best web browsers for downloading files Best Internet Browser for Your Privacy: Round-up of 2021. If you use the wrong browser, companies can track what you do on the internet. They can even find out what you like, what you dislike, how old you are, how you spend your time and a ton more. But it’s not just about privacy and personal data. Security breaches that could compromise your passwords, sensitive information, or even banking data aren’t rare. Luckily, there are still relatively safe ways to surf the web. Using the most privacy-orientated browser means you’ll be browsing the web quite safely. Read on to see what the best browser for privacy is. What Happens When You Use The Wrong browser? With the wrong browser, you’re risking quite a lot: Having your browsing history exploited by private companies. Losing your login credentials for different websites in a breach. Accidentally navigating to malware-infected sites. Security breaches, long-winded privacy agreements that no one reads nor understands and cookies are all part of the problem. Cookies are a big part of why you’re not anonymous online. When you browse a website that uses cookies, a small file is saved on your PC, Mac, or smartphone. This file stores things like your activity on the site and a unique ID. This ID is then used to track your activity and other personal information. That’s how marketers can show you targeted ads based on your online activity. But it’s not just about the greed of big tech companies and eCommerce websites. Breaches can happen at any time, anywhere on the web, so all the data you have stored on your browser can be accessed by hackers, compromising your saved passwords, bookmarked websites, personal information, and business details. And Chrome, the most popular browser, isn’t a safe place to store that data. For example, a while back they had a breach on their extensions Web Store. Privacy and security are serious concerns when surfing the web, and using the wrong browser can get you in a lot of trouble. But don’t worry, we’ve comprised a list to help you pick the best browser for your privacy needs. Tip: if you want to protect your privacy online, be sure to use a good-quality VPN to protect your connection to the internet and encrypt your data. A good and relatively cheap option is Surfshark. Very user-friendly and works with Netflix and torrents 30-day money-back guarantee. No questions asked! Cheap with many extra options. Best Browsers For Privacy – Top 5. Before we get into it, let’s cover what we take into account when determining what is the best browser for privacy. First, a lot of privacy issues can be overcome with the right settings. Even using Google Chrome can be safer if you go to Settings > Privacy and Security and deactivate some of its tracking. We also take anonymity into account. Some browsers have you surf the web in the equivalent of “incognito mode” from the get-go, which ensures a safer and more private navigation (as this lets you start your browsing sessions cookie-free amongst other things). We also looked at encryption. Browser-based encryption encodes your data in one or more layers of protection whenever you surf the web, so the more the merrier. Lastly, we also consider additional details like the historical security of the browser, meaning that if significant breaches took place in the past, we’re more likely to not include it here. R emember that a secure browser is not everything you can do, so make sure you also read our article on how to browse the internet anonymously . 1. Tor Browser. The Tor Browser uses NoScript to mask your prior activity from the websites you’re visiting. It sends your internet traffic through the Tor network, which ensures a great level of anonymity, and it encodes all of your data in three layers of encryption. But the story’s a bit more complicated, so let’s look at the pros and cons of Tor. Pros Cons Tor hides your identity, preferences, and any form of personal data by sending your traffic through at least three nodes in the Tor network. Your data is encrypted at every Tor node (server) it goes through. Unless you insert your data somewhere, this makes you incredibly anonymous. Your connection might be slowed down when using Tor. Unless you’re working with a lot of bandwidth, the traffic redirects and tripple encryption will make your internet run slower. This means you should use Tor for stuff like browsing Reddit, but if you want to stream a movie, you should use one of the other browsers on the list. Tor doesn’t just abstain from recording your internet activity, it even deletes any cookies you installed after any session. Since Tor lets you roam the dark web freely, it won’t stop you from accessing harmful websites, which could include malware-infected sites, posing great privacy and especially security risks. Tor’s three-layered encryption adds an extra safety net to keep any big company or hacker from stealing your data. Add a VPN on top and you’re a digital ghost. Overall, the Tor browser is one of the safest browsers out there. That’s expected from a browser that lets you access the dark web, but you shouldn’t let the association with the worst parts of the internet cloud your judgment of Tor. Edward Snowden himself praised the secure and privacy-aware Tor Browser. 2. Brave. Founded in 2016, Brave is an aesthetic option for your private and secure browsing. It has all the tools you need to keep your browsing private, but it’s not 100% privacy-friendly. There are some cons to using Brave, but other than that, it’s a good browser to use. These are some of the pros and cons of Brave. Pros Cons Brave automatically has an adblocker installed. While that’s a good start it doesn’t do anything to keep your data safe. With Brave, however, the ad blocker can also stop marketers from tracking your online behavior. In April 2019, Brave launched its own ad program, which is understandably confusing for its users. On one hand, it blocks ads from third parties, but on the other, it shows its own ads, which aren’t as targeted and don’t pay any commission to the creators of the content you’re consuming. Brave is intuitive to use, with a sleek interface. Brave also allows you to customize your web browsing in lots of ways. Although it’s fast, Brave is not as fast as Chromium or Safari. Back in 2018, Brave switched to a Chromium-based infrastructure, making the transition from Chrome even easier (more about Chromium later on). Brave launched its own cryptocurrency, the BAT (Basic Attention Token), which was intended to allow users to anonymously pay publishers for the content they’re consuming, with a cashback twist on it as well. There are talks about a few agencies monopolizing the currency, but that’s unverifiable. Although the idea seems novel, we don’t exactly recommend using BAT yet. Brave has a few decent security features, including the ability to secure unsafe websites with HTTPS. Brave can block fingerprinting attempts, and it can stop unsafe scripts from loading. Brave is open-source and it loads pages pretty fast. Generally, Brave is very safe. It works on a privacy-friendly framework and it has all the tools you need to secure your web surfing. 3. Mozilla Firefox. Without Tor-level encryption, any browser is at a high risk of getting compromised, even if the developers are careful with your privacy. Backdoors are found all the time, and breaches can take place at any minute. That’s why secure browsers have frequent patches and updates, just like Mozilla. You can improve Firefox’s performance by installing certain AddOns, but these are not a part of the standard install. You will have to be careful when using Firefox. They don’t share anything personal unless you give them permission to do so. On top of that, a lot of security measures need to be set-up in advance. You can do that by pressing the shield next to any link and then clicking on “Manage Protection Settings”. A screen will pop up showing a bunch of different security options. If you don’t want to bother ticking every security option you see fit, you can just activate their settings presets. If not, make sure you: Block dangerous and deceptive content. Query OCSP responder servers to confirm the current validity of certificates. Delete cookies and site data when Firefox shuts is closed. Always send websites a “Do Not Track” signal that you don’t want to be tracked. All of these options are available in the “Manage Protection Settings” tab. 4. Safari. Safari is Apple’s default browser, even if a lot of people just download Chrome right after they buy a new Mac. In tune with Apple’s hermetic developing philosophy, it can keep a virus or malicious link from affecting your entire system, and it has a few decent security measures. Pros Cons Safari doesn’t let malicious code spread to your connection or browser, and it keeps your data secure in case you clicked the wrong link. Safari updates very rarely. On one hand, that’s a big red flag in case of breaches and it’d be a big problem for any other platform.