Privacy Shield 🛡️

Privacy Shield is a powerful Chromium browser extension (Manifest V3) that protects your privacy by blocking trackers, enforcing third-party cookie policies, and detecting security vulnerabilities on websites you visit.

Features

Core Protection

• Comprehensive Tracker Blocking: Blocks 5,000+ tracking domains including Google Analytics, DoubleClick, Facebook trackers, and more
• Daily Blocklist Updates: Automatically updates the blocklist every 24 hours
• Real-time Statistics: Shows the number of active blocking rules in the popup
• Allowlist System: Whitelist trusted websites to prevent blocking on them

🚨 Vulnerability Scanner (CVE Detection)

Automatically scans websites for known security vulnerabilities:

• Technology Detection: Identifies Server software, CMS (WordPress, Joomla, Drupal), and JavaScript libraries (jQuery, etc.)
• CVE Lookup: Queries the National Vulnerability Database (NVD) for known Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures (CVEs)
• Severity Ratings: Displays color-coded alerts for Critical, High, Medium, and Low severity vulnerabilities
• Detailed Reports: View specific CVE IDs and descriptions directly in the extension popup

Per-Site Privacy Controls

Control dangerous web technologies on a per-site basis:

• WebRTC Blocking ✅ Fully Effective

  • Prevents IP leaks through WebRTC
  • Blocks getUserMedia and RTCPeerConnection
  • Note: Breaks video calls (Zoom, Google Meet, Discord)

• WebGL Blocking ✅ Fully Effective

  • Prevents WebGL fingerprinting
  • Returns null for WebGL contexts
  • Note: Breaks 3D graphics, maps, games

• WebGPU Blocking ✅ Fully Effective

  • Blocks the newer WebGPU API
  • Makes navigator.gpu undefined

• Canvas Fingerprinting Protection ⚠️ Limited Effectiveness

  • Adds random noise to canvas output (Tor Browser style)
  • Limitation: May not work on all fingerprinting services
  • Recommendation: Use Tor Browser or Brave for maximum canvas protection

• Battery API Blocking ✅ Fully Effective

  • Prevents battery level tracking
  • Rejects getBattery() calls

• ⚡ High Performance: Uses Chrome's native APIs and Service Workers for minimal performance impact

🚀 Installation Instructions

Method 1: Load Unpacked Extension (Developer Mode)

1. Download the Extension Files

   • Download or clone this repository to your computer
   • Make sure all files are in the /privacy-shield/ folder

2. Open Chrome Extensions Page

   • Open Google Chrome (or any Chromium-based browser like Edge, Brave, etc.)
   • Navigate to chrome://extensions/
   • Or click the three-dot menu → More Tools → Extensions

3. Enable Developer Mode

   • In the top-right corner, toggle Developer mode ON

4. Load the Extension

   • Click the Load unpacked button (top-left)
   • Navigate to the privacy-shield folder
   • Select the folder and click Select Folder (or Open)

5. Verify Installation

   • You should see "Privacy Shield" appear in your extensions list
   • The extension icon (🛡️) should appear in your browser toolbar

📖 Usage

Managing Tracker Blocking

1. View Statistics: Click the extension icon to see how many blocking rules are active
2. Blocked Domains: Click the tracker count to view the list of blocked domains for the current session
3. Allowlist a Website:
   • Click the extension icon while on any website
   • Click the "Allowlist [domain]" button
   • Trackers and privacy controls will be disabled for that site, and the CVE scanner will not run

Checking for Vulnerabilities

1. Navigate to any website
2. If vulnerabilities are detected, a warning section will appear in the popup
3. Click "View All CVEs" to see a detailed list of potential security issues associated with the site's detected technologies

Using Per-Site Privacy Controls

1. Click the Privacy Shield icon on any website
2. Toggle permissions for specific features:
   • ☑ Block WebRTC
   • ☑ Block WebGL
   • ☑ Block WebGPU
   • ☑ Block Canvas Fingerprinting
   • ☑ Block Battery API
3. Reload the page for changes to take effect

🔧 Technical Details

Permissions

The extension requires the following permissions:

• declarativeNetRequest & declarativeNetRequestWithHostAccess: For efficient tracker blocking
• storage: To store blocklist and user settings
• alarms: For automatic blocklist updates
• tabs: To monitor tab activity and inject content scripts
• host_permissions (<all_urls>, https://services.nvd.nist.gov/*): To protect all websites and query the NVD API for vulnerability data

External Data Sources

• Blocklist: Uses the AD-BlockList maintained by Werewolfke.
• Vulnerability Data: Queries the NVD NIST API for CVE information.

� Privacy & Data Usage

Privacy Shield prioritizes your privacy:

• Local Processing: All tracker blocking and technology detection happens locally in your browser.
• No Analytics: We do not collect or track your browsing habits.
• External Requests:
  • The blocklist is fetched from GitHub during installation and daily updates.
  • When the CVE Scanner is active, it sends only the names and versions of detected technologies (e.g., "WordPress 5.8", "jQuery 1.12.4") to the public NVD API to check for vulnerabilities. No personal data or browsing history is shared.

📝 License

This project is open source. Feel free to modify and distribute.

🙏 Credits

• Blocklist provided by Werewolfke's AD-BlockList