How to Disable JavaScript in your Browser? Benefits and Risks

You might decide to disable JavaScript in your browser, for different reasons. One of them would be to keep away push notifications. Of course, there are many reasons to make you think about this. Let’s have a look both at them and at the associated risks.

Why would you disable JavaScript?

We can identify the most important reasons for users to make this decision. Let’s see which they are, so you can make an informed decision.

1. Improved browsing speeds come once you disable it. This is because the load time for websites will shorten, as these scripts require significant processing power. Thus, they could cause delays, mainly for older computers or with slow internet connections.
2. Enhanced security is another advantage that comes with it. Remember that many hackers use these pieces of code to launch attacks, using malicious scripts.
3. Better privacy is a thing that you gain when there are no such pieces of code that reach your browsers. Without them, websites are not able to collect sensitive information, such as location and browsing habits.
4. Once you do this, you reduce the amount of data that websites you visit will consume.  
5. Improved accessibility might also come after this, as JavaScript may interfere with the assistive technologies.

So, privacy, security, performance, and accessibility are the main wins you get by disabling JavaScript. But you should know how to do it.

How to proceed?

All web browsers offer this option. So, here is how to do this in Chrome:

1. Access the browser’s menu, in the right upper corner.
2. Go to “Settings”.
3. Choose “Privacy and security” in the left menu.
4. In the menu that opens, click “Site settings”.
5. Scroll down to the “Content” section and choose “JavaScript”.
6. Tick the “Don’t allow sites to use JavaScript”.

In the recent versions of Firefox, the process is a little bit different, as the option is not anymore available in the settings:

1. In the address bar, enter about:config.
2. You get a warning from the browser.
3. Confirm that you are aware of the implications.
4. In the search bar, enter javascript:enabled, and hit Enter.
5. Right-click on the setting, and select the “Toggle” option.
6. Change its value to “False”.

It is easier in Microsoft Edge:

1. Open the browser menu and click “Settings”.
2. Write “JavaScript” in the left search bar.
3. Scroll down on the results page, to reach “JavaScript”.
4. Access it and toggle off the button.

Now, it is disabled. So, you can take advantage of the improvements we talked about. But, keep in mind that there are also consequences you need to be aware of!

Important associated consequences

Remember that this decision also has some other consequences that we mentioned. As about 95% of the web pages use this scripting language, some of them may not display correctly. Moreover, you might miss essential content, because of this.

Of course, there is another option to disabling it. Some browser extensions allow you to define rules for the execution of scripts, such ScriptSafe, for Chrome, or NoScript, for Firefox. But also remember that hackers may try to use extensions to launch their attacks.