“Aren’t all browsers anonymous?” This question might be the first thing coming to your mind while reading the title. Each browser window has sections responsible for security, privacy, so you may consider anonymity is in-built and basic. Chrome, Explorer, Opera, and their alternatives adopted download protection, URL filtering, tracking prohibition, private mode. But… Why can’t all browser be considered secure? Surfing on the Internet through the most common browsers endangers your security and confidentiality. Products generated by corporations fall under suspicion above all. Google, Microsoft, Apple take part in the program of the secret data collection over telecom networks (PRISM). Users activities and habits can be collected effortlessly due to browsers. This tool serves to international corporations, at least for marketing goals and earning billions on average users. The more people download a browser and use it daily, the more precious it is for institutions. It’s a bottomless a source of information. Nevertheless, the issue is that we can’t imagine how data gathering can be utilised and influence our lives. This bomb can blow up anytime ambushing all of us. Ignoring this issue is somewhat myopic. How can the best anonymous browsers be identified? A browser is secure if it serves user privacy and confidentiality. At the same time, the user can manage or exclude data collection process (even if it interrupts browsing). Popular browsers are barely secure and trustworthy; they were generated to serve federal goals. In this review, we uncover the with their pros and cons. Make the right choice! best secure browsers 1 Idyll Browser of Utopia p2p Idyll — is a browser built-in Utopia Ecosystem. Utopia is a p2p multi -functional environment which includes besides the browser: uMessengeru Mailcrypto-wallettool for instant website creation encrypted file storage. What is unique about Idyll? Blockchain technology and advanced encryption algorithms lie in its core. and provides its users with privacy and security. Using Idyll inside the ecosystem, you are sure that third-party companies never use your data. Utopia doesn’t store information on a central server. For this reason, invasion of privacy, data leakage, and espionage are hardly possible. Elliptic curves unique p2p network architecture The registration in the network doesn’t require phone numbers, emails, and other private information. Anonymity. The decentralised ecosystem is based on blockchain technology, which guarantees the highest security level for today. Safety. Users have a mailbox, financial transactions, messenger, and browser at their fingertips.To start using the browser, you need to download Utopia Convenience. It should be highlighted that Idyll is . You can and be among the first Idyll’s users. Available on: Linux, macOS, and Windows. the youngest among his brothers from this list, and users can only surf websites which hosted inside Utopia network try 2 TOR Tor appeared as a response to an increase in the number of security incidents online. Proxy servers that form a secure chain lie in its core. That’s how Tor guarantee online confidentiality. Onion routing is at the heart of Tor. Data passes from one server to another within the Tor network. Afterwards, the information transfer takes place over a virtual channel. Further, the data is decrypted as received similarly. Information transmission between this browser and the target resource is not encrypted. You should enhance privacy manually if the confidential info is needed to be sent. For example, https and authentication tools are designed to meet the challenge. Note! It’s essential that Tor users have the opportunity to surf the darknet. Tor doesn’t save the browsing history by default. Cookies are saved and used only during the session. Users are protected from browser fingerprinting when browsing via Tor. Nevertheless, you should take into account . several drawbacks Low download speed Chance of breaking websites (due to script blocking) Potential connections to governments Combine browsing via Tor with using additional VPN software. That’s how your web activities can be protected for sure. 3 Waterfox Mozilla introduced Waterfox as a secure alternative to Firefox. This browser is a popular solution when it comes to private web browsing. Pale Moon, Basilisk should be mentioned here as the analogues; these products have at their core Firefox code. What makes it different from Firefox? Developers have changed several default : security settings integration with the Pocket is deactivated; data isn’t reported to Mozilla by default; encrypted Media Extensions are deactivated. Nevertheless, new features don’t influence the speed positively. A similar effect can be obtained by configuring Firefox manually. What are the Waterfox advantages? Waterfox deletes the user’s online data (passwords, cookies, browsing history) automatically from the computer. Untraceable web browsing. Protective mechanisms block hidden trackers automatically. So that the history data is not gathered, this feature improves user privacy and accelerates the speed more or less. It is countering hidden trackers. 4 Iron Iron is a secure Chromium-based browser. The developers contrast it to Google Chrome as a tool that has combined all the best features to devoid of security issues for the user. The main point is that Iron . Moreover, it excludes an identifier that makes it easier to recognise the user. Iron’s interface is a lot similar to Chrome. doesn’t report information about the user’s activities to Google It’s stated on the Iron’s official website that unlike Chrome, Iron has a built-in ad blocker that’s easy can be adjusted. In practice, the work of this tool is not clear. . Setting up the browser through the configuration file seems dubious. Iron disables the automated updates and mechanisms that supposedly allows identifying the user in some way. Ads are not blocked by default Given Iron’s stated focus on eliminating redundant elements, it’s surprising that the browser has some pre-installed and non-secure extensions. 5 Comodo Dragon Comodo Dragon is based on the previously mentioned technology. Comodo’s team developed its security tools: which is designed to cut off external SSL from internal; Domain Validation, and other tools generated for tracking online activities; No cookies Downloads are not tracked are remain private. Comodo team develops different tools enabling online security. Namely, antivirus and firewall, which makes us consider the security mechanisms of the browser trustworthy. The user interface of Comodo Dragon, of course, is very similar to Google Chrome. In addition to the previously mentioned secure DNS feature, Comodo Dragon has added options for automatically launching the browser in incognito mode. Websites are prohibited from disclosing where they were switched from. Along with security mechanisms, Comodo provides users with several dubious and non-alternative obligations. Firstly, anti-virus software is installed alongside downloading a browser. The same is for the Comodo Internet Security Essentials module, which is designed to protect users from middlemen’s attacks. Secondly, the Comodo license implies the possibility of collecting various data about the user system to enhance functionality. Namely, the data about the user’s operating system, plugins, as well as file metadata, information about default browsers, and much more. In light of the fight against information leaks at Google, this approach looks ambiguous. 6 Brave This browser is open-source software; Chromium technology lies in its core. Security tools and results are visualised on your computer – that’s what makes Brave over the competition. The number of blocked trackers and ads is translated real-time on the screen. Moreover, pages are loaded 3–5 times faster comparing to analogues, as the team stated. Look what Brave invented for : outstanding tab creation on behalf of the “new user” from the set; private; private using Tor. The “new identity” tabs emulate the site loading by a completely new user. A separate set of cookies and internal features are created for such a tab, which is not available for other open tabs. Using this mechanism allows working with multiple accounts on social networks or mail, and prevents the data leakage about user activities to websites. Private tabs don’t save a history of visits, and cookies are cleared as soon as you stop using the browser. Data transfer through Tor is available thanks to the private tabs integrated with Tor. All in all 100% secure browser hasn’t probably been created yet. Pursuing total privacy online is Utopia too. Every existing browser has its pros and cons, so you should get your priorities. One of them is a new software which is not time-tested. The others require additional plugins setup. Nevertheless, the benchmark for choosing among the best anonymous browsers is needed to be expanded. Take into account the risks of privacy violations and serf on the Internet securely!
