1. Selected requests are blocked
When a browser request matches one of Cloak's selected tracker, analytics, replay, ad-tech, exchange, or OpenRTB rules, the extension can stop that request before it completes. The rule set is intentionally scoped: a match can be blocked, while unrelated requests continue normally.
This does not stop every form of tracking. First-party collection, account activity, server-side data flows, and requests outside the selected rules can still occur.
2. Supported links are cleaned
Cloak removes common campaign and click identifiers such as supported UTM parameters from URLs while preserving the intended page or product destination. That reduces one easy source of referral context without pretending the link becomes anonymous.
3. Recognition defense starts early and rotates
Websites can combine ordinary browser characteristics into a more repeatable profile. Paid Cloak protection runs in the page's MAIN world at document start, before normal website scripts collect the covered signals. A fresh cryptographic seed keeps covered changes stable in one document and rotates them after navigation or reopening.
Cloak applies bounded changes to selected Canvas and Web Audio readbacks; normalizes selected WebGL, font, media-device, CPU, memory, language, and battery values; withholds covered high-entropy Client Hints; removes selected fingerprint headers; and intercepts a narrow set of explicit fingerprint identifiers in local storage.
Reduction is the accurate promise. Cloak does not make a browser invisible, change an IP address, defeat every fingerprint, or erase profiles a company already holds. MAIN-world code and compatibility exceptions also limit what an extension can guarantee.
4. Selected urgency and behavior clues are reduced
On covered shopping hosts, Cloak reports a charging, full battery and common device-pixel-ratio and screen-depth values. The W3C identifies high-precision battery status as a fingerprinting risk; this reduction does not prove a merchant used battery level to set a price.
Cloak also rate-limits covered scroll, pointer-move, mouse-move, and visibility callbacks registered on the page window or document to one delivery per 250 milliseconds. It does not fabricate low intent or stop every first-party behavior signal.
5. Supported price drops can be rechecked locally
On supported purchase-confirmation pages, Cloak can store the merchant, product identifier, URL, visible total, and time in Chrome local extension storage. Valid observations remain eligible for 30 days, and a later supported product visit can trigger a local alert with the visible difference.
The feature does not upload the purchase observation to Cloak, file a return, guarantee a price match, or prove that two variants, fees, or offers are equivalent.
6. The result stays inspectable
Open the extension to see a local receipt and current-window counters for browser-visible protection actions. The receipt can show what Cloak changed in the browser; it cannot reveal every server-side decision or prove that privacy protection changed a price.
Primary sources