of the browser window, represented by three vertically aligned dots.
- When the drop-down menu appears, select the Settings option. Chrome’s Settings page will open.
- Select You and Google from the left menu bar.
- Click Sync and Google Services.
- Next to Autocomplete searches and URLs, toggle the switch to the Off position (gray), if it is not already.
Turn Off Enhanced Spell Check
When enabled, Enhanced Spell Check makes use of the Google Search spell-checker whenever you type in a text field. Although handy, there is a privacy concern with this option, in that your text must be sent to Google’s servers in order for its spelling to be verified. If this worries you, then you may want to leave this setting as-is. If not, it can be enabled by simply placing a mark next to its accompanying checkbox with a click of the mouse.
Select You and Google from the left menu bar.
Click Sync and Google Services.
Next to Autocomplete searches and URLs, toggle the switch to the Off position (gray), if it is not already.
Enhanced Spell Check is disabled by default. if you’d like to adjust this setting, go to the Sync and Google services settings as described above and toggle the Enhanced Spell Check switch to the Off position.
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