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Users looking for a privacy-focused browser might want to consider Brave first, according to a study published this week.
Douglas Leith, professor of computer systems at Trinity University, examined six browsers for his report – Web Browser Privacy: What Do Browsers Say When They Phone Home? He found that Brave's Chromium-based browser is the least likely to reveal unique identifying information about the computer using it.
Brave, which has accused Google of privacy violations, is 'by far the most private of the browsers studied' when used with its out of the box settings, according to the paper.
The study examined six browsers: Chrome, Firefox, Safari, Brave, Edge, and Yandex. It used several tests to deduce whether the browser can track the user's IP address over time, and whether it leaks details of web page visits. To do this, it looked at the data shared on startup after a fresh install, on a restart, and after both pasting and typing a URL into the address bar. It also explored what the browser did when it was idle.
- The browser has built-in privacy features that include ad and cookie controls, browser fingerprinting protection, and more. But the Brave team wants to do more than be another privacy browser. It has created its own cryptocurrency, called BAT (Basic Attention Token) that you can use to reward the websites you like.
- The Brave browser is an open-source pay-to-surf browser based on Chromium, announced by Brendan Eich in 2016. Brendan Eich is a co-founder of the Mozilla project and the creator of JavaScript. Brave claims to have improved online privacy that will block intrusive internet ads and trackers.
Even though Mozilla makes a talking point of privacy in Firefox, it was Brave, developed by Mozilla's founder (and creator of JavaScript) Brendan Eich, that won out. Brave, which has accused Google of privacy violations, is 'by far the most private of the browsers studied' when used with its out of the box settings, according to the paper.
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The study placed browsers in one of three privacy classes, based on the time span over which they retain identifiers. Brave gets the top class all to itself because it uses what the study calls ‘ephemeral' identifiers that link a handful of transmissions and then reset. This means it doesn't remember your identifier across browser restarts.
The paper lumps Safari, Firefox, and Chrome together in the second band. These browsers share some privacy issues, the paper warns, including auto-tagging each browser instance with unique session and browser instance identifiers that can persist across restarts. These behaviours can be disabled but they're turned on silently by default, the paper claims.
The research picks out four identifiers that Firefox uses. Two created by the browser persist across browser restarts, while the third changes between browser sessions but could be linked together because old and new values are sent together in a telemetry message, the paper said. The fourth identifier, created by the server, is associated with an open web socket used for Firefox's push services. Firefox also sends user IP addresses with these identifiers.
Leith's paper acknowledges that Mozilla deletes the IP addresses sent with these identifiers after 30 days, but frets that the company is 'silent on the uses to which the IP data is put.' He worries that this could be used to track the user's location, adding:
That does not mean such linking actually takes place, only that the potential exists for it to be done.
Leith had asked Mozilla whether it used IP addresses for location tracking, and also asked for the company's IP address usage policy as part of its push service. He received no response. Mozilla spokesperson Justin O'Kelly didn't address those issues specifically with us, but responded:
Firefox does collect some technical data about how users interact with our product, but that does not include the user's browsing history. This data is transmitted along with a unique randomly generated identifier. IP addresses are retained for a short period for security and fraud detection and then deleted. They are stripped from telemetry data and are not used to correlate user activity across browsing sessions.
Leith's paper also calls out Safari, which it said allows all the third-party sites listed on its start page to set cookies without user consent. It also phones home to icloud.com even from machines that aren't registered with that Apple service, the paper warns, calling this connection 'spurious'.
Apple was also the most aggressive browser when it came to sending data that users typed into the address bar back to Apple servers for autocomplete purposes, the paper warned:
The requests to Apple include identifiers that persist across browser restarts and so can be used to link requests together and so reconstruct browsing history.
Apple didn't respond to our request for comment.
Google's Chrome phones home almost every letter typed into the search bar for autocomplete purposes, the paper said. Even after unticking the ‘allow telemetry' box, the browser sets up a cookie with Google's server that it then communicates each time the browser is opened, Leith found, and this happens even if the user isn't logged into Google. Google declined to comment for our article but pointed us to its Chrome Privacy White Paper.
The issue for many of these browsers seems to be not so much what they're doing, as the fact that they do it by default, leaving non-techie or unaware users open to more information gathering. From Leith's paper:
In summary, Chrome, Firefox and Safari can all be configured to be much more private but this requires user knowledge (since intrusive settings are silently enabled) and active intervention to adjust settings.
The paper reserves the gravest concerns for the third, least private group that it identified, containing Edge and Yandex. These use identifiers linked to the device hardware, it said, persisting across fresh browser installs. They can also be used to link different apps running on the same device.
Edge also contacts a Microsoft advertising server, the paper said, which sends back several identifiers that Edge then echoes in subsequent requests to that server. It added:
Loading of the Edge welcome page sets a number of cookies. In particular, this includes a cookie for vortex.data.microsoft.com, which appears to be a data logging server, and allows data transmitted to this server to be linked to the same browser instance.
Even pasting (rather than typing) a URL into the address bar contains what the paper calls 'unwanted consequences', including leaking user browsing history to Bing via the search engine's autocomplete API, and once again contacting vortext.data.microsoft.com.
Microsoft's Edge privacy page says that it sends device identifiers as part of a diagnostics reporting service that users can turn off. Users can also delete this data on the server. According to its Edge privacy white paper, people can turn off Search Suggestions to stop it sending your search terms to Bing, which otherwise keeps them for six months.
Yandex didn't respond to the paper's allegations that its browser, popular among Russian speakers, sends user browsing data to Yandex servers as part of its autocomplete API, along with the text of web pages to its translation service. It also sends the SHA-1 hashed MAC address of a machine to Yandex, along with browser identifiers, enabling them to be tied together, Leith's paper said.
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Your web browser is the vehicle that carries you around the Internet to your desired websites. As such, it knows precisely what sites you have visited, how long you spent browsing them, and what you clicked on (or almost clicked on). Anyone who has access to your web browser can have a window into your income, your political leanings, and even your sexual preferences.
This is why it's so important to only use browsers you know will protect and improve your internet privacy. In this article, we explain how browsers capture so much information and which web browsers in 2019 are best at keeping your browsing history safe from data-hungry tech companies and advertisers
Further reading:Easy steps to improve your internet privacy
How you are tracked online
Before examining the impact your browser can have on your privacy, you need to understand how your online activity is monitored.
While having a company directly record your browsing history is a risk (see Google Chrome), the more common threats to your privacy come from online advertisers and third-party trackers. Similar to Google, advertisers and trackers want to record as much of your online browsing as possible. The more data they have, the better they can show you ads specifically tailored to you. The two tools they use to follow you around the Internet are device fingerprinting and cookies.
- Device fingerprinting is when a site looks at all the characteristics of your device (the make and model of your device, what browser you are using, what plugins you have installed, what timezone you are in, etc.) until it has enough information to identify and follow it. Your device share this information to optimize the websites you visit. For example, websites want to know if you're using a laptop or a smartphone so that it can select the correct font size and screen resolution. This can be surprisingly accurate. To see if your device has an easily identifiable fingerprint, check out the Electronic Frontier Foundation's Panopticlick.
- Cookies, or HTTP cookies, are tiny data packets that websites or services plant on your browser while you're on a website. These cookies differentiate your browsers from others, like a nametag.
The privacy risks of Chrome
Any discussion of privacy and Web browsers must begin with Google Chrome. It is, by far, the most popular Web browser. Chrome handles over 60 percent of web traffic. This is unfortunate because Google uses Chrome as a window to peer into every action you take online. Unless you modify your Google privacy settings, Chrome records every site you visit so Google can serve you targeted ads.
Even worse, Chrome does very little to block other advertisers and trackers from monitoring you with cookies or device fingerprinting. A Washington Post article reported Chrome gathers roughly 11,000 trackers in an average week. Do you want 11,000 pairs of eyes on you every time you do an Internet search?
However, you do not need to give away your personal data to access the Internet.
There are Internet browsers that do not record your every action and protect you from trackers. Switching from Chrome to one of the following browsers can drastically reduce the amount of data you are inadvertently sharing as you browse the Internet.
Further reading: Gmail's privacy problem and why it matters
Best secure and privacy-first web browsers:
1. (tie) Brave
The Brave browser was designed to make privacy simple enough for everyone. It is an open source browser built on top of Chromium (an open source version of the Chrome browser), which means it's easy for Chrome users to make the switch.
However, unlike Chrome, Brave does not collect any data about your online activity. Your data remains private and on your device.
Brave also makes blocking trackers easy. Instead of forcing users to decide which plugins and browser extensions they should download, Brave comes fully equipped. It automatically blocks all third-party and advertising cookies, and because HTTPS Everywhere is built-in, it ensures all your connections are securely HTTPS encrypted. Os x mojave requirements. Brave also features Fingerprinting Protection in the browser.
The company also has a social mission: to encourage websites not to rely on advertising based on tracking you around the Internet. Brave has introduced a system that allows you to reward creators and sites you visit directly.
Called Brave Rewards, it uses a utility token called a Basic Attention Token and enables you to anonymously reward the websites you visit most. Brave also has opt-in, privacy-preserving Brave Ads, and users who choose to view them earn 70% of the ad revenue, which they can then use to reward their favorite online creators.
Brave is available for desktop, Android, and iOS.
1. (tie) Firefox
The open source Firefox is the third-most-popular browser on the Internet, behind Google's Chrome and Apple's Safari. Developed by Mozilla, the Firefox team has improved the browser's privacy protections in recent years.
They have introduced advanced anti-fingerprinting and Enhanced Tracking Protection features this year, both of which make it much more difficult for third-party trackers to follow you around the Internet.
Unlike Brave, the standard Firefox does not automatically block advertisements. However, there are numerous browser extensions that you can download that will prevent advertisers from getting your information or showing you ads.
Or, if you primarily browse the Internet on your mobile device, Firefox Focus incorporates automatic ad blocking. (Focus was developed as an ad blocker for Safari, but was then transformed into a minimalistic privacy browser for Android users.)
Firefox is available for desktop, Android, and iOS.
3. Tor browser
As we have discussed elsewhere, Tor is the best option if privacy is your utmost concern. Google chrome ios 5. The Tor browser is based on Firefox, but it has been stripped down and specially calibrated to run on the Tor network.
When you use Tor, your traffic is encrypted three times and bounced between three Tor servers before it reaches your desired website. The encryption is handled in such a way that each server only has access to one set of instructions, so no server has access to both your IP address and the website you are visiting.
This setup makes it impossible for Tor to keep any records about your online activity, and every time you close your session, the browser deletes your cookie cache and browsing history. The browser itself is formatted to prevent fingerprinting, and it blocks all kinds of trackers.
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Unfortunately, it also blocks a lot of plugins that websites rely on. For example, with its privacy settings fully activated, the Tor browser will block JavaScript. JavaScript can expose user information, but blocking it can make websites unusable. Using Tor can also mean performing endless CAPTCHA verifications when you try to access larger sites. Finally, the Tor browser is slower than other browsers because of the extra encryption.
Download the Tor browser app for desktop and Android, as well as a Tor-approved open source Onion browser for iOS.
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4. DuckDuckGo (honorable mention)
Unlike the other browsers mentioned above, DuckDuckGo does not have a standalone desktop browser, which means it is only a solution if you are browsing the Internet on your smartphone or tablet. With the DuckDuckGo browser, your browsing history never leaves your device. Deleting your entire browsing history is as easy as tapping a single button.
It automatically blocks ads, stops third-party trackers, and ensures HTTPS encryption on all sites where that's possible. One feature that does set it apart is the Privacy Grade it gives each site. This makes it easy for you to evaluate how much data each website collects from you, with and without DuckDuckGo's protections, at a single glance.
The DuckDuckGo browser is available for Android and iOS.
You can also use the extension for Chrome and Firefox.
The Web browser you choose can have a dramatic impact on your overall online privacy. By switching to one of the privacy-focused browsers in this article, you can protect your browsing history from the companies and trackers that want to monitor your every digital move.
What's your favorite web browser? Let us know in the comments below on Twitter or Reddit.
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The ProtonMail Team
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