Why Your Browser Could Threaten Your Data Privacy

The internet is now awash with different internet browsers promising you different things when you use them.

For some, you get a better download speed than you were used to. For the others, it is the advantage of a beautiful user interface, or earning something (usually some crypto) when you make use of them for your internet surfing.

However, those should not be the first things you look at when making a verdict on what browsers to go for. After all, these seemingly innocent apps and programs could make you the victim of a hack.

How Browsers Can Put Your Privacy at Risk

Browser Cookies

Your browsers are not just taking you to all of those sites. They are also being fitted with cookies from site to site, and these cookies could be there for different reasons.

What cookies used to be for was keeping you logged into your online accounts so that you don’t have to manually log in every time again. Along the line, though, marketers started using tracking cookies to see your internet activity.

This way, they can know what sites you visit when you leave theirs. That is why you start seeing ads related to websites you’ve been on when you visit other websites.

Browser Fingerprinting

As if that’s not enough, some browsers will even allow for websites to use browser fingerprinting on you. Recall how every human has a unique fingerprint? This is what the webmasters aim to do to your browser too.

This time, they will collect information such as your IP address, the kind of computer you are using, the kinds of cookies you have, and more. With that, they can create a very specific digital signature for you so that it is easy to track your single computer among millions of others on the internet.

Password Saving Feature on Browsers

We have trusted our browsers so much that we allow them to save our passwords when we visit most sites. Of course, that allows us to log in faster the next time, but what happens when the browser gets hacked?

Picks like Google Chrome has come to become the choicest browser on the internet in recent times. Seeing as the browser is owned by Google, this will be the first sign for most people to know that it will be data-hungry.

Privacy Risks with the Incognito Mode

If there is one thing that we can praise the Chrome browser for, though, that has to be the incognito browsing mode. This same model has come to other browsers under the same name – or a private browsing appellation instead.

What users do not know is that this mode protects them from cookies and history logging, but their ISP can still see the websites they are visiting. Even the webmaster can see your IP address.

This is why we always recommend that you download a VPN to encrypt your internet connection through even when using Incognito mode/ private browsing. If you care about staying safe on the internet, that is.

How to Choose a Secure Browser

Now that you know how most browsers are not doing right by its users, we also need to explore what a browser should do. Better still, we will let you in on the ones that get the job done right.

Apple Safari

To start with is browser fingerprinting which the Apple Safari browser has been able to tackle uniquely. 

Apple went all out by leveraging both machine learning and artificial intelligence to ensure that none of the users of their browser falls victim to this. In the same vein, they are also using the same systems to prevent websites from installing tracker cookies on your browser whenever you are surfing the web.

Tor Browser

Also doing the same is the Tor browser. Although some users have argued that the browser can sometimes be slow but that is just because of how many servers your internet data is being run through.

By so doing, anyone trying to follow your data is lost in the sea of servers that they have to navigate. Likewise, the website you are surfing won’t know anything about you too.

Mozilla Firefox

A dialed-down version of the Tor browser which is also an effective security tool is Firefox.

Note that the Firefox browser you have freshly installed is not all that safe. A trip the settings tab will put you face-to-face with some of the best privacy options though.

DuckDuckGo Privacy Browser

For an extra cherry on top, we like what the DuckDuckGo Privacy browser also brings to the table. They check the box on preventing against tracking and blocking ads too. Where they stand out the most is in the offering of their search engine that doesn’t collect data as Google does.