Worried About Your Privacy, Change your Web Browser

 If You Care About Privacy, It’s Time to Try a New Web Browser

A new crop of internet browsers from Brave, DuckDuckGo and others offer stronger privacy protections than what you might be used to.

Most of us use web browsers out of habit.

If you surf the web with Microsoft Edge, that may be because you use Windows. If you use Safari, that’s probably because you are an Apple customer. If you are a Chrome user, that could be because you have a Google phone or laptop, or you downloaded the Google browser on your personal device after using it on computers at school or work.

In other words, we address the browsers that are readily available and familiar. It’s easy to fall into browser inertia because these apps are all fast, capable and serve the same purpose: visiting an online site .

So if the differences are minimal, why bother trying to seek out something else?

By the highest of this column, I hope to influence you to a minimum of try something else: a replacement kind of internet navigator called a private browser. this sort of browser, from less-known brands like DuckDuckGo and Brave, have emerged over the last three years. What stands out is that they minimize the data gathered about us by blocking the technologies used to track us.

That’s generally better than what most mainstream browsers, especially Chrome, do. While some browsers like Safari and Firefox also include tracking prevention, the smaller brands are focused on even more privacy protections.

We have also reached an inflection point in digital privacy. the online advertising industry is on the brink of ceasing to use web cookies, pieces of code planted in browsers that follow us from site to site and help target us with ads. Google, whose Chrome browser is that the world’s hottest , has been trying to develop a replacement because of target us with ads without the cookie.

Let’s not await that. you'll decide now that you simply simply don’t want to be tracked.

“We’re at a fork within the road,” said Gennie Gebhart, a director at the digital rights nonprofit Electronic Frontier Foundation, who follows privacy issues. “Companies that keep the lights on by advertising to users, Google included, are scrambling to determine what’s subsequent play. It’s also a time for users to be told and make a choice.”

Unlike mainstream web browsers, private browsers are available many forms that serve different purposes. For a couple of week, I tested three of the foremost popular options — DuckDuckGo, Brave and Firefox Focus. Even i wont to be surprised that i ultimately switched to Brave because the default browser on my iPhone. Here’s how it happened.

What is a private browser?

It’s important to know what private browsers do, and what they don’t. So let’s look under the hood.

Private browsers generally incorporate web technologies that are around for years:

They believe something called private mode, also mentioned as incognito mode, which can be a browsing session that does not record a history of the websites you've visited. this is often often useful if you don’t want people with physical access to your device to concentrate to you.

Private browsers also use tracker blockers, which can often be downloaded as an add-on for a browser. The blockers depend on a listing of known trackers that grab information about your identity. Whenever you load an online site , the software then detects those trackers and restricts them from following you from site to site. the massive downside of this approach is that blocking them can sometimes break parts of websites , like shopping carts and videos.

Privacy-focused browsers typically turn private mode on by default, or automatically purge browsing history once you quit the browser. The browsers even have tracking prevention baked in, which lets them aggressively block trackers using approaches that minimize website breakage.

But private browsers don't prevent your internet provider from seeing what websites you visit. So if you're on vacation and employing a hotel’s Wi-Fi connection, a private browser won't keep your browsing information private from the hotel’s internet provider. For that kind of protection, you still need to attach with a virtual private network, a technology that creates a virtual tunnel that shields your browsing information.

Meet the private browsers

Firefox Focus, DuckDuckGo and Brave are all similar, but with some important differences.

Firefox Focus, available only for mobile devices like iPhones and Android smartphones, is bare-bones. You punch in an internet address and, when done browsing, hit the trash icon to erase the session. Quitting the app automatically purges the history. once you load an internet site , the browser relies on a database of trackers to figure out which to dam .

 DuckDuckGo, also available only for mobile devices, is more quite typical browser. meaning you'll bookmark your favorite sites and open multiple browser tabs.

When you use the search bar, the browser returns results from the DuckDuckGo program , which the company says is more focused on privacy because its ads don't track people’s online behavior. DuckDuckGo also prevents ad trackers from loading. When done browsing, you'll hit the flame icon at the lowest to erase the session. 

Brave is additionally more quite typical browser , with anti-tracking technology and features like bookmarks and tabs. It includes a private mode that possesses to be turned on if you don’t want people scrutinizing your web history.Braves additionally so aggressive about blocking trackers that within the tactic , it nearly always blocks ads entirely. the other private browsers blocked ads less frequently.For most people, not seeing ads could even be a benefit. apart from folks that want to supply back to a publisher whose ads are blocked, Brave hosts its own ad network that you simply simply simply simply can opt into. In exchange for viewing ads that do not track your behavior, you earn a cut of revenue within the type of a token. you'll then like better to offer tokens to websites that you simply simply simply simply like. (Only web publishers that have a partnership with Brave can receive tokens.)

Battle of the browsers

All have a button to figure out what percentage trackers they blocked when loading an internet site . Firefox Focus sometimes broke elements of websites . On some sites, videos didn't load and ad windows couldn't be closed.

Selena Deckelmann, an executive at Mozilla, which makes Firefox, said that the strict privacy protections in Firefox Focus could sometimes cause websites to interrupt which the company worked with web publishers so their sites could load properly.

In the end, though, you almost certainly would be happy using any of the private browsers. albeit you don’t make one your default browser, it's useful surely situations, quite sensitive web search on a health condition.

 For me, Brave won by a hair. My favorite websites loaded flawlessly, which i enjoyed the clean look of ad-free sites, in conjunction with the pliability of opting in to figure out ads whenever I felt like it . Brendan Eich, the chief executive of Brave, said the company’s browser blocked tracking cookies “without mercy.”

“If everybody used Brave, it'd wipe out the tracking-based ad economy,” he said.

Count me in.