Crumbs for Mac

A free powerful tracker blocker

Crumbs is a free security and privacy program that allows you to control your online privacy with ease. Developed by eyeo GmbH, this is a handy browser extension that enables you to protect your online privacy in various ways.

Crumbs is basically a cookie blocker, tracker blocker, and pop-up blocker in one compact package. It’s easy to use since the features and settings can be toggled on and off quickly. Take note, however, that this tool supports online advertising so some of your data activity will be visible—although this also means you can personalize what advertisers can see.

A different approach to privacy protection

Crumbs is mainly a powerful tool that blocks cookies, trackers, and pop-ups to lessen your exposure to intrusive ads and emails. It’s pretty easy to install and doesn’t require any account when using its basic version. Its built-in privacy tools encompass different methods of keeping your online identity hidden. It creates proxies for advertising requests to keep your location hidden. It can strip URLs of their tracking parameters. It can even send the right signals—such as Do Not Track and Global Privacy Control—to deter companies from tracking you.

As mentioned above, this extension also lets you control the level of privacy you get. For cookies, you can enable the settings to automatically ignore cookie walls that display on websites. It also has the Crumbs Interest feature, which allows advertisers to see some anonymous data from you. This is because the tool supports reliable online advertising, so you can choose not to fully hide some topics and categories that you want ads for. If you want full anonymity, you can always disable these Interests.

Lastly, it offers a feature that can hide email addresses behind aliases. This is called Email Relay and it creates alias email addresses for your primary email address so that whenever you log in to different sites, they’re not in danger of becoming compromised. However, take note that activating this function will prompt you to create a Crumbs account on the developer’s website. This is pretty easy to do, though, and generating these only takes one click.

An easy-to-use extension

To start using Crumbs, simply install it from the supported extension store. Launching it will redirect you to a webpage that asks for your permission regarding the tool’s data collection policy. This is in relation to the Interests feature—but again, you can always disable this. Agree to the terms and conditions and then you can start using the extension. The webpage also lets you enable some functions beforehand, like “Hide Cookie Consent Popups” and Email Relay.

The extension’s icon will display a small menu when clicked. Here, you can find the main button for turning your tracker protection on and off. You can also see the statistics of blocked trackers and cookies here—from those found on the current page to those blocked since its installation. To access the settings, just click on the gear icon on the top-right corner. This will open a webpage that’s divided into three sections: Settings, Interests, and Email Relay.

Under Settings, you’ll find Trackers, Cookies, and General Settings. The functions here can be easily toggled on and off. There are no configurable advanced settings but some options are already enabled for those who don't want to deal with the hassle of setting this tool up. The second tab, Interests, is where you can choose which interests will be available to advertisers—however, it can be tedious to disable them all. The last tab is for the Email Relay feature and will redirect you to another page where you can manage your aliases.

Can still be improved

Overall, Crumbs is a great tool to have if you want a powerful browser extension that can easily block cookies and trackers. Not only does it offer various features to keep your online identity secure and away from intrusive advertising, but it also gives you complete control over what you can show to advertisers and their companies. It could still use some features to make it more user-friendly, but it’s already showing great performance.