Microsoft’s new Chromium-based Edge browser is getting a massive new privacy feature this week. The company announced last night that it’s rolling out a new feature called tracking prevention that will help users keep their personal info safe online.

The new tracking prevention feature is available on the latest Microsoft Edge Canary builds, and can be enabled through a flag which introduces a new setting on the browser’s privacy settings section. From there, you can choose between three different levels of tracking prevention: basic, balanced, and strict.

You can, of course, turn off tracking prevention on individual sites, if you’d like.

Microsoft has detailed exactly how the company identifies trackers, how each of the different levels of tracking prevention is different, and how the browser takes actions against these trackers to help your data safe. In essence, Edge keeps track of a list full of known trackers that organizations use on the web to track users, and that list even has information on domains and subdomains of trackers that will prevent organizations from being sneaky when it comes to bypassing the tracking blockers. Edge then uses the list to take action against the tracker, like restoring access to your web storage data or even completely blocking out a tracking resource.

Microsoft is recommending users to have the tracking prevention set to Balanced, which essentially blocks out certain trackers and restricts their access to your data while making sure that websites keep working as expected. Strict tracking prevention, on the other hand, blocks out the largest set of trackers and might lead to some sites breaking in exchange for “greater” protection. Strict tracking prevention is also enabled by default for those browsing in an InPrivate window.

The new tracking prevention feature seems incredibly useful for those wanting a little more privacy on the web. The feature is available with Edge version 77.0.203.0, and it will likely make its way to the Dev builds of the browser soon.

Tagged with Microsoft Edge, Privacy, Tracking Prevention