Description
Use the chrome.privacy
API to control usage of the features in Chrome that can affect a user's privacy. This API relies on the ChromeSetting prototype of the type API for getting and setting Chrome's configuration.
Permissions
privacy
You must declare the "privacy" permission in your extension's manifest to use the API. For example:
{
"name": "My extension",
...
"permissions": [
"privacy"
],
...
}
Concepts and usage
Reading the current value of a Chrome setting is straightforward. You'll first need to find the
property you're interested in, then you'll call get()
on that object in order to retrieve its
current value and your extension's level of control. For example, to determine if Chrome's credit card autofill
feature is enabled, you'd write:
chrome.privacy.services.autofillCreditCardEnabled.get({}, function(details) {
if (details.value) {
console.log('Autofill is on!');
} else {
console.log('Autofill is off!');
}
});
Changing the value of a setting is a little bit more complex, because you first must verify
that your extension can control the setting. The user won't see any change to their settings if your
extension toggles a setting that is either locked to a specific value by enterprise policies
(levelOfControl
will be set to "not_controllable"), or if another extension is controlling the
value (levelOfControl
will be set to "controlled_by_other_extensions"). The set()
call will
succeed, but the setting will be immediately overridden. As this might be confusing, it is advisable
to warn the user when the settings they've chosen aren't practically applied.
This means that you ought to use the get()
method to determine your level of access, and then only
call set()
if your extension can grab control over the setting (in fact if your extension can't
control the setting it's probably a good idea to visually disable the feature to reduce user
confusion):
chrome.privacy.services.autofillCreditCardEnabled.get({}, function(details) {
if (details.levelOfControl === 'controllable_by_this_extension') {
chrome.privacy.services.autofillCreditCardEnabled.set({ value: true }, function() {
if (chrome.runtime.lastError === undefined) {
console.log("Hooray, it worked!");
} else {
console.log("Sadness!", chrome.runtime.lastError);
}
});
}
});
If you're interested in changes to a setting's value, add a listener to its onChange
event. Among
other uses, this will allow you to warn the user if a more recently installed extension grabs
control of a setting, or if enterprise policy overrides your control. To listen for changes to
credit card autofill status, for example, the following code would suffice:
chrome.privacy.services.autofillCreditCardEnabled.onChange.addListener(
function (details) {
// The new value is stored in `details.value`, the new level of control
// in `details.levelOfControl`, and `details.incognitoSpecific` will be
// `true` if the value is specific to Incognito mode.
}
);
Examples
To try this API, install the privacy API example from the chrome-extension-samples repository.
Types
IPHandlingPolicy
The IP handling policy of WebRTC.
Enum
"default" "default_public_and_private_interfaces" "default_public_interface_only" "disable_non_proxied_udp"
Properties
network
Settings that influence Chrome's handling of network connections in general.
Type
object
Properties
-
networkPredictionEnabled
types.ChromeSetting<boolean>
If enabled, Chrome attempts to speed up your web browsing experience by pre-resolving DNS entries and preemptively opening TCP and SSL connections to servers. This preference only affects actions taken by Chrome's internal prediction service. It does not affect webpage-initiated prefectches or preconnects. This preference's value is a boolean, defaulting to
true
. -
webRTCIPHandlingPolicyChrome 48+
Allow users to specify the media performance/privacy tradeoffs which impacts how WebRTC traffic will be routed and how much local address information is exposed. This preference's value is of type IPHandlingPolicy, defaulting to
default
.
services
Settings that enable or disable features that require third-party network services provided by Google and your default search provider.
Type
object
Properties
-
alternateErrorPagesEnabled
types.ChromeSetting<boolean>
If enabled, Chrome uses a web service to help resolve navigation errors. This preference's value is a boolean, defaulting to
true
. -
autofillAddressEnabled
types.ChromeSetting<boolean>
Chrome 70+If enabled, Chrome offers to automatically fill in addresses and other form data. This preference's value is a boolean, defaulting to
true
. -
autofillCreditCardEnabled
types.ChromeSetting<boolean>
Chrome 70+If enabled, Chrome offers to automatically fill in credit card forms. This preference's value is a boolean, defaulting to
true
. -
autofillEnabled
types.ChromeSetting<boolean>
Deprecated since Chrome 70Please use privacy.services.autofillAddressEnabled and privacy.services.autofillCreditCardEnabled. This remains for backward compatibility in this release and will be removed in the future.
If enabled, Chrome offers to automatically fill in forms. This preference's value is a boolean, defaulting to
true
. -
passwordSavingEnabled
types.ChromeSetting<boolean>
If enabled, the password manager will ask if you want to save passwords. This preference's value is a boolean, defaulting to
true
. -
safeBrowsingEnabled
types.ChromeSetting<boolean>
If enabled, Chrome does its best to protect you from phishing and malware. This preference's value is a boolean, defaulting to
true
. -
safeBrowsingExtendedReportingEnabled
types.ChromeSetting<boolean>
If enabled, Chrome will send additional information to Google when SafeBrowsing blocks a page, such as the content of the blocked page. This preference's value is a boolean, defaulting to
false
. -
searchSuggestEnabled
types.ChromeSetting<boolean>
If enabled, Chrome sends the text you type into the Omnibox to your default search engine, which provides predictions of websites and searches that are likely completions of what you've typed so far. This preference's value is a boolean, defaulting to
true
. -
spellingServiceEnabled
types.ChromeSetting<boolean>
If enabled, Chrome uses a web service to help correct spelling errors. This preference's value is a boolean, defaulting to
false
. -
translationServiceEnabled
types.ChromeSetting<boolean>
If enabled, Chrome offers to translate pages that aren't in a language you read. This preference's value is a boolean, defaulting to
true
.
websites
Settings that determine what information Chrome makes available to websites.
Type
object
Properties
-
adMeasurementEnabled
types.ChromeSetting<boolean>
Chrome 111+If disabled, the Attribution Reporting API and Private Aggregation API are deactivated. The value of this preference is of type boolean, and the default value is
true
. Extensions may only disable these APIs by setting the value tofalse
. If you try setting these APIs totrue
, it will throw an error. -
doNotTrackEnabled
types.ChromeSetting<boolean>
Chrome 65+If enabled, Chrome sends 'Do Not Track' (
DNT: 1
) header with your requests. The value of this preference is of type boolean, and the default value isfalse
. -
fledgeEnabled
types.ChromeSetting<boolean>
Chrome 111+If disabled, the Fledge API is deactivated. The value of this preference is of type boolean, and the default value is
true
. Extensions may only disable this API by setting the value tofalse
. If you try setting this API totrue
, it will throw an error. -
hyperlinkAuditingEnabled
types.ChromeSetting<boolean>
If enabled, Chrome sends auditing pings when requested by a website (
<a ping>
). The value of this preference is of type boolean, and the default value istrue
. -
protectedContentEnabled
types.ChromeSetting<boolean>
Available on Windows and ChromeOS only: If enabled, Chrome provides a unique ID to plugins in order to run protected content. The value of this preference is of type boolean, and the default value is
true
. -
referrersEnabled
types.ChromeSetting<boolean>
If enabled, Chrome sends
referer
headers with your requests. Yes, the name of this preference doesn't match the misspelled header. No, we're not going to change it. The value of this preference is of type boolean, and the default value istrue
. -
types.ChromeSetting<boolean>
Chrome 121+If disabled, Related Website Sets is deactivated. The value of this preference is of type boolean, and the default value is
true
. Extensions may only disable this API by setting the value tofalse
. If you try setting this API totrue
, it will throw an error. -
thirdPartyCookiesAllowed
types.ChromeSetting<boolean>
If disabled, Chrome blocks third-party sites from setting cookies. The value of this preference is of type boolean, and the default value is
true
. -
topicsEnabled
types.ChromeSetting<boolean>
Chrome 111+If disabled, the Topics API is deactivated. The value of this preference is of type boolean, and the default value is
true
. Extensions may only disable this API by setting the value tofalse
. If you try setting this API totrue
, it will throw an error.