You might think that by enabling “Private browsing” you have everything in place for a private browsing experience, well due to a process know as “Fingerprinting,” a website can potentially identify a large amount of information about a user, even when using Private browsing mode. Due to how browsers are designed to work, there is not much that can be done to fully protect your privacy. Here is a list of 7 popular browsers in order of the most private.

1. Tor

Number one on the list is Tor, which uses a series of volunteer servers to send traffic through virtual tunnels rather than making a direct connection. Because of this, it does make browsing on Tor slower than any other browser and probably not a good choice for everyday browsing unless you really need to cover your tracks. When using Tor it will also default to the private search engine DuckDuckGo.

2. Vivaldi

Vivaldi will block tracking and advertising scripts by default on every website you visit. Vivaldi gives you the option to block ads right in your browser – no extensions needed. Block all ads or adjust per site. Because Vivaldi is built with the open-source Chromium software, it looks and feels much like Google Chrome, without the security/privacy risks. You can also use Chrome browser extensions with Vivaldi.

3. Brave

Next up is the Brave browser, a good choice for everyday browsing with a greater level of privacy. The great thing about Brave is it will block tracking and advertising scripts by default. On some websites that can shave seconds of page loading times and subsequently increase the amount of time you get to spend on other things than waiting for a website to load. If you pay for data, it will also save you money by using Brave. While it is good for privacy it has received some concerns that it is not as secure as some others on the list. Because Brave is built with the open-source Chromium software, it looks and feels much like Google Chrome, without the security/privacy risks. You can also use Chrome browser extensions (chrome extensions) with all versions of Brave.

 

3. Opera

A nice lightweight browser that also includes a built-in ad-blocker and VPN to mask your real IP address. This is helpful in preventing websites from tracking your default public IP address.

 

4. Internet Explorer and Edge

Microsoft has made big steps towards greater privacy with recent compliance with GDPR and greater user controls towards privacy settings. They have also now turned off by default a highly intrusive web tracking technology called WebRTC. Having WebRTC leak prevention enabled by default has helped to improve the privacy of using Microsoft Edge a web browser. 

 

5. Firefox

Although it is possible to disable WebRTC in Firefox, it is turned on by default. Another problem with WebRTC is that it can leak your actual IP even when making use of VPN services.

 

6. Safari

Safari is a bit too integrated with the Apple ecosystem with over sharing of data many people would not be comfortable with. Apple has made some great steps towards greater privacy with GDPR compliance.

 

7. Chrome

Last on this list due to the fact Chrome is tightly integrated with Google’s data collection tactics and also has WebRTC enabled by default without a simple option to turn it off. This makes Google Chrome vulnerable to WebRTC leaks.