Online Privacy (Saferbrowsing-search.com) - How to remove

Online Privacy, in this case, is the name of an add-on for Chrome and Chromium-based web browsers. It promises to let you enable advanced privacy settings and search without being tracked.

And though Online Privacy does do what it promised, you should keep in mind that it changes your default search engine so that Yahoo.com delivers your search results.

About the Online Privacy add-on:

Classification	Potentially unwanted program.
How Online Privacy works	It sends your search queries to Saferbrowsing-search.com, it lets you disable various tracking features for individual searches.
Problems and issues	Online Privacy limits users’ search engine options, it can access user data, including their search history, some of its features are redundant.
How to remove Online Privacy	Uninstall the extension, check your settings to make sure that they’re back to normal, check your computer for malware (Malwarebytes, others).

Is Online Privacy useful?

Online Privacy replaces your default search with Yahoo

Online Privacy is a browser add-on while Saferbrowsing-search.com and Onlineprivacyweb.com are the associated websites. It’s not clear who the developer behind this extension is, but it might be the same people as those who made Browse Incognito Search and Movies Search for Chrome™.

When Online Privacy is installed, it replaces your default search engine with Saferbrowsing-search.com. This site sends search queries to Yahoo.com. You can go into the extension’s settings and change the default search engine to Google or Bing (no other search engines).

Your omnibox should display “Search Online Privacy or type a URL” and your new tab page might look different (for example, if it used to show a search box, it no longer does).

From Online Privacy’s description, you’d think that Yahoo is necessary for it to let you search the web privately. But that’s not true. If you look at Online Privacy’s privacy policy, you can see that the extension uses Yahoo.com for third-party search monetization. In other words, Online Privacy gets paid for promoting Yahoo.

It changes your privacy settings

Online Privacy promises to improve your privacy online when you’re on search engines. It offers to do this by enabling advanced privacy settings.

Once Online Privacy is installed, it changes your default search settings. This allows it to add a “search without tracking” suggestion to your search suggestions. Clicking it leads to Saferbrowsing-search.com, where you get to turn on or off various privacy settings.

This Saferbrowsing-search.com search mode lets you choose options such as turning off cookies, translation, autofill, password saving, search suggestions, spellcheck, and other features. The first time you turn on these options, Online Privacy prompts you for more permissions.

The Saferbrowsing-search.com search session still just leads to Yahoo.com, but this time, it’s more private.

Online Privacy does what it promised. The search items that went through Saferbrowsing-search.com don’t show up in Yahoo’s search history.

But is Online Privacy worth it?

Alternatives to Online Privacy

Online Privacy offers to protect your search activity from being tracked and to stop targeted ads. But it’s not the only way to achieve that. Let’s look into ways to improve your privacy without revealing your search history to an obscure site like Saferbrowsing-search.com.

Let’s say you use Google.com as your main search engine (it’s a pretty popular one) and want to be private:

• You can turn off search history (Google.com -> Settings -> Search history).
• You can manage your tracking by Google on your My Activity page.
• You can opt out of personalised ads.

There are other things you can do:

• Turn off cookies in Chrome or another browser.
• Use a private search engine (DuckDuckGo is probably the most reputable private search engine out there).
• For single searches, you can just use private mode – it doesn’t store your history or cookies and it’s available in all mainstream web browsers. Yes, it still allows fingerprinting, but fingerprinting is super difficult to avoid – and the Online Privacy add-on doesn’t help.
• If you forgot to use private mode, you can erase items from your browser’s history and your search engine’s search history.

Also, it strikes me that the Online Privacy extension offers many options to stop Google from tracking you. If you’re very concerned about Google’s tracking, you might want to just use another browser, such as Edge, Safari, or Firefox.

How to remove Online Privacy

If you like Online Privacy, there’s no real danger in continuing to use it. Just keep in mind that Saferbrowsing-search.com, which is not a trustworthy or reputable site, may log your search history.

If you decide to remove Online Privacy, you can follow the instructions below. They describe how to remove the extension and check your default search engine and other settings.

You can also scan your device with an anti-malware app, such as Malwarebytes, to make sure that it’s free from adware, junkware, and other potentially unwanted programs.

Automatic Malware removal tools

Remove unwanted browser add-ons

TopHow To remove Online Privacy (Saferbrowsing-search.com) from Google Chrome:

• Click on the 3 horizontal lines icon on a browser toolbar and Select More Tools→Extensions
  
• Select all malicious extensions and delete them.
  
• Click on the 3 horizontal lines icon on a browser toolbar and Select Settings
  
• Select Manage Search engines
  
• Remove unnecessary search engines from the list
  
• Go back to settings. On Startup choose Open blank page (you can remove undesired pages from the set pages link too).
• If your homepage was changed, click on Chrome menu on the top right corner, select Settings. Select Open a specific page or set of pages and click on Set pages.
  
• Delete malicious search websites at a new Startup pages window by clicking “X” next to them.
  

(Optional) Reset your browser’s settings

If you are still experiencing any issues related to Online Privacy (Saferbrowsing-search.com), reset the settings of your browser to its default settings.

• Click on a Chrome’s menu button (three horizontal lines) and select Settings.
• Scroll to the end of the page and click on theReset browser settings button.
  
• Click on the Reset button on the confirmation box.
  

If you cannot reset your browser settings and the problem persists, scan your system with an anti-malware program.

How to remove Online Privacy (Saferbrowsing-search.com) from Microsoft Edge:Top

• Click on the menu button on the top right corner of a Microsoft Edge window. Select “Extensions”.

• Select all malicious extensions and delete them.

• Click on the three-dot menu on the browser toolbar and Select Settings

• Select Privacy and Services and scroll down. Press on Address bar.

• Choose Manage search engines.

• Remove unnecessary search engines from the list: open the three-dot menu and choose Remove.

• Go back to Settings. Open On start-up.
• Delete malicious search websites at Open specific page or pages by opening the three-dot menu and clicking Delete.

(Optional) Reset your browser’s settings If you are still experiencing any issues related to Online Privacy (Saferbrowsing-search.com), reset the settings of your browser to its default settings

• Click on Edge's menu button and select Settings. Click on the Reset Settings button on the left.
• Press the Restore settings to their default values option.

• Click on the Reset button on the confirmation box.

If you cannot reset your browser settings and the problem persists, scan your system with an anti-malware program.