What is a WebRTC?

WebRTC (Web Real-Time Communications) is a standard for embedding interactive communications capabilities - voice, video, chat – directly into a Web browser. Prior to WebRTC, developers relied on proprietary plug-ins or custom browser extensions to enable browser-based communications. WebRTC enables better user experiences and simplifies client administration by eliminating vendor specific, browser-specific plug-ins. Many popular browsers including Google (Chrome™), Mozilla® (Firefox®) and Opera™ now support WebRTC.With WebRTC, communications service providers and enterprise IT organizations can easily extend real-time communications to any browser-enabled device (PC, smartphone, or tablet) over any IP network (public or private, wired or wireless).

What is a WebRTC Leak?

A WebRTC leak is when your external (public) IP address is exposed via your browser’s WebRTC functionality. This leak can de-anonymize you via WebRTC APIs, even if your VPN is working correctly. If you have not protected yourself against WebRTC leaks in your browser, any website you visit could obtain your real (ISP-assigned) IP address through WebRTC requests.

WebRTC leak solutions.

Disable WebRTC in (Opera)

There is an extension for Opera that successfully blocks WebRTC leaks, for example:

1. WebRTC Control
Disable WebRTC in (Firefox)
1. In the address bar, enter about: config
2. The “I accept risk!” Button will appear, click on it
3. In the address bar of the browser, enter media.peerconnection.enabled
4. Double click to change the value to false
Disable WebRTC in (Chrome)

There are extensions for Google Chrome that successfully block WebRTC leaks, for example:

1. uBlock Origin
2. WebRTC Network Limiter
Disable WebRTC in (Microsoft Edge)

Unfortunately, there is currently no way to completely disable WebRTC in the Microsoft Edge browser. You can change your browser settings to hide the local IP address by following these steps:

1. In the address bar, enter about: flags
2. Check the option Hide my local IP address when connecting via WebRTC