Skip to content

How to Disable WebRTC

Has your VPN continuously failed and leaked your data online without your consent? Then you must learn the Web RTC concept. Erased our article and find out how to disable it for the possible IP leakage.

VPN is an acronym that stands for the virtual private network. This is a very important tool that anyone needs for guaranteed online security or privacy. Therefore, anyone concerned with online security and privacy must consider getting an effective VPN. It provides security and guarantees improved security and access to the geo-restricted contents.

That doesn’t give 100% surety of the safety. Even some famous VPNs fail to offer full security or anonymity. This is attributed to WebRTC leakage. You must seek a way out of it. Thus, you need to disable the WebRTC and remain anonymous without worrying about your online privacy.

While VPN aims at masking your local IP addresses, some websites use WebRTC knowledge and establish a direct connection to their servers through your browser. Such connections leak the IP address and render the VPN useless. This gives hackers or any other third party access to your Ip address. though WebRTC is designed to work on every browser, sometimes it is good to learn how to disable it.

In this article, we will guide you through various steps on how to disable WebRTC. Read on and find out how to go about it.


Why is WebRTC Leak Dangerous?

When you often experience the possible blatant vulnerability or IP leaks, then the first possible cause of the issues is WebRTC. Therefore, the only way to avoid dangerous leakage is it disables the WebRTC on your browser.

WebRTC Leak Dangerous

But also, it comes a time when you need WebRTC activated back and undo the whole process. WebRTC is important when you want to share real-time audio and videos on the internet. To make it clear, if you are unaware, WebRTC means real-time web communication.

Therefore, this is an HTML5 specification that gives users the ability to add real-time online communication, especially between the browser and a specific device. WebRTC is the primary competitor of skype technology.

The main advantage of using WebRTC is that it is efficient and even compatible with all the javascript program languages. This means you will never need to get a third-party application or dare download software, for this case, skype, for communication purposes.

WEBRTC use communication purposes

Though WebRTC is important, there are also some serious downsides that you need to have at your fingertips. First, WebRTC is dangerous ins a way that, in no time, it can easily expose your local IP addresses even with the direct connection of audio or video. This puts you at risk when it is activated on the browser. Thus, disabling the WebRTC and getting a reliable PN minimizes the risks associated.

Using a VPN alone without disabling the WebRTC, there are still potential opportunities for your IP to leak. This means it will be a good idea to disable it. If you are curious about this, then proceed and let us guide you on how to disable WebRTC.


How to Check the WebRTC Leak?

Before proceeding to the next section, let us first start by checking if truly there is a WebRTC leak on your browser. Therefore, launch the browser you are using on the device and visit this website here. Upon clicking on the link, the site will perform a test on the browser for the possibility of WebRTC leakage and then provide you will three main details to access.

Check the WebRTC Leak

First, if it displays true close to the RTCpeerconnection and on the RTCdataconnection, then your browser is WebRTC supported. However, when you see a number on the system next to the public IP address and sometimesIPV6, the numbers displayed are the internet addresses on your browser.

And lastly, you will also see the information on the WebRTC media device concerning your device’s micro[hone] and camera. Once you make any possible changes, you can head back to the page and again verify if the changes have been implemented on the browser.


How to Disable WebRTC in Chrome 

While users fight IP leakages again, Google’s technical teams and developers have often promoted the WebRTC open-source code. This makes disabling WebRTC hard when you are using chrome through settings. But when you are using add-ons, you can easily do away with them.

Disable WebRTC in Chrome

The fact remains that it is not possible up to today to disable WebRTC on chrome due to the advanced changes on the WebRTC open-source code. The only way out is to rely on the add-ons.

There are several reliable chrome add-ons on the market, such as WebRTC Leak Prevent, WebRTC Leak Shield, and  WebRTC Control. However, WebRTYC leak prevents remains as the most reliable, often sued, powerful and fast add-ons on the internet.

When you get it, it gets access to the chrome WebRTC settings and controls as well as protects you again the IP leakages. Once you install it on chrome, you will have said goodbye to all the WebRTC-based services.

For the sake of your guide, we will use the WebRTC control add-on, a browser extension. It is compatible with all major browsers. Therefore, follow the below procedure.

Step 1: Start by visiting this website here  using your browser

Start by visiting this website of mybrowseraddon

Step 2: You will be redirected to the next page, where you will have to select the icon of the browser you are using., For this case, you will have to click on the chrome icon.

Step 3: It will again redirect you to the  WebRTC control extensions page of chrome. Then choose to add to chrome for this case.

WebRTC control extensions page

Step 4: Then you will see a prompt display requesting you to give it permission to access your information for all the websites and read or modify the privacy settings. Agree to it and select add the extension.

select add the extension

Step 5: For opera and Firefox, users must again proceed by clicking the ok button. With chrome, you are good to proceed.

Step 6: You will see an extension displayed in the upper right corner of your screen on the browser. So, when you see a blue circle, WebRTC IP leakage protection is enabled. You can toggle the extension and disable it.

Also, note that you have two options to go with for you to disable the WebRTC on the chrome. First, you can use the toolbar and toggle the button where the blue icon indicates activated while grey shows it is inactive. The second option allows you to use the extension site. Immediately launch the extension page, locate the add-on, and tap on the disabled icon. It will be disabled permanently unless you decide to get it back.


How to Disable WebRTC on Android

you can also disable WebRTC on your android device. The process is straightforward. Follow these steps:-

Disable WebRTC on Android

Step 1: The first thing is to launch the browser and copy this URL chrome://flags/#disable-webrtc, then paste it into the chrome browser.

Step 2: While on the home page, keep scrolling down and locate the WebRTC STUN origin header options.

Step 3: Then proceed to disable this option. And for the added security, you can also proceed to disable WebRTC hardware, including video encoding and decoding. Whoever, this option is not that necessary for this case.

The steps are also applicable when using Firefox on your android device. Simply install and follow the procedure keenly. Otherwise, find the detailed steps in the next section.


How to Disable WebRTC in Firefox

Another procedure worth mentioning is how to disable the WebRTC on your firefox browser. However, the steps are the same as when using android but someone complicated to a certain level. Therefore, you will not need a third-party application to disable the WebRTC on your firefox browser.

you can directly access the settings on the Firefox and disable it in a few steps as highlighted below:-

Step 1: Launch Mozilla Firefox, and click the enter button while on the address bar.config.

Launch Mozilla firefox

Step 2: You will see a warning on your screen. Proceed to accept and tap on the ‘ i accept the risk.

Proceed to accept

Step 3: Then again, type in ‘media.peerconnection.enabled on your search bar, which is, in this case, under the address bar.

media peerconnection enabled

Step 4: On the search result, double click and make sure you change the value column to false, and you are done.


How to Disable WebRTC in Safari

and today, apple company has also begun supporting WebRTC on their products and the latest browser like safari. Though it is in the experimental setting, you can still follow the same procedure to disable the WebRTC regardless of the phone or a desktop. for the case of the mac, here is the procedure:-

Disable WebRTC in Safari

Step 1: You must first click on the browser and from the menu, hit on the safari browser from the button at the bottom of the menu.

Step 2: Then head to the preference section and on the resulting menu, select advanced.

Step 3: Then, check the develop box, which is also within the displayed menu underneath the page.

Step 4: Therefore go back to the primary menu and navigate to the develop section

Step 5: When you are there; ensure you turn on the ‘remove legacy WebRTC API option.

As simple as that, and you would have stopped the WebRTC on the safari browser on the mac latest version. However, with iOS, the case is somehow different. You can attest below:-

Step 1: You first have to go to the settings when you want to disable the WebRTC on the safari using the latest iOS phone.

Step 2: Then from the settings menu, navigate to the safari option

Step 3: Then head to the advanced section- experimental features.

Step 4: Then from the resulting menu, proceed to turn on ‘ remove legacy WebRTC API.’

Step 5: The WebRTC will be deactivated even when you restart the safari browser.


How to Disable WebRTC in Opera

before going forward, you must understand that the latest opera version operates on the advanced chromium engine. Therefore, the user has complete access to the website, the chrome. Therefore, it allows you to have the ability to install any extension meant for chrome and run within opera.

This makes it simple even to use the chrome patch instruction without disabling the WebRTC. Thus, you can rely on a lighter third-party browser extension to get work done.

However, there is an alternative method where opera comes with an in-built procedure for disabling the WebRTC. here is the procedure:-

Disable WebRTC in Opera

Step 1: Launch the Opera browser on your device.

Step 2: Then using the search bar, type in the URL about. config then clicks the enter button.

Step 3: Then navigate to the settings and choose advanced settings

Step 4: Then tap on the privacy and security option

Step 5: Navigate to the point where it indicates WebRTC. And form the option chose ‘ disable non-proxied UDP and finish by saving the changes. You are done.


How to Disable WebRTC on Microsoft Edge

After covering all the major browsers, the last option is disabling the WebRTC on the Edge browser. Edge has also become popular among internet users. When you get a new version of the Microsoft Edge, it comes with privacy settings capable of blocking all the IP addresses through WebRTC.

Enabling this feature is simple; you do not need a third-party extension to prevent IP leakage. Here is the procedure:-

Disable WebRTC on Microsoft Edge

Step 1: Launch the Microsoft Edge browser

Step 2: In the search box, type in ‘about. flag, and after that, click enter.

Step 3: Then scroll down on the resulting menu and locate the option stating’ hide my local IP address over WebRTC connection. Make sure you check the box.

Step 4: You will see a notice requesting you to restart the browser. Therefore, close and launch it once again. You can confirm by performing the leak test to ensure that WebRTC is disabled.


Conclusion

While WebRTC is a vital feature for online streaming and conducting conferences, it still poses dangers to your online privacy. It is WebRTC that is responsible for your IP leak. Therefore, learning when to disable it and enable these features is necessary.

In our article, we have covered different procedures for disabling WebRTC based on different devices and browsers. Follow the above guide to deactivate the feature and avoid IP leakage by masking your privacy. When you cannot achieve it through the browser settings, get a third-party browser extension and make things simpler.

Tags:
nv-author-image

William Parsons

William Stafford Parsons is a leading expert in web data extraction and proxy services. He pioneered innovative techniques for large-scale data scraping and management over the past decade. William founded Eightomic LLC which provides customized data mining and web scraping solutions to Fortune 500 companies. He also created the popular GhostProxies residential IP network used by data professionals globally. Earlier, William co-founded IPbot.com - one of the first web data companies focused on gathering online data at scale. His technical expertise and entrepreneurship has been instrumental in driving innovation in data extraction and network anonymity. With over 15 years of experience, William continues to explore new methodologies and technologies to harness web data smoothly and reliably. He is renowned for building tailored systems that leverage proxies and data scraping to meet critical business needs.