The Private Internet Access (PIA) Chrome extension provides a lightweight solution for securing browser traffic and enhancing your online privacy. Follow the instructions below to install and configure the extension.
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Extension Setup
To install the PIA Chrome extension and connect to a proxy server:
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Visit the PIA page on the Chrome Web Store and click Add to Chrome.
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A confirmation screen will pop up. Click Add extension.
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Once the extension has been successfully installed, you’ll receive a notification in the upper-right corner of your browser.
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Open the PIA Chrome extension and log into your PIA account.
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Next, you’ll be asked which extra features you would like to enable. Learn more about these features below. You can also skip this step and adjust the settings later.
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Select a region by clicking Current Region.
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Click the power button to connect to a proxy server.
Extra Features
To access the extension’s extra features:
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Click on the three vertical dots in the upper-right corner of the extension.
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Select Extra Features.
The Extra Features menu contains the following settings:
Security
The Security section contains just a single setting:
- Block WebRTC IP Detection: WebRTC is a browser feature used for real-time communication that can expose your public and private IP addresses. Enabling this setting helps prevent that from happening.
Privacy
The Privacy section contains these settings:
- Block camera, microphone, and location access: Prevents websites from accessing these functions to gather information about you.
- Disable network prediction: Chrome speeds up browsing by preparing pages and looking up website addresses before you visit them, which can involve sending requests to sites you haven’t opened. Enabling this setting disables these prediction services to reduce unnecessary data sharing.
- Disable Safe Browsing: Disables Chrome’s built-in protections against phishing sites and malicious downloads, which may involve sending some browsing data for security checks. Enabling PIA MACE below helps reduce the risks of disabling these protections.
- Disable credit card autofill: Prevents Chrome from automatically filling in credit card information.
- Disable address autofill: Prevents Chrome from automatically filling in addresses and other form data.
Tracking
The Tracking section contains these settings:
- Disable third-party cookies: Blocks cookies set by domains other than the one you are currently visiting.
- Disable website referrer: Prevents your browser from sending the address of the page you came from when you click a link.
- Disable hyperlink auditing: Blocks a web feature that can notify tracking and analytics services when you click a link, helping reduce click-based tracking.
- Remove UTM parameters: Removes tracking parameters added to links to identify how users arrive at a website.
- Remove FBCLID parameters: Removes tracking parameters added to links opened from Facebook.
- PIA MACE: Protects your privacy and security by blocking malicious content, trackers, and advertisements.
Extension Settings
To access more extension settings, click on the three vertical dots in the upper-right corner of the extension and select Extension Settings.
Extension
The Extension Settings menu contains the following settings:
- Allow desktop notifications: Allows PIA to notify you when there are important events, such as extension updates. PIA doesn’t recommend disabling this.
- Always active settings: Keeps your settings active, even when you aren’t connected to a proxy server.
- Dark Theme: Changes how the user interface looks.
- Debug mode: Writes messages to a debug log to help diagnose issues.
- UI Language: Sets the language used by the extension.
Bypass List
This feature lets you add a website to a bypass list to exclude its traffic from the proxy connection. This can be useful for sites that don’t function properly when using a proxy.
Be aware that traffic to and from websites on the bypass list are no longer protected by PIA.
To add a website to the bypass list, type the address into the text box under Other websites and then click the + button.
If the website you want to add is Netflix or Hulu, you can simply tick the respective box under Popular websites instead.
The Export button allows you to save your bypass list as a file. This is useful if you want to back up your settings or transfer them to another device. Click Import to load a bypass list.
Smart Location
This feature lets you choose a specific proxy server to use for a website, regardless of your primary connection.
For example, if you’re connected to a server in Chicago but open a website assigned to Las Vegas, that tab will switch to the Las Vegas server. All other tabs will remain connected to Chicago.