In some cases, such as browsers, security can come at the expense of privacy. Every security setting disabling a feature to decrease attack surface can likely be detected from JS, making your browser that much more fingerprint-able.
EFF’s Panopticlick is a good starting point for browser fingerprinting and tracking.
Good point, I didn’t think of that. For that example you mentioned, do you know if there are any extensions that try to fake the feature? I know XPrivacy does something similar on Android.
Probably the best and easiest thing I do for my privacy is installing a few browser addons, for me it’s EFF’s privacy badger.
It has no visible effects other than it accidentally blocks a bunch of ads too, so a net improvement over my browsing experience.
uBlock Origin paired with Badger works quite well.
What does Badger add that uBlock with EasyPrivacy and Fanboy’s Anti-Social List doesn’t?
Badger is a good starting point for users and provides an intuitive representation of trackers through the UI. The controls for that (i.e. being able to adjust enable/disable certain things) is more entry user level friendly than say, going through all the source lists on uBlock and understanding what is blocked. I find the controls more granular so one can adjust as desired. I will admit to not having spent sufficient time going through all the lists within uBlock.