Safari already includes built-in privacy protections, but a popular free browser extension is now available on Mac to help block trackers Apple’s browser may still let through.
Privacy Badger is now available for Safari on macOS, bringing the anti-tracking extension to Apple’s browser for the first time after years of availability on Chrome, Edge, and Firefox.
Developed by the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), the open-source extension automatically identifies and blocks hidden trackers as you browse.
Unlike traditional ad blockers, Privacy Badger doesn’t block advertisements simply because they’re ads. Instead, it focuses on scripts and other technologies that follow users across websites, blocking ads only when they engage in tracking.
How Privacy Badger Goes Beyond Safari’s Protections
Safari already uses Intelligent Tracking Prevention to limit how websites track your activity across the web. However, those protections don’t necessarily prevent tracking resources from loading.
Privacy Badger takes a more direct approach by blocking identified trackers before they can load.
It also removes tracking information from outgoing links on Facebook and Google, helping prevent those platforms from recording which external websites you visit through their links.
Additional protections include blocking tracking cookies and automatically identifying tracking behavior rather than relying entirely on predefined blocklists.
The extension also makes its activity visible. Clicking its toolbar icon reveals how many trackers were blocked on the current webpage.
In one early test, Safari’s built-in privacy report identified 89 blocked trackers on a website, while Privacy Badger caught three additional trackers that Safari had allowed through.
Results will vary depending on the website, but the example illustrates how the two tools can complement each other rather than simply duplicate the same protections.
How to Get Privacy Badger for Safari
Privacy Badger is free to install and requires Safari 26.5 or later on macOS.
Once enabled, it works automatically in the background, learning to recognize tracking behavior as you browse without requiring users to manually configure blocking rules.
For Mac owners who already rely on Safari’s privacy features, Privacy Badger offers an additional layer of protection against trackers that might otherwise slip through.
