8 Most Secure Browser(s) to Stay Anonymous & Safe

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Are you looking for a truly secure browser where you search for something you want on the internet browser so-called “incognito browser” and then miraculously it starts to show you that product everywhere? Well, you are not the only person who wants THE SAFE BROWSER and yes, Google Chrome would definitely not be the part of this “Secure Browser(s)” list.

Let’s first understand what exactly is the secure browsing and how can you get yourself secured from those little prying eyes. Secure browsing means browsing through the Internet without leaving your digital footprint on every site you visited. Once you search for the term and visited the site, the next time you search similar terms and once again got the previously visited site, some web browsers show something like “You’ve visited this page 2 times. Last visit: 10/1/20” which is basically keeping your browsing track even after clearing browser history and cache. If the browser is not configured properly, your data will be at risk. Now the most common data your browser will compromise will be like below-

  • Browsing history: all the websites you visit
  • Login credentials: usernames and passwords
  • Cookies and trackers: these are placed on your browser by the sites you visit
  • Autofill information: names, addresses, phone numbers, etc.

Now your browser must ensure that no one is spying on you or keeping your track which in final reduces your chance of getting malware or virus. If you are doing bank transactions, it would be better not to take any chance and get yourself a secure browser so you feel confident about your privacy and security for carrying out transactions.

Secure Browser that Secures your Privacy

Secure browsers will protect you from hackers, vulnerabilities, and online exploits. The data that is collected by these secure browsers will be minimal and not shared for advertising or any other benefactor.

Here is the list of the most safe & anonymous browser you should use-

1) Firefox- Best Secure Browser (Recommended)

Firefox is one of the most secure browsers that offer high privacy and security for daily usage.

Firefox

Firefox is developed by Mozilla foundation which is a non-profit organization fully audited which proves that they do what they say, keep you secure.

Notable Features-

  • Enhanced Tracking Protection– Mozilla firefox has an inbuilt feature to block the data-collecting trackers and its numbers up to 2000 data-collecting trackers as of today.
  • Portable Passwords– The Mozilla Firefox saves your password and keeps it secure and available on all of your linked devices.
  • Data Breach Alerts– Mozilla Firefox alerts you if any organization’s data has been breached has also breached your data as their part of the breach.

2) Tor Browser- Notable Secure Browser (Recommended)

The Tor Browser stands for “The Onion Router” and as the name suggests, it has multi-layer encrypted protection like an onion. This is one of the most secured browsers to use that uses the three-layer proxy.

Tor Browser

If someone is using a TOR browser, the Tor Browser will transmit the web traffic through randomly selected Tor relays before it reaches its destination. This method of transmitting the data will hide the user’s IP address and physical location so they can be anonymous while browsing and enjoy their anonymity without worrying to get tracked.

Notable Features-

  • Block Trackers- Tor browser isolates each and every website that you open and use so that the trackers and ads can’t follow you. The Tor browser also clears all the cookies and the browsing history as soon as the session ends, resulting in zero footprints.
  • Surveillance Defense- The Tor also keeps you safe from monitoring prying eyes that track your internet browsing, although they would be able to see that you are using the Tor browser.
  • Fingerprint Resistance– Tor browser aims to make all the users look similar in preview so the third parties won’t be able to fingerprint you based on the browser and device information.
  • Multilayer Encryption– The traffic you sent or received while browsing is relayed and encrypted three times as it passes through the Tor network. Tor network has thousands of volunteered servers acting as a Tor relays.

3) Waterfox

WaterFox BrowserThe Waterfox is an open-source firefox code based browser specifically firefox 56. The Waterfox is the plain vanilla version of firefox that will not be upgrading soon. This does have an advantage as the Waterfox will support the older version firefox add-ons and newer version firefox add-ons.

Notable Features-

  • Limited Data Collection– The Waterfox collects only the Browser version and operating system version so as to check the updates. No other data is collected and it has been verified the same.
  • Themes and Personalization– Waterfox has a wide range of themes to customize your browser to the user’s choice.

4) Brave- Best Private Browser

The Brave browser is a Chromium-based browser unlike all firefox based browsers in the list. The Chromium is an open-source code behind Google Chrome with all its proprietary features removed.

Brave Browser

The Brave browser has built-in privacy and security features like ad-blocker, tracking protection, https everything, etc. Brave is one of the best alternatives for Google Chrome with all its built-in privacy features, unlike Google Chrome.

Notable Features-

  • Shields– The Brave Browser has features like Ad-blocking, fingerprinting prevention, cookie control, block scripts, etc.
  • Brave Rewards (can opt-out)- These are the rewards you can get if you view the private ads, tip your favorite creators, etc.

5) Pale Moon

The Pale moon browser is an open-source internet browser mainly based on the customizability. The Pale moon internet browser is based on Firefox, it is lightweight and highly customizable. This internet browser supports multiple old firefox add-on but not the latest ones.

Pale Moon

The Pale moon browser does not have any specific privacy features but it also does not have any privacy-invading software or add-on preloaded like many latest browsers.

Notable Features-

  • Highly Customizable– The Pale moon browser’s user interface is a XUL-based frontend that supports a wide range of custom themes and skins for users.
  • Lightweight– The Palemoon is a highly lightweight browser and does not require much hardware and consumes around 1 GB of RAM at most while using it on the peak.
  • Portability– You can install the Palemoon browser on your pen drive and use it on any portable device with all of your bookmarks and save data in the browser.

6) Icecat

Icecat BrowserThe GNU Icecat previously GNU IceWeasel is a fork of firefox from the GNU free software project. The Icecat browser is completely free, secure and has various add-ons and privacy tweaks by default.

Notable Features-

  • Https-Everywhere: The Icecat prefers the https Extension that encrypts your communications with many major websites all the time that make your browsing more secure.
  • SpyBlock: The Spyblock feature blocks the privacy tracker while browsing the internet so as to keep your privacy intact.
  • Fingerprinting countermeasures: Fingerprinting is the method of figuring out the browser of the user based on certain features and the pattern of behavior. Icecat has countermeasures to avoid fingerprinting and keep the user’s browser data anonymous.

7) SeaMonkey

The Seamonkey browser is an open-source internet suite. Like the Palemoon, the Seamonkey browser is also based on Firefox. The Seamonkey has a retro style user interface and interactive medium functionality.

SeaMonkey Browser

Seamonkey is a great option for people who wants to have the old school internet browsing experience. The Seamonkey does get updates but is at a slower rate than Mozilla firefox and high-end browsers.

Notable Features-

  • Classic User Interface– SeaMonkey is one of the coolest looking old school user interface browser that has high speed and multiple ad-on.
  • Multiple Languages– The SeaMonkey browser is available in 22 languages at the time of writing this article and the latest version is 2.53.3 that released on July 7th, 2020.

8) Iridium browser

Iridium BrowserThe Iridium browser is a secured browser based on chromium with additional privacy and security. This browser is very useful for people who want Chrome browser’s extensions with better privacy and security than Google Chrome Browser. The Iridium browser as of now does not support iOS, Android devices, or any other mobile platform but supports Windows, macOS, Debian based, OpenSUSE, Fedora, and RHEL/ CentOS.

Notable Features-

  • Transparency- Iridium offers many security and privacy enhancements than Google Chrome with the latest updates and patches. The source code of Iridium is freely available on Iridium Github for the public.
  • Chrome Extensions– As Iridium is based on Chromium code-based, all the Google Chrome Browser’s extensions are available for Iridium.

Browsers to Avoid-

Since we have already covered which internet browsers should you use to have the maximum privacy and data security, here are some of the most popular internet browser you should avoid-

1) Google Chrome- Not so Secure Browser

Google ChromeGoogle Chrome is the most used internet browser by the users and it is quite popular for its simple, clean, and friendly user interface. But Google Chrome is also known for its data collection and use it for displaying ads (or says the sources).

You can safely assume that all you do and all the sites you visit on Google Chrome are recorded, stored, and use for target advertising. Fun Experiment- Try and search for Shoes (or any other product) on Google Chrome and browser for a while and soon you will be targetted with shoe advertisements in almost every app and pop-ups.

2) Microsoft Edge

The Microsoft Edge is also like the Google Chrome and as owned by Microsoft, it is closed sourced. So we don’t have any idea what exactly is going on behind the scenes and what data is collected.

Microsoft Edge Browser

So it’s wise to avoid Microsoft Internet Explorer and Microsoft Edge for better privacy and security.

3) Opera Browser

The Opera browser was started off as a really decent featured browser in Norway but was sold to the Chinese association. Now as we know that the Chinese Applications collects the data and is shared among all the Opera products, we strongly advised avoiding the opera browser as it compromises the privacy of the user to its full extent.

Opera Browser

4) Safari Browser

Safari BrowserAs Internet Explorer and Microsoft Edge are default browsers for the Windows devices, Safari is the default browser for Apple devices. Safari has some decent privacy and security features but it is also came to the light in recent news that Apple is a partner in the PRISM surveillance program under which United States’ National Security Agency (NSA) collects internet communication from various U.S. Internet companies.

Have some suggestions for the list, write us down in the comment section below. Share the article, stay safe, and browse anonymously.

Also, Read- 10 Best Free Tools to Stay Anonymous Online and Browser Anonymously

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