Top 10 Web Browsers for Privacy in 2022.
Many people are not worried about their online privacy. But hackers, corporations, and governments track your online activity and collect your personal information. Surfing the Internet anonymously is a difficult task, so let’s talk about the best web browsers in terms of privacy and security.
Popular browsers such as Google Chrome and Microsoft Edge are known to record user data and track activities. Instead, you should use one of the many alternative browsers. So let’s take a look at the best options for all your devices.
What Makes a Browser Private and Secure?
There are several features you should look for in a browser to make sure you pick the best one. Here are the most important ones:
1. Ad blocker. You need a good ad blocker. While you can always install it as an add-on, it’s even more convenient when it’s already built into your browser.
2. Anti-fingerprint. Believe it or not, some websites use browser fingerprints to track you and your online activities. Thus, they can collect information about you without the use of cookies. There are private browsers that offer fingerprint protection.
3. Automatic deletion of cookies. This feature is not available in all browsers, but you can always install an automatic cookie removal extension for browsers. This feature deletes all cookies from websites and applications you have visited as soon as you close your browser.
4. Customizability. Some browsers have various privacy features and the useful ability to customize them. Setting your browser privacy to your liking will allow you to be flexible if necessary. It will also affect the speed of your browser.
5. HTTPS everywhere. HTTPS websites are the most secure and you are often advised to only access them. Private browsers with HTTPS Everywhere will always connect you to the most secure version of the website you are browsing.
6. Open source. Your browser doesn’t have to be open source, but one that provides the best security and privacy for your browser. If you are a programmer, open source browsers will allow you to inspect their code yourself and look for vulnerabilities or bugs.
7. Privacy across devices. Not all privacy browsers work across multiple platforms. If you want one that works, you should be looking for cross device functionality. These browsers will allow you to share tabs, web pages and even bookmarks between your PC, smartphone or tablet. They will also offer the same level of privacy and security across all devices.
Best Privacy-Focused Browsers
Find the most private and secure browser with built-in privacy features. Check out our selection below and let us know which one you think is the best.
1. Tor
Tor is notorious for being used to browse the dark web. But don’t be scared; you can also use Tor to surf the web just like any other browser.
Tor encrypts all your internet traffic and keeps your activity private. Even ISPs can only see that you are connecting through the Tor network without having access to your browsing history. Tor uses three nodes, each of which can only decrypt part of the traffic. However, this complicates the connection between nodes and affects the speed of the browser. As a result, it can sometimes run slower than other browsers.
The Tor Browser focuses on privacy, but could improve the security features. It will block some plugins you might want to install and has no malware protection. The privacy settings are not easy to understand, and it’s best not to change them unless you’re an experienced Tor user.
Tor Browser is available for Windows, Linux and macOS.
2. Brave
A Chromium-based browser, Brave is very lightweight yet offers a lot of cool privacy features. Apart from a built-in ad blocker, it also has a built-in password manager that will allow you to keep all your online accounts secure. Brave also offers one-click fingerprinting, tracking protection, and script blocking.
Although Brave is an open source browser, some people don’t trust its Chromium base, which is being developed by Google. The Brave Browser also gives preference to ads that profit from Brave itself, not the websites you visit.
Brave was also in the news for the auto-completion of URLs that led to cryptocurrency websites through their affiliate links. This means that Brave made money directly from certain websites, which raises the question of how reliable the browser is. It’s not a privacy violation per se, but it’s Brave’s transparency issue.
Brave is available for Windows, Linux, macOS, iOS, and Android.
3. Mozilla Firefox
Mozilla Firefox is a popular mainstream browser that is lightweight and user-friendly due to its easy-to-use design. It is also an open source browser, and over the years its code has been scrutinized by various programmers and enthusiasts. So far, they haven’t found any doggy lines of code that could compromise privacy.
Firefox Private Browsing includes anti-phishing, anti-malware, fingerprint protection, and tracking. But for complete privacy, Firefox users should always turn off the telemetry feature as it sends your data to Mozilla. This is easy to do as the browser offers detailed customization.
Mozilla Firefox is available for Windows, Linux, macOS, iOS, and Android.
4. DuckDuckGo
DuckDuckGo is an offline browser search engine for mobile phones. The PC browser is in development and PC users are looking forward to it. The company has yet to release plans to address privacy issues such as fingerprinting. However, users trust them because of their DuckDuckGo Privacy Essentials extension, which you can already install in your web browser.
This extension will turn your regular browser into a privacy-focused one. This forces all websites you visit to use their HTTPS version, if available. Through it, DuckDuckGo Privacy Essentials establishes an encrypted connection with websites and allows you to see their privacy scores.
DuckDuckGo is available for Android and iOS as a browser and desktop browser extension regardless of operating system.
5. Vivaldi
Vivaldi is another Chromium-based browser with many privacy features. It also allows you to have multiple default search engines with different privacy and security settings. This is handy if you want to set up both regular and private browsing modes. Each one may have different settings.
Vivaldi protects against the keylogger by disabling the dormant Application Programming Interface (API). This means that websites won’t be able to ask you for permission to use an API known to be abused to track behavior. In addition, Vivaldi will provide you with a backup encryption key in case you lose or forget your encryption password.
Vivaldi is available for Windows, Linux, macOS, iOS and Android.
6. Chromium
Chromium is an open source web browser whose source code is available to everyone. But that’s probably why Chromium isn’t as user-friendly as Google Chrome. You’ll have to do a lot of manual tweaking to get everything running smoothly and to your liking.
Chromium has the most frequent updates. A new one comes out almost every day! This is a fantastic feature that will prevent any kind of privacy vulnerabilities. However, all update installations must be done manually. This is what puts people off when it comes to Chromium. To maintain your privacy and stay safe, you must actively seek out updates and install them.
Chromium is available for Windows, Linux, macOS and Android.
7. Epic
Epic Browser has all privacy features enabled by default. It automatically blocks ads, cookies and trackers. His default search engine is DuckDuckGo. But that doesn’t mean you can’t change Epic’s settings. You can, but always at the cost of privacy and security.
Epic is firmly committed to the principles of privacy and security. There is no spell check, auto-complete, or auto-sync in this browser. 1-It also doesn’t allow you to install plugins.2- It also does not store your browser history or login information.3- It also blocks RTC calls so your IP address is never exposed.
Epic is one of the best browsers for privacy, but it can be too limited and difficult to use. This browser is also based on Chromium, and since Chromium is developed by Google, there is no 100% guarantee that it is completely secure.
Epic is available for Windows and macOS.
8. Iridium
Iridium isn’t the most popular browser, but it does offer solid privacy features. This browser blocks all third-party cookies, clears website data after it’s closed, has no telemetry, and doesn’t save your passwords by default. Iridium makes its Git repositories public for anyone to check out.
Based on Chromium, Iridium is compatible with most Chrome browser extensions, but installing them may impact your browser’s privacy and security. There are some plugin compatibility issues when opening certain websites.
Iridium has occasional updates, and they have to be installed manually. This cumbersome task scares away many users.
Iridium is available for Windows, macOS and Linux.
9. Apple Safari
Safari is a famous internet browser developed by Apple. It also works well when it comes to privacy and security. In private mode, DuckDuckGo is the default search engine. It also boasts machine learning-assisted privacy protection and anti-fingerprint options. The point is that it runs each tab in a separate sandbox, so your data is protected from malicious codes designed to access it.
Safari’s rendering engine is based on the open source WebKit framework. But the rest of the browser uses proprietary code, and anything can be hidden in it. That doesn’t make Apple Safari the most trusted privacy option. After all, Apple was already at the center of controversy when it was discovered that it was collecting its users’ browser history.
Available for macOS and iOS.
10. Opera
Opera seems like a good choice for security conscious people. However, when it comes to privacy, sometimes this is not enough. It comes with a free built-in VPN. While it’s not the best option for privacy, Opera’s developers state that their VPN is a no-log VPN. This is a feature you should always look out for when choosing a VPN, paid or free.
What they don’t say is that Opera doesn’t have a real VPN, but a proxy that will only work in the browser. This means that your IP address will not be permanently hidden.
Opera has built-in ad and tracker blocks that are enabled by default. However, it does not have fingerprint protection. This is not an issue when you turn on the VPN proxy feature as it creates an almost unique fingerprint. This should be a good enough defense against data collection.
Available for Windows, macOS, Linux and Android platforms.
10 Web Browsers for Privacy in 2022
Enjoy Private Browsing
Everyone from companies to government agencies are after your data. Unfortunately, surfing in incognito mode will not give you the option of private web browsing. Web browsers collect a ton of information through cookies, trackers, ads, and your IP address. If you want to avoid Big Brother, start using one of the private web browsers on this list.
However, a private browser is not enough to fully protect privacy. You should also start using anonymous email services and a reliable VPN service. Finally, hide the digital breadcrumbs you leave behind and keep your browsing history to yourself.
Top 10 Web Browsers for Privacy in 2022
Top 10 Web Browsers for Privacy in 2022