Social's Privacy Blur EN

Social's Privacy Blur is a privacy-first browser extension designed to protect sensitive information displayed on popular web-based social media and messaging platforms. Built with a Manifest V3 architecture, the extension provides cross-platform privacy controls for Facebook, Messenger, LinkedIn Feed and Messaging, WhatsApp Web, and Telegram Web. Its primary purpose is to give users real-time, fine-grained control over the information visible on their screens while browsing, messaging, presenting, recording, or working in public environments.

The extension is particularly useful in situations where private information could accidentally become visible to other people. Users may rely on Social's Privacy Blur while live streaming, sharing their screen during meetings or presentations, working in coffee shops or open offices, recording tutorials, taking screenshots, or simply protecting their screens from shoulder surfing. Instead of hiding an entire webpage, the extension allows users to decide which categories of information should be protected, making privacy controls flexible without interfering unnecessarily with normal browsing.

One of the major strengths of Social's Privacy Blur is its multi-platform support and contextual routing. Privacy settings can be controlled independently for Facebook, Messenger, LinkedIn, WhatsApp Web, and Telegram Web. A master switch can enable or disable protection globally, while individual platform and sub-context controls allow users to configure privacy differently depending on where they are browsing. For example, LinkedIn Feed and LinkedIn Messaging can have separate privacy configurations, while Facebook and Messenger can also be managed according to their respective browsing and messaging contexts.

The extension includes interactive hover-to-reveal functionality, allowing users to temporarily view protected information without permanently disabling privacy protection. When an element such as a name, message, image, or input box is blurred, moving the mouse over it reveals the content, and moving the cursor away immediately restores the blur. Users can also adjust the blur intensity dynamically using a slider ranging from 2 pixels to 20 pixels. This provides flexibility for different environments, from subtle privacy masking to stronger visual protection.

Social's Privacy Blur also provides extensive granular controls. Users can independently manage profile names, profile pictures, group names and pictures, chat previews, message previews, active chat messages, post content, media and attachments, input fields and search bars, unread message lists, and platform link safety. These controls are designed to cover the major categories of information that may appear across social feeds, messaging interfaces, conversation sidebars, and active chats.

A particularly important feature is Smart Unread Message Blurring. The extension can blur sender names and preview snippets for unread conversations while keeping useful interface indicators such as unread badges, counters, and timestamps visible. This approach protects private information without removing the visual signals users rely on to understand their messaging activity. Similar controls can protect active conversation messages, post content, media, attachments, search fields, comments, and other sensitive interface elements.

Another major capability is Platform Link Safety, an optional security layer that analyzes external links discovered in social feeds and messaging conversations. The system can check HTTP and HTTPS links through its VirusTotal integration and provide status indicators for safe, suspicious, unsafe, or currently scanning links. The extension also provides a dedicated link scanner in its popup, where discovered links can be reviewed and scanned using a batch scanning action. Custom VirusTotal API keys can be supplied by users, and scan results are temporarily cached locally for up to 30 minutes to reduce unnecessary network activity and help respect service rate limits.

Using the extension is straightforward. Users open the Social's Privacy Blur popup from their browser toolbar, after which the extension detects the currently viewed supported platform and highlights the relevant controls. Context-specific tabs provide separate settings for social browsing and messaging where applicable. The blur-strength slider controls the visual intensity, while hover-to-reveal makes it possible to inspect protected information temporarily. Platform Link Safety can also be enabled from the selected platform settings, and discovered external links can be scanned from the popup.

From a technical perspective, Social's Privacy Blur uses a modern Manifest V3 extension architecture. Its background service worker manages tab detection, extension badge states, local settings synchronization, and asynchronous security requests. The content script operates directly inside supported webpages and uses lightweight DOM observation to detect dynamically rendered content. This is especially important for modern single-page applications where interfaces can change continuously without full page reloads. The extension is designed to recognize dynamic renders, chat lists, and other changing page structures while minimizing performance impact.

The privacy engine is deliberately non-destructive. Rather than replacing or deleting page content, it marks protected elements with dedicated data attributes and applies CSS-based visual effects. Text, input fields, containers, and media elements can be tagged according to the feature responsible for their protection. A custom blur value is also applied through the extension's styling system. When a protection feature is disabled, the corresponding markers are removed, allowing the original platform interface to return immediately. This architecture helps preserve the underlying page content and DOM structure while providing visual privacy.

Privacy and data handling …