Browser's Privacy

Introduction

In modern days we spend most of our time connected and web browser’s are our portals to access the Internet's world.
It is easy to understand that, because we use them to access every service, application or online content, trough them a big chunk of our personal data passes.

With this text I aim to create a simple yet comprehensive guide for everybody to take back control of your own data an enhance your privacy to safely access the web.
 

Why i should care about privacy?
In the new era data are the most important asset, you exist and you are a part of the modern world because there are data that proves that.
Everyone of us is strictly linked to a set of personal information that identity us and losing it’s control it’s like losing a part of ourselves. Controlling data is equal to control the world.
Now without thinking about taking the control of the world, everyone should have the right to control their personal data and their virtual persona, being able also to limit the amount that is continuously exchanged and shared on your behalf.

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List of contents:

• The Problem

• Default Drowsers

• The Solution

• What to Look For

• Key Privacy Features to Look for

• My Recommendations

• Extensions Reccomendations

• Extra Steps

• Disclaimer

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The Problem
Big companies have already understood the power that data hold a while ago, so now every application you have installed aim to see and collect a huge variety of your personal data.
All this data is not only stored and analyzed by the company that provides the service/software, but very often is also sold to countless third parties for a variety of purposes.  
In the case of web browsers not only the program itself can collect your data and spy on you, but also the websites, applications and services that you access are collecting information about you and sending trackers to map your online behavior for commercial purposes and only they know what else.
 

Also remember that the Incognito Mode on most of the browsers do not protect you more than the "normal mode", it only clears the cookies of that session after you close it!

If you started to feel goose bumps don’t worry, fortunately there are multiple ways to take back control of a big part of those information and in many case also stop them from collecting it.
 

Default Browsers
When you buy a device whether it is a smartphone, a computer a tablet… it already comes with a web browser installed for you to use, but unfortunately is almost never the best one in terms of privacy.
The main browsers owned by corporations are just another piece of software to monitor their consumer’s behaviors.
The most common ones like Chrome, Safari, Edge (to name some), even tho they come with a lot of functionalities and are advised as safe and caring about your privacy they actually don’t do much to preserve your privacy and stop all this trackers, actually sometimes is quite the opposite.

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The Solution
Ok, all this sound really bad, so what can we do about it?
Luckily there are still a lot of people that care about privacy and human rights and it happened that many of them are also software developers and have created alternative for all of us to use.
And the best part is that there are free and open source options.
 

What to Look For
There are many alternatives to chose, but what are actually the best ones for a daily use and also the ones that protects me the best without compromising usability, how can I chose the right one for me?
When choosing a web browser there are a few key things you want to check:

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• If they are FOSS(Free and Open Source Software), now the reason why this is important is because the open source software have their code publicly available, so anyone can review it and be sure that the program doesn’t do any sketchy things behind your back.

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• Security/updates: considering the rapid grow of treats and technology you surely want a software that is constantly being updated and that brings you new features while also protecting you from the dangers and preserving your privacy.

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• Functionalities and plugins/extensions availability: as we have said before, we use the browser for a large amount of different tasks and so we want to have one that have a good amount of built in features and also the chance to install external plug-ins to fit every need.

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• Reputation: it is also important to research before downloading a software to know what is the behavior of the people that provide the software, are they trust-able? (Generally safe when choosing an open source one, as is a community created software and a company can’t dictate changes, still better to research and be 100% sure about what you are  choosing to trust).

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• Aesthetics: talking about privacy and security this is surely the least important thing, but I personally think that if you have to use something every day you should chose something that looks at least decent ad that is easy to use.

In conclusion there are also personal preferences, some browsers may offer very similar performance and features but someone may prefer one over the other, you can have your opinion too and select the one that fits you the most.

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Key Privacy Features to Look For
We have just talk about the importance of having different features and security in place in your browsers, here I will list some of the most important ones that you will need in order to protect your privacy:

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• Cookies advance settings: you want to be able to granularly chose what to do with cookies, not only block them or not, but also choosing specific actions/settings for each sites (you might have different needs using a different service online). The most common settings to look for and enable here is to block all third party cookies and also clearing the website data when you close it.

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• Ads/Tracking protection: Websites not only track you with cookies but also in many different other ways, to understand your online behavior also on external websites; you want the option to stop all this inside your browser.

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• Fingerprint protection: another way used to track you is by fingerprinting (uniquely identifying) your browser, so they can know that it is still you even with all the other privacy features. This one is more complicated as there are hundreds of different methods in place to try and fingerprint you, also most aggressive anti fingerprint protections break websites, but there are still some options available that will protect you while letting you normally surfing the web.

 

• HTTPS only mode: this setting force all connections to use this newer and encrypted protocol to transfer data online, to avoid someone stealing data while it is transmitted. (Nowadays most websites use https as default).

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• Pop-ups and redirect blocking: this is useful because it stops useless ads pop-ups or being redirected to external website for tracking or other unsafe purposes.

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• Change the default search engine to one privacy focused like: brave, duckduckgo, starpage... More on private search engines in this guide here.

This are the main important features privacy related, of course there is a lot more underground especially in terms of security. I encourage to research further if you are interested in the topic.

Also for advanced users I suggest to test your browsers, there are many different online tests for anti-tracking, anti-fingerprinting, anti-ads... Also checking the source code, flags and advanced settings to know better how the software is working and who/what you are trusting.

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My Recommendations
I understand that while for somebody checking all this things, researching and tweaking is quite fun and interesting but somebody only wants to know what to download to move away from the mainstream browsers.
Here I will give some suggestions, please remember that this recommendations are the result of my personal opinions and researches, I am not sponsored by any of them and this list is valid at the time of writing which is early 2024.
Changes in the market or in those software could modify the situation and hence my recommendations.

For Windows, Mac and Linux
Best out of the box browser: Brave Browser
It is feature rich, and gives a great protection out of the box, you can also spend time and further tweak it to make it safer and even more private.
It has the best score in terms of randomizing the fingerprint on multiple test-websites and services.
This browser is also free and open source, based on chromium, but is packed with the brave software company other features for web3 and vpn.

Link here

Best for TOR dark web: Tor Web Browser
This is a bit different, it looks like a normal browser but actually is more than that, it is used to connect to the TOR network.
Is free and open source and has a general good protection in terms of privacy and security, the core is based on the Firefox browser open source project.
It is available for Linux, Mac, Android and Windows.

Link here:

Note: navigating trough the TOR network is extremely slow, it is not recommended as a daily driver, unless you have some specific needs.
If you are interested in accessing the TOR network I highly suggest to read and get information about it, there are very good explanations in the torproject website.
 

Other Good Options:

• Libre Wolf: is FOSS, an hardened version of the classic Firefox, packed with the uBlock Origin extension to enhance privacy protection.  Link here

• Also Mullvad Browser is nice, very similar to Libre Wolf.

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• Duckduckgo: the provider of the search engine has recently crated its own browser available for Android, Ios and Windows. It is very simple and clean, but also the Windows version is still quite new and miss some features for now.

      Link here

There are also some other smaller and new niche browsers, so if u want to go for one of those you should do some advanced researches, as they might have been “less tested”.

Best for Mobile: Brave Browser
Even on mobile it shares most of the features of the desktop version, showing the best scores in privacy, anti-tracking and anti-fingerprinting protection and features.

Link here

Other good options are:
  • Duckduckgo browser: very basic and fluid interface, offers mail protection and apps anti tracking.

      Link here
    • Firefox Focus: a special out-of-the-box hardened version of Firefox for mobile.
     Ideally you can also download the regular Firefox but it need some work on to enhance privacy and anti- tracking.
     Link here

General other recommendations: the Chromium original open source and Firefox are FOSS, but are very bare-bone in terms of advanced privacy controls compared to some of those above and need way more tweaking and extensions to perform similarly in terms of privacy protection and security.

If I have missed some in the list is only because I have put the ones I have personally tested and that are most used and tested and also most mentioned in the privacy community.

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Extensions Recommendations

The browsers of choice in the list already provides good to advanced privacy protections, but it should also be mentioned that you can enhance privacy on many browsers using specific extensions.
Some of the most used are:

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• uBlock Origin: blocks trackers, ads, scripts and more + is free and open source, already packed in Libre Wolf.

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• DuckDuckGo Privacy Essentials: blocks some third party requests and cookies, also set it’s search engine as default.

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• No Script: a plugin made to stop all scripts in the browsers that do not offer this as default, is packed in the Tor Browser.

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• Other extensions: you can find many extensions for the most popular browsers, safely research and vet them before installing.

Now you can chose one or more and start browsing the web safely without the creepy trackers following you all around.

Remember that installing too many extensions can paradoxically make it easier to fingerprint your browsers, so chose only a few ones that are reliable and downloaded my many users, so you can better blend.

 

Extra Steps
If you want to raise even more your privacy level you can choose to use a VPN (Virtual Private Network), some of the main advantages are:

• It hides your IP, the websites you visit will see only the VPN ip address and your ISP would not be able to see anymore your traffic in clear-text.

• It encrypts all the traffic before exiting your device, protecting you from MITM attacks.

• Some providers offer also anti-ads/trackers protections within the service.

• Remember to chose a safe one, with a strict no log policy, good encryption and jurisdiction.

This is an extra fast and slim explanation on VPNs, if you are interested in the topic you can check this guide I have made here.

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DISCLAIMER
Using a private browser doesn’t make you some kind of anonymous ghost!
For example they do not hide your IP address for which you need a VPN, a proxy or using the Tor Browser while connected into the TOR network.
Even so these would be only few of all the steps to try achieve anonymity which is a more complicated matter and impossible to get at 100%.
If you are in a country where there is high censure or you are an activist I suggest you to take some time and valuate your treat model and move accordingly, this might need a lot of targeted researches and actions.

Surft the internet responsibly!