@@welovfree achieving total privacy means cutting off all your connection and vanish from surface of the earth... for example: one friend came over to see me and i am soo private that i am looking through keyhole to interact with him/her so they can't see my face... is terrifying and i doubt anyone want that kind of privacy
Testing on Windows 11 is indeed the best way to see "privacy violation" but to be fair, a test on Linux would be a good idea, to see what part of the queries are from the browser and what from the system itself, because since Windows 10, Ms OSes are more and more personal data greedy. And a comparison also on MacOS to check Apple's ethic.
@@τετέλεστα yea 8 sucked but 8.1 atleast tries to improve it, despite keeping that good but unfitting start screen, 8.1 was fast and well optimized, beats win7, 10 and 11 when its comes to speed due to optimization for tablet that benefits PC and laptop aswell.
I can already see a lot of people recommending a lot of browsers. I think now it is a great time to make a tier list to which browsers are best in terms of privacy.
@@Way2go926 There are people still complaining about ram in 2023? I thought 16GB was considered the minimum for modern day computing and 32GB is the new standard, while 64GB is considered "ideal". You can buy 16GB of ram for the same price a single meal at family restaurant. Even cheap entry level cellphones are coming out with 8GB of ram, so there is no reason for your big desktop computer to be running the same amount of ram as a cheap plastic cellphone.
I have to disagree with using a VPN with Tor browser. The whole point of using Tor is that one centralized server doesn't have your personal information. The VPN becomes the weak-point in the architecture and can give you away if a nation state wishes to force them too. If you want added security just make sure you configure your TOR connection to use Bridges which further hides your entry node from being traced back to you.
@@enderagent I'll be honest and say I don't even know what those are 😅 I heard that VPNs were used for the first hop but I totally believe and understand that could be incorrect, or have changed since I heard it
@@First_Grafter Using a VPN for the first hop is not really recommended, because the VPN company is directly connected between you and Tor. They will not be able to see what you are doing, because the Tor protocol will encrypt the traffic. Using a VPN does not really add any extra security or privacy and is mostly pointless
all that does is not save cookies, login data, and browsing history for the next session it still acts the same. "Firefox clears your search and browsing history when you close all private windows. This doesn’t make you anonymous." taken literally from firefoxes "private" mode
Thanks to independent testing lab like this we get the actual raw information (a look into the reality) of our digital security. Keep up the good work #TPSC
Firefox is bad out of the box but you can harden it in the about:config to the point of being a good privacy browser, unfortunately you can't disable everything spooky without breaking websites. Edit: Also yes I disable all the recommended news, and stories and all that stuff immediately on any new browser. I hate them.
Unfortunately, disabling too much telemetry with any browser will break websites. It's the website's fault not the browser's. I've broken some websites with Brave by setting the privacy to very strict.
@@brostoevsky22 The telemetry disabling is not at fault, it's something else in about:config! Yeah, it's tough fiddling around disabling stuff you don't want, but it's the only solution these days!
@@brostoevsky22 Telemetry isn't the reason for that. Very strict privacy means breaking cross-site cookies, certain components or javascript on sites, etc. as well
Once you've spent a week interpreting all the about:config settings to create your own "privacy browser" you're left with a Brave browser you're pissed off at for making you go through that, while still questioning if it's right. Then they just change the name of things and create new settings for it a week later without definition. So you ask r/Firefox whats going on and you figure out nobody really knows what they mean when they're defending their "hardened Firefox".
besides that Brave is based off Chromium, I will say after many months of using it, as well as Chrome, Microsoft edge, Opera GX, and Firefox, I think Brave is still one of my favorite and most private, not 100% private (there’s no such thing as completely private browser), but it’s private enough for me to feel safe.
Would love to see more of the "privacy browsers" covered as well as browsers you already showed in their usable hardened states (Arkenfox for example).
I use pfSense and the package/plugin pfBlockerNG with DNSBL. Literally TONS of lists of things to block. Pretty easy to configure, and the lists are updated automatically with the frequency you prefer. pfSense has a free version. Then it doesn't really matter what browser you use.
Interesting vid. But I would like to see how each browser behaves with "max privacy settings" (which Mozilla seems to make things a little easier to tune)...
Guys, be realistic. Acknowledge the world we living in and realize that true 100% privacy won't ever be a thing in a tool such as the internet. Best we can do is try our best to go as low-key as we can, but truly there'll always be a way for a third party or someone else to have our information at this point.
Switching from chrome to brave on desktop didn't made much of a difference. On mobile tho, it's a complete different experience. The built in ad blocker is a gift from God
I live on UA-cam. The ad blocking on there is PERFECT. Both on mobile AND on Windows 10 & 11 on my PC. As well as Linux. YUGE difference from Chrome, Edge, Firefox, etc., etc.
On Mac I use Orion Browser by Kagi, which is a WebKit browser with zero telemetry with a built in aggressive tracking blocker. It also supports both chrome and Firefox addons They also offer a privacy focused search engine with AI integration. The browser is free but search is pretty expensive
@@toineenzo just base Arch Linux for me, thanks! The M$ crap only through VM's when there's no other practical option. Once you're used to plain Linux, no matter if it's Debian or Arch, it's a one way ticket!
The brave ad stuff wasn't talked about as well as it should. Brave rewards is a program you OPT INTO where they show you ads which give you points you can spend. It is not on by default so I don't know why it was brought up the way it was.
EXACTLY!!! Thank you. I was also gonna mention that MOST of his "digs" against Brave are speculative (future) possibilities on "what they are probably going to do" and "I can see, they might, in the future...". Statements that have no place in an "unbiased" comparison of existing, currently available browsers.
By far the best browser privacy summary I've seen for the average user. I logged into UA-cam specifically to like this video. Thank you! Seeing those connections was so interesting (and revealing)! I've been frustrated with the convergence of apps and software toward what the majority of users like. I understand the providers are profit-driven but for users, a decrease in options won't be a good thing. I also think as apps become more similar the main factor for users will become price. Then developers will have to find increasingly cheaper ways to make their app work, and aspects like quality and privacy will suffer.
I agree with the most things you said, but Brave has a build-in DNS over HTTPS support for both Google and Cloudflare DNS servers and I think you could have had explained that this option exists and everyone who cares have the possibility to make the DNS requests untrackable by ISP or their government (if not filtered). There are also other problems that (excluding TOR) none of the browser can resolve, for example here is the SNI which is not encrypted curing the handshake process and often used to track subdomains/domains that a user visits even if the web traffic is encrypted using HTTPS and using DoH.
So what did you say was the most secure browser?? I don't care what the most popular was, where is the answer to the Best Browser Privacy question you labeled the clip as???
Now begins the browser comment war... "the one I use is best!" "No, the one I use is best!" It's iOS vs. Android, Mac vs. PC, Linux vs. Everyone else all over again... the computer religious wars continue...
Wouldn't have been better to start with a clean Wireshark screen? Mixing up the beginning/end made it difficult to follow. Or have a time stamp on the output if possible. Been a Brave user for a while now.
To make a long story short, I’ve used all four of these browsers (on both W11 and Linux Mint, and the winner (IMO) is Brave, with Chromium second. Brave is the fastest and most secure, hands down.
Good video, I actually care for privacy so I use Firefox hardened with a ton of extensions and Malware-blocking DNS. I also enjoy tampering with privacy focused browsers such as LibreWolf, Chromium-unggogled and so on.
@preternatural9417 uBlock Origin Port Authority CanvasBlocker Font Fingerprint Defender Privacy Settings ClearURLs LocalCDN Cookie AutoDelete I still don't care about cookies Term of Service; Didn't Read Temporary Containers Firefox Multi-Account Containers Google Container Malwarebytes Browser Guard Enhancer for Toutube Return UA-cam Dislike And a couple more, non related to youtube or privacy. Someone might say that user can be fingerprinted based on the extensions they use, I hopes this is not the case. I'm also using UA-cam Premium so no ads are being blocked so to say.
from my experience if you only have one empty tab then Chrome pretty much always wins, one website then it's similar between Chrome and Brave, anymore than 1 then Brave begins stomping I did a test opening 50 tabs of 7 days to die wiki about "Departed woman" zombie, all the browsers had the same 'performance' settings Ram wise: Edge used 4GB and went down to 3.6GB; Chrome used 4GB and went down to 3GB; Brave used 950MB and went down to about 880MB. The browsers inactivating the tabs didn't help much which is surprising considering I've used Chrome extensions that hugely help.... CPU wise (R5 3600): Edge used 70-95%; Chrome was the same as Edge; Brave used 3-10% and didn't lag when opening, closing and swapping between tabs unlike Edge which began lagging at 7 and Chrome at 8 (spam opening with mousewheel click) Brave is noticeably a little slower but hugely better in performance, my main issue is sometimes YT videos begin loading before the website is fully down and will restart the first 0.5s of the video, not that bad but you can notice it when listening to music, usually fixes itself when you close and open Brave Edge keeps background activities on once you open it which can only be turned off via task manager or restarting your pc
I use Firefox. My start page is "about:blank" so it doesn't load all the sponsored links. Of course, when your homepage contains information from the internet, it will make a connection to get that information. Also, Pocket is part of Mozilla, so it's not 3rd-party. I have no idea what it does so I disabled it altogether.
For the desktop a hardened Firefox or a privacy focused fork of FF would be best. As much privacy as possible without hindering the browsing experience, for normal people at least. Tor is great, but not ideal for most (normal) people, and it introduces additional levels of complexity. On Android a fork of FF would also be best (for normal people). Fennec or Mull work good out of the box and support privacy extensions as well. I noticed annoying behavior from Brave on Android. With all the privacy and blocking settings enabled and all the ads, crypto and suggestions turned off it still pings advertisers. It seems it depends on where you live. In my case, on start-up (blank page) and on opening a private tab (blank page), Brave pings the two largest ads and commerce sites in my country. I won't be using this browser again.
Regardless, unfortunately. Just opening a blank start-up page or a blank page in incognito mode would lead to pings to the ads sites. It's not really surprising, given how deeply entrenched they are in advertising, it's just disappointing. I've removed Brave from all my devices.
Yep, Brave allways leaks DNS location and WebRTC data even when running an VPN. The Brave browser is not at all private but most likely a scam. It leaks your IP address not matter how much you have of an good VPN running. All others did not have that problem.
You have to test more browsers. You didn't even include Opera and Vivaldi, which are both very famous Test some FF-based ones such as Waterfox and LibreWolf As well as some less known names like Min and Maxthon Avast also has a "Secure Browser" that worth testing, since Avast is a known name in the world of security.
For opera, it is based off of brave, however Brave came from a split when around 50% of Opera ownership was bought out by a chinese company. So brave is basically Opera, but focused on privacy since some of the old head devs from opera before the split, now work on brave.
I'm more interested in the kinds of personal snooping these browsers - and all programs you install on your computer - do. If I was a developer and my software snooped on what you were doing, how easy would it be for me to encrypted that data (passwords, messages etc) before sending it down the internet to some store/dubious entity? I assume packet sniffers/wireshark etc won't be able to decode what data is leaving the computer...if it's been encrypted first (a simple EOR #key instruction would do that, maybe throw in some multi-word bit shifting and rotating) ?? --> This would make for a pretty revealing video.
Tor > Librewolf > Waterfox > Firefox. I mean, if privacy is what you're after. Tough the more on the left you go the more It could break some websites depending on how you configure it, just sayin'.
Recent brave versions do not load the ubo lite blocker at startup, requiring disabling then reenabling the extension. Ubo lite is required because brave's blocker still fails to block promoted posts in LinkedIn.
In this video it was analyzed only the surface of the problem ... if you dig a bit deeper (and not only starting up the browser) you will find out that you can trust Firefox and Brave a lot more than the other two contenders. In particular Firefox is able to share almost the same amount of data as Brave but it does it in a smart way, letting the websites "believe" they are tracking you, while they are not; in Brave instead it can be detected more easily that something is blocking them, and this is more likely to break some websites.
I have been using Firefox for 15 years, and it has some great add-ons which make it very safe, if you add a VPN! Their container system is genius - looking at UA-cam? Put it in a container, and UA-cam cannot talk to any third party!
The only people that I've seen actually use the built-in news stories are usually older people. They have no idea who is feeding them the stories, why they are seeing what they are seeing, or what they should care. All they do is see something interesting to waste their time on and click it, the site loads, and that's all they care about.
I know it has nothing to do with the video but have you noticed how much ram the browsers are using? Like, it's insane, you open like 2 or 3 tabs and it's like 1GB is gone. By the way, The PC Security Channel, keep the good work.
Even Linux distros reach out to tons of domains. They might be more privacy respecting, but you'd be surprised on how many of them reach out to various universities, or companies. I know I was. Just get a firewall, like OpenSnitch or Portmaster, put it in Prompt mode, and see all those requests. Some distros are worse than others, but most of the common ones do it. In some ways it might be better if you was reaching out to one company/uni, at least that way you know that connection was for legit purposes, or not.
the only reason i use google chrome is because i can sync all of my devices with the same account, bookmarks, pages, tabs, etc. i don't lose my information, of course, is easily the most unsecured web browser for sure
Then you'll be happy to hear that alternatives do have native browser sync too, like Firefox and Brave on both PC and Android. Also, if you don't trust Brave/Mozilla or use a Chromium/Gecko based browser that don't support native sync, you could use extensions to do the job instead. :)
People that use FF for privacy/security don't use it out of the box but hardened, so probably not a fair comparison. Ps: would like to see Librewolf being tested.
It is a very weird way of comparing the potential for privacy of these browsers. Hey look! I open the browser on a page and I don't change any settings and there are requests! Right.
In my opinion, one of the best browsers just might be Librewolf. It's based on firefox but it is quite ahead. It also comes up with the option enabled, to delete cookies on exit. Also I guess Waterfox might be a good option, although I am not super familiar with that browser.
Yeah, if you like fiddling around with about:config to make it usable! Take it like that the first run of Firefox it's all Mozilla Corp, then after hardening it with extensions and removing all the spyware it's like good ol' Firefox! I'm not giving up on Firefox, it's still a lot of work to take out the defaults of Mozilla, but it's a great browser after that!
I've found that almost all browsers are the same in terms of "privacy", given that its up to the user to properly configure it to be as private as possible within the browser. I use Brave, and I totally dislike most of the personalized ads or the offer to win bravepoints or whatever for letting ads in, but at least it is a highly customizable browser.
You can disable the telemetry in Firefox... You can still configure Firefox in a deeper level although that's for advanced users. I disable news and etc. immediately. I can't tolerate that crap.
Ran Wireshark with Vivaldi. The output looks nothing like yours. There were portions highlighted in red and black. I did not find any of your highlights. Go figure.
i did some testing on this and results is Edge send over 100 DNS,Brave and Vivaldi 24dns,Firefox 93DNS and mullvad browser send 0 (looks like i will use mullvad browser)...
Perhaps, to see request data, you could use a proxy like BurpSuite with its CA added to either the system, or the browser (if that works, _does_ show browser requests with Firefox)
Currently using edge. Has tons of cool build-in functionalities and somehow feels faster than many other browsers. Don't understand why majority still use chrome though.
What is the argument for using a VPN with tor? So that the first tor node doesn't know who you are? So that the ISP doesn't know that you're using tor? Is it for "in case you click on that sketchy link" ?
one of the first thingsI do when clean intalling the shitty exuse for an os aka window is GUT every file folder registery key of it edgeband make sure a Microsofts feature that reinstalls its without you needing know it does or telling you it did how thoughtfull of them. Win11? just refuse its just so much worse than 10 in every aspect, tho.most of that is bc of win11 releasing.
Você provavelmente deixou ativas as opções: Início rápido ou Continuar executando extensões e aplicativos em segundo plano, basta ir em Configurações>Sistema e Desempenho e desmarcá-los... E o processo de Espera será encerrado.
I think there are two reasons for the "News Feeds." 1. Try to feed bias information and influence reader's views on certain things. 2. Try to understand you through the news that you like to read. From there, they know you better than you know yourself. It is better don't know anything or read all kinds of information, focus on news you like and you don't like. Understand what is "opinion" and what is "fact". Sometime when you only read bias facts, you became bias. Always question everything!
You need to disable the dns wireshark filter to see the TOR traffic. TOR does generate traffic which can be seen in wireshark as packets are being sent, but we can't decrypt the traffic easily.
Until they start charging a fee for the use of browsers then this sort of stuff will go on. It's sad because Mozilla is a non-profit and if they don't raise money from donors then they have to sell something. Plus this has always been about advertising. The general public want convenience and don't care about what they have to give up (privacy and eventually personal freedom). What is encouraging is that the trend is reversing itself. People are asking for privacy and security. And developers are building software like FireFox and Brave, etc to provide that. They may still have the recommendations, but you can turn that off if like. I would like to see the effectiveness of some of these browsers or others once you "harden" them or tighten down the settings. That would be a nice verification that the changes work. Thanks
I'd rather use Brave that is open about how they make money, and let you more or less control how it works, than other Chromium browsers. And I sadly need chromium for work, as catering to under 5% of other browsers is just not exactly efficient.
I have no complaints after using Brave for 3+ years now. I never have to watch ads on UA-cam and I get paid monthly in BAT crypto. I recommend it to everyone I know.
brave. i pirated so much with it but not any viruses, but when i switched back chrome i got 100% memory and disc usage, installed malwarebyte with Rkill and removed them along with windows defender
Thumbs up for making that kind of research .. very useful to know what happens behind the scenes .. however, what about Librewolf, Waterfox and Thorium .. especially the last one .. how good are these browsers when it comes to tracking and privacy?
Mullvad Browser is just Tor Browser that doesn't use Tor. Thus, it's just as "quiet" as Tor Browser without the benefits and downsides of using the Tor network. LibreWolf is also very quiet, though in testing it did lose to Mullvad in a couple of non-critical privacy categories. While the Tor network needs some traffic to help hide the users that really need its protection, it's not polite to use Tor for media streaming or other high bandwidth tasks.
If you really care about 'better' privacy and security, there is only one option is to go through a VPN. Playing games with your browser is pointless and too time consuming for the vast majority, plus the fact that browsers are always being updated.
The big players you cover (Chrome, F.F., Edge) are _not_ where you go if you want privacy. Brave is definitely a move in the right direction, but I ended up with LibreWolf - though there are others.
For the news story’s it depends. I actually am ok with tracking when I click on a news article and which I avoids which then can recommend me news I’m actually interested in.
Thanks for the video. Were you recommending Tor, then VPN, or VPN, then TOR? It looked like you were recommending VPN over TOR, but that is difficult to configure, and, from what I hear, may compromise privacy
Total privacy on the internet is an illusion.
True!
But partial one is not an illusion ;-)
Why would you need total privacy?
@@vaisakh_km Why wouldn't you need total privacy?
@@welovfree achieving total privacy means cutting off all your connection and vanish from surface of the earth...
for example: one friend came over to see me and i am soo private that i am looking through keyhole to interact with him/her so they can't see my face... is terrifying and i doubt anyone want that kind of privacy
@@vaisakh_km Yeah! and that's exactly why I said "on the internet".
Also, love to see you cover LibreWolf, Mulvad Browser, Gnome Web and Min.
Yes would also love to see this!
Libre
had no clue mullvad had a browser until now
also waterfoxx
@@user-ph2cl7fi8l Waterfox went independent again recently, so not anymore.
Testing on Windows 11 is indeed the best way to see "privacy violation" but to be fair, a test on Linux would be a good idea, to see what part of the queries are from the browser and what from the system itself, because since Windows 10, Ms OSes are more and more personal data greedy.
And a comparison also on MacOS to check Apple's ethic.
That assumes that apple will allow WireShark to run on macOS. I would not put it past them to have it blocked.
@@jacobcarlson4010 I agree it's Linux based but apples os shuts you out from everything
beside MS also ruined Win7 and 8.1 later on with an update that also added telemetry BS backported from Win10.
@kr0tchetII win7 was the last windows i didn't hate. win8 sucked. I got used to 10 then 11 cam out which is an abomination
@@τετέλεστα yea 8 sucked but 8.1 atleast tries to improve it, despite keeping that good but unfitting start screen, 8.1 was fast and well optimized, beats win7, 10 and 11 when its comes to speed due to optimization for tablet that benefits PC and laptop aswell.
To bad you didn't include Vivaldi. I would be interested to see how this one does as well.
I can already see a lot of people recommending a lot of browsers. I think now it is a great time to make a tier list to which browsers are best in terms of privacy.
it would be best to make a video on which browser uses less ram space. that would be nice
Forks of firefox
@@Way2go926 OperaGX lets you customize the max ram/cpu it can use. Also avoid using many extensions
@@Way2go926 There are people still complaining about ram in 2023? I thought 16GB was considered the minimum for modern day computing and 32GB is the new standard, while 64GB is considered "ideal".
You can buy 16GB of ram for the same price a single meal at family restaurant. Even cheap entry level cellphones are coming out with 8GB of ram, so there is no reason for your big desktop computer to be running the same amount of ram as a cheap plastic cellphone.
Harden Firefox or LibreWolf are about the best you will get for privacy.
I have to disagree with using a VPN with Tor browser. The whole point of using Tor is that one centralized server doesn't have your personal information. The VPN becomes the weak-point in the architecture and can give you away if a nation state wishes to force them too. If you want added security just make sure you configure your TOR connection to use Bridges which further hides your entry node from being traced back to you.
VPN after Tor can be useful for connecting through Tor to a VPN server to access services which block Tor exit nodes
It's to mask the first hop from your home to the tor "servers" right?
@@First_Grafter Tor bridges are better suited for this
@@enderagent I'll be honest and say I don't even know what those are 😅
I heard that VPNs were used for the first hop but I totally believe and understand that could be incorrect, or have changed since I heard it
@@First_Grafter Using a VPN for the first hop is not really recommended, because the VPN company is directly connected between you and Tor. They will not be able to see what you are doing, because the Tor protocol will encrypt the traffic. Using a VPN does not really add any extra security or privacy and is mostly pointless
Edge, Chrome, and Firefox all have a 'privacy' mode. I'd be curious to see those compared as well.
all that does is not save cookies, login data, and browsing history for the next session it still acts the same. "Firefox clears your search and browsing history when you close all private windows. This doesn’t make you anonymous." taken literally from firefoxes "private" mode
Thanks to independent testing lab like this we get the actual raw information (a look into the reality) of our digital security. Keep up the good work #TPSC
Firefox is bad out of the box but you can harden it in the about:config to the point of being a good privacy browser, unfortunately you can't disable everything spooky without breaking websites.
Edit: Also yes I disable all the recommended news, and stories and all that stuff immediately on any new browser. I hate them.
Unfortunately, disabling too much telemetry with any browser will break websites. It's the website's fault not the browser's. I've broken some websites with Brave by setting the privacy to very strict.
the point is that mozilla is full of shit
@@brostoevsky22 The telemetry disabling is not at fault, it's something else in about:config! Yeah, it's tough fiddling around disabling stuff you don't want, but it's the only solution these days!
@@brostoevsky22 Telemetry isn't the reason for that. Very strict privacy means breaking cross-site cookies, certain components or javascript on sites, etc. as well
Once you've spent a week interpreting all the about:config settings to create your own "privacy browser" you're left with a Brave browser you're pissed off at for making you go through that, while still questioning if it's right. Then they just change the name of things and create new settings for it a week later without definition. So you ask r/Firefox whats going on and you figure out nobody really knows what they mean when they're defending their "hardened Firefox".
besides that Brave is based off Chromium, I will say after many months of using it, as well as Chrome, Microsoft edge, Opera GX, and Firefox, I think Brave is still one of my favorite and most private, not 100% private (there’s no such thing as completely private browser), but it’s private enough for me to feel safe.
Would love to see more of the "privacy browsers" covered as well as browsers you already showed in their usable hardened states (Arkenfox for example).
I use pfSense and the package/plugin pfBlockerNG with DNSBL. Literally TONS of lists of things to block. Pretty easy to configure, and the lists are updated automatically with the frequency you prefer. pfSense has a free version.
Then it doesn't really matter what browser you use.
It would be interesting to see a before and after of these browsers with the 'Privacy' features turned on. Along with taking off the news for you etc.
Interesting vid. But I would like to see how each browser behaves with "max privacy settings" (which Mozilla seems to make things a little easier to tune)...
Have you ever tried "tuning" firefox? keyword you used here: "seems"
Guys, be realistic. Acknowledge the world we living in and realize that true 100% privacy won't ever be a thing in a tool such as the internet. Best we can do is try our best to go as low-key as we can, but truly there'll always be a way for a third party or someone else to have our information at this point.
Nice vid! I'd highly suggest a Part 2 of this vid featuring Opera and other even more niche browsers that I have never heard of
Yup
opera is china so no trust there
Switching from chrome to brave on desktop didn't made much of a difference. On mobile tho, it's a complete different experience. The built in ad blocker is a gift from God
I live on UA-cam. The ad blocking on there is PERFECT. Both on mobile AND on Windows 10 & 11 on my PC. As well as Linux. YUGE difference from Chrome, Edge, Firefox, etc., etc.
On Mac I use Orion Browser by Kagi, which is a WebKit browser with zero telemetry with a built in aggressive tracking blocker. It also supports both chrome and Firefox addons
They also offer a privacy focused search engine with AI integration. The browser is free but search is pretty expensive
>On mac
@@youpeoplearenuts2 ok, now what?
@@toineenzo can't expect real privacy using a device that runs on Apple software, no matter the browser.
@@Fl0yd What are you talking about? Have you looked at windows? That's muchhhh worse.
@@toineenzo just base Arch Linux for me, thanks! The M$ crap only through VM's when there's no other practical option. Once you're used to plain Linux, no matter if it's Debian or Arch, it's a one way ticket!
It will be great if Vivaldi, Mullvad and Opera will be included in the upcoming test.
opera is china so no trust there
The brave ad stuff wasn't talked about as well as it should. Brave rewards is a program you OPT INTO where they show you ads which give you points you can spend. It is not on by default so I don't know why it was brought up the way it was.
EXACTLY!!! Thank you. I was also gonna mention that MOST of his "digs" against Brave are speculative (future) possibilities on "what they are probably going to do" and "I can see, they might, in the future...". Statements that have no place in an "unbiased" comparison of existing, currently available browsers.
@@PeteAndrews I mean, that is unbiased, the fact that they have ads means that they could head down that road, he was never saying they would.
I use Firefox because it's customizable, I have given up on privacy. But I do ignore/block all ads and news
By far the best browser privacy summary I've seen for the average user. I logged into UA-cam specifically to like this video. Thank you! Seeing those connections was so interesting (and revealing)!
I've been frustrated with the convergence of apps and software toward what the majority of users like. I understand the providers are profit-driven but for users, a decrease in options won't be a good thing. I also think as apps become more similar the main factor for users will become price. Then developers will have to find increasingly cheaper ways to make their app work, and aspects like quality and privacy will suffer.
I agree with the most things you said, but Brave has a build-in DNS over HTTPS support for both Google and Cloudflare DNS servers and I think you could have had explained that this option exists and everyone who cares have the possibility to make the DNS requests untrackable by ISP or their government (if not filtered).
There are also other problems that (excluding TOR) none of the browser can resolve, for example here is the SNI which is not encrypted curing the handshake process and often used to track subdomains/domains that a user visits even if the web traffic is encrypted using HTTPS and using DoH.
Firefox also has DNS over https support for google and cloudflare. But nice to know that Brave also has that
10:30 for me most convenient browser is waterfox
librewolf has best defaults for public computers (like school) because it clears data on exit
So what did you say was the most secure browser?? I don't care what the most popular was, where is the answer to the Best Browser Privacy question you labeled the clip as???
I think he was saying of the ones reviewed that Brave was best - but the mentioned TOR seemed best but no explanation
Now begins the browser comment war... "the one I use is best!" "No, the one I use is best!"
It's iOS vs. Android, Mac vs. PC, Linux vs. Everyone else all over again... the computer religious wars continue...
I would be interested to see the difference between vanilla firefox and a stronger privacy focused fork of firefox like librefox
How about you set firefox to open blank page on startup :) Sorry, can't watch this over that 3:23 point...
Wouldn't have been better to start with a clean Wireshark screen? Mixing up the beginning/end made it difficult to follow. Or have a time stamp on the output if possible. Been a Brave user for a while now.
To make a long story short, I’ve used all four of these browsers (on both W11 and Linux Mint, and the winner (IMO) is Brave, with Chromium second. Brave is the fastest and most secure, hands down.
hardened firefox is objectively the securest but sure pop off linux user.
@@transecho show me your "hardened firefox", i'll show you mine. still, Brave wins
and what about waterfox - thx!
An in depth, video, maybe for each browser, where you harden it, and then see whats the results would be awesome
9:16 I don't know if what is said here is entirely correct, because afaik Pocket is also a Mozilla entity.
Good video, I actually care for privacy so I use Firefox hardened with a ton of extensions and Malware-blocking DNS. I also enjoy tampering with privacy focused browsers such as LibreWolf, Chromium-unggogled and so on.
What OS are you running may i ask?
@preternatural9417
uBlock Origin
Port Authority
CanvasBlocker
Font Fingerprint Defender
Privacy Settings
ClearURLs
LocalCDN
Cookie AutoDelete
I still don't care about cookies
Term of Service; Didn't Read
Temporary Containers
Firefox Multi-Account Containers
Google Container
Malwarebytes Browser Guard
Enhancer for Toutube
Return UA-cam Dislike
And a couple more, non related to youtube or privacy. Someone might say that user can be fingerprinted based on the extensions they use, I hopes this is not the case.
I'm also using UA-cam Premium so no ads are being blocked so to say.
@@obama3024 Windows... I know 😅
Your pc must be using alot of ram
I love these comparison videos... Also which browser uses resources efficiently like Ram usage, CPU usage, Background activities it would help a lot.
Chrome < Edge < Firefox
Edge is the best, in terms of speed and ram usage at least, Firefox is the worst
from my experience if you only have one empty tab then Chrome pretty much always wins, one website then it's similar between Chrome and Brave, anymore than 1 then Brave begins stomping
I did a test opening 50 tabs of 7 days to die wiki about "Departed woman" zombie, all the browsers had the same 'performance' settings
Ram wise: Edge used 4GB and went down to 3.6GB; Chrome used 4GB and went down to 3GB; Brave used 950MB and went down to about 880MB. The browsers inactivating the tabs didn't help much which is surprising considering I've used Chrome extensions that hugely help....
CPU wise (R5 3600): Edge used 70-95%; Chrome was the same as Edge; Brave used 3-10% and didn't lag when opening, closing and swapping between tabs unlike Edge which began lagging at 7 and Chrome at 8 (spam opening with mousewheel click)
Brave is noticeably a little slower but hugely better in performance, my main issue is sometimes YT videos begin loading before the website is fully down and will restart the first 0.5s of the video, not that bad but you can notice it when listening to music, usually fixes itself when you close and open Brave
Edge keeps background activities on once you open it which can only be turned off via task manager or restarting your pc
@@HaddBradd Woah 😯 thanks buddy..
@@igorthelight Have you tried LibreWolf, Vivaldi, OperaGx, Waterfox, Mulvad, Gnome Web , Min,... any of these?
I use Firefox. My start page is "about:blank" so it doesn't load all the sponsored links. Of course, when your homepage contains information from the internet, it will make a connection to get that information. Also, Pocket is part of Mozilla, so it's not 3rd-party. I have no idea what it does so I disabled it altogether.
we need this with a hardened version of the browsers, as well as librewolf and mullvad
For the desktop a hardened Firefox or a privacy focused fork of FF would be best. As much privacy as possible without hindering the browsing experience, for normal people at least.
Tor is great, but not ideal for most (normal) people, and it introduces additional levels of complexity.
On Android a fork of FF would also be best (for normal people). Fennec or Mull work good out of the box and support privacy extensions as well.
I noticed annoying behavior from Brave on Android. With all the privacy and blocking settings enabled and all the ads, crypto and suggestions turned off it still pings advertisers. It seems it depends on where you live. In my case, on start-up (blank page) and on opening a private tab (blank page), Brave pings the two largest ads and commerce sites in my country. I won't be using this browser again.
With what search engine or did it do this regardless? Also forgot to add tor is very slow and that's not how I wanted to word it
Regardless, unfortunately. Just opening a blank start-up page or a blank page in incognito mode would lead to pings to the ads sites. It's not really surprising, given how deeply entrenched they are in advertising, it's just disappointing. I've removed Brave from all my devices.
Yep, Brave allways leaks DNS location and WebRTC data even when running an VPN. The Brave browser is not at all private but most likely a scam. It leaks your IP address not matter how much you have of an good VPN running. All others did not have that problem.
firefox has a fork called waterfox on windows
also tor is also a fork of firefox if you never knew
This was a better example than any of the other links I clicked today, thank you
You have to test more browsers.
You didn't even include Opera and Vivaldi, which are both very famous
Test some FF-based ones such as Waterfox and LibreWolf
As well as some less known names like Min and Maxthon
Avast also has a "Secure Browser" that worth testing, since Avast is a known name in the world of security.
For opera, it is based off of brave, however Brave came from a split when around 50% of Opera ownership was bought out by a chinese company. So brave is basically Opera, but focused on privacy since some of the old head devs from opera before the split, now work on brave.
Secure-DNS would obfuscate most of the DNS traffic if someone is snooping. Just make sure its a good one.
I'm more interested in the kinds of personal snooping these browsers - and all programs you install on your computer - do. If I was a developer and my software snooped on what you were doing, how easy would it be for me to encrypted that data (passwords, messages etc) before sending it down the internet to some store/dubious entity? I assume packet sniffers/wireshark etc won't be able to decode what data is leaving the computer...if it's been encrypted first (a simple EOR #key instruction would do that, maybe throw in some multi-word bit shifting and rotating) ??
--> This would make for a pretty revealing video.
You should test Firefox hardened with betterfox or something like that
projects like that just make your browser more fingerprintable, unstable and make your browsing experience worse
Firefox is the best browser.
I have been using it for years already.
i'm curious if WaterFox would be better than FireFox. I have it on my computer, but never installed it
Tor > Librewolf > Waterfox > Firefox.
I mean, if privacy is what you're after. Tough the more on the left you go the more It could break some websites depending on how you configure it, just sayin'.
Recent brave versions do not load the ubo lite blocker at startup, requiring disabling then reenabling the extension.
Ubo lite is required because brave's blocker still fails to block promoted posts in LinkedIn.
Looks like I was pretty Wrong about Firefox...
Stock firefox yeah hardeneding it manually if you wanna take the time or use prehardened forks like librewolf, and you're much better off
Brave news, brave rewards are opt-in but Edge & firefox recommendations are opt-out. So Brave is more private by default isn't it?
In this video it was analyzed only the surface of the problem ... if you dig a bit deeper (and not only starting up the browser) you will find out that you can trust Firefox and Brave a lot more than the other two contenders. In particular Firefox is able to share almost the same amount of data as Brave but it does it in a smart way, letting the websites "believe" they are tracking you, while they are not; in Brave instead it can be detected more easily that something is blocking them, and this is more likely to break some websites.
There is also a new contenter for privacy the Mullvad Browser made by Mullvad VPN in collab with the Tor Project.
I have been using Firefox for 15 years, and it has some great add-ons which make it very safe, if you add a VPN! Their container system is genius - looking at UA-cam? Put it in a container, and UA-cam cannot talk to any third party!
The only people that I've seen actually use the built-in news stories are usually older people. They have no idea who is feeding them the stories, why they are seeing what they are seeing, or what they should care. All they do is see something interesting to waste their time on and click it, the site loads, and that's all they care about.
You can disable personalised ads in Google settings.
I know it has nothing to do with the video but have you noticed how much ram the browsers are using? Like, it's insane, you open like 2 or 3 tabs and it's like 1GB is gone.
By the way, The PC Security Channel, keep the good work.
Now do one about which one uses the least memory.
I think it may be worth it to try it on a linux distro with no background processes just to be 100% certain that all the requests are by the browser
Just wanted to say the same thing
Even Linux distros reach out to tons of domains. They might be more privacy respecting, but you'd be surprised on how many of them reach out to various universities, or companies. I know I was. Just get a firewall, like OpenSnitch or Portmaster, put it in Prompt mode, and see all those requests. Some distros are worse than others, but most of the common ones do it. In some ways it might be better if you was reaching out to one company/uni, at least that way you know that connection was for legit purposes, or not.
@@madness1931Yeah but you can turn that off, or install Arch with just the bare necessities.
If you want to really test this you have to create a proxy with ssl bump and monitor ALL the data that the browser sends
Ulaa browser, I request you to please take a look at it and make a comparison
the only reason i use google chrome is because i can sync all of my devices with the same account, bookmarks, pages, tabs, etc. i don't lose my information, of course, is easily the most unsecured web browser for sure
Then you'll be happy to hear that alternatives do have native browser sync too, like Firefox and Brave on both PC and Android. Also, if you don't trust Brave/Mozilla or use a Chromium/Gecko based browser that don't support native sync, you could use extensions to do the job instead. :)
Chrome is secure browser, but not private.
@@pierreborine9629 extensions like?
@@Physis_88 privacy is key for security :)
@@pierreborine9629 brave sync is weird tho, it doesn't feel like you OWN the information, i wish it actually got a auth for it
People that use FF for privacy/security don't use it out of the box but hardened, so probably not a fair comparison.
Ps: would like to see Librewolf being tested.
I wonder what you think about the Opera browser, which comes with a VPN feature.
It is a very weird way of comparing the potential for privacy of these browsers. Hey look! I open the browser on a page and I don't change any settings and there are requests! Right.
In my opinion, one of the best browsers just might be Librewolf. It's based on firefox but it is quite ahead. It also comes up with the option enabled, to delete cookies on exit. Also I guess Waterfox might be a good option, although I am not super familiar with that browser.
Not that hard to do it yourself
Yeah, if you like fiddling around with about:config to make it usable! Take it like that the first run of Firefox it's all Mozilla Corp, then after hardening it with extensions and removing all the spyware it's like good ol' Firefox! I'm not giving up on Firefox, it's still a lot of work to take out the defaults of Mozilla, but it's a great browser after that!
I've found that almost all browsers are the same in terms of "privacy", given that its up to the user to properly configure it to be as private as possible within the browser. I use Brave, and I totally dislike most of the personalized ads or the offer to win bravepoints or whatever for letting ads in, but at least it is a highly customizable browser.
Can we do a part two of video where we see what happens when you open these with a systemwide ad-blocker, such as NextDNS?
At the end of the day nobody using the internet is ever truly anonymous.
You can disable the telemetry in Firefox... You can still configure Firefox in a deeper level although that's for advanced users.
I disable news and etc. immediately. I can't tolerate that crap.
I set up my own start page for when I open a page. I also have my tabs restored from my previous tabs so I never see their article suggestion pages.
Oh man, I'm with you. I hate all the news stories and other useless extra BS some browsers start with.
I'm a Chrome user, btw.
I was sad you did not include Vivaldi. I've used this for quite a while and it certainly seems to be privacy based.
Ran Wireshark with Vivaldi. The output looks nothing like yours. There were portions highlighted in red and black. I did not find any of your highlights. Go figure.
i did some testing on this and results is Edge send over 100 DNS,Brave and Vivaldi 24dns,Firefox 93DNS and mullvad browser send 0 (looks like i will use mullvad browser)...
Why didn’t you test Firefox again after turning that crap off?
I use firefox and i love the fact that I customize it, even the under the hood stuff which chrome wont let you do
Perhaps, to see request data, you could use a proxy like BurpSuite with its CA added to either the system, or the browser (if that works, _does_ show browser requests with Firefox)
If you're getting a lot of BSOD's with Critical Structure Failure, disable hardware acceleration in Firefox and Chrome.
Currently using edge. Has tons of cool build-in functionalities and somehow feels faster than many other browsers. Don't understand why majority still use chrome though.
Because those of us that were around for Internet Explorer aren’t going to be fooled by Microsoft’s fancy new reskin
What is the argument for using a VPN with tor? So that the first tor node doesn't know who you are? So that the ISP doesn't know that you're using tor? Is it for "in case you click on that sketchy link" ?
also noticed that edge, once opened stays running in the background, you have to open task manager and manually end the processes.
one of the first thingsI do when clean intalling the shitty exuse for an os aka window is GUT every file folder registery key of it edgeband make sure a Microsofts feature that reinstalls its without you needing know it does or telling you it did how thoughtfull of them. Win11? just refuse its just so much worse than 10 in every aspect, tho.most of that is bc of win11 releasing.
Você provavelmente deixou ativas as opções: Início rápido ou Continuar executando extensões e aplicativos em segundo plano, basta ir em Configurações>Sistema e Desempenho e desmarcá-los... E o processo de Espera será encerrado.
I think there are two reasons for the "News Feeds." 1. Try to feed bias information and influence reader's views on certain things. 2. Try to understand you through the news that you like to read. From there, they know you better than you know yourself. It is better don't know anything or read all kinds of information, focus on news you like and you don't like. Understand what is "opinion" and what is "fact". Sometime when you only read bias facts, you became bias. Always question everything!
You need to disable the dns wireshark filter to see the TOR traffic. TOR does generate traffic which can be seen in wireshark as packets are being sent, but we can't decrypt the traffic easily.
bingo :)
Until they start charging a fee for the use of browsers then this sort of stuff will go on. It's sad because Mozilla is a non-profit and if they don't raise money from donors then they have to sell something. Plus this has always been about advertising. The general public want convenience and don't care about what they have to give up (privacy and eventually personal freedom). What is encouraging is that the trend is reversing itself. People are asking for privacy and security. And developers are building software like FireFox and Brave, etc to provide that. They may still have the recommendations, but you can turn that off if like. I would like to see the effectiveness of some of these browsers or others once you "harden" them or tighten down the settings. That would be a nice verification that the changes work. Thanks
I preferably use Brave on Android phone and Microsoft Edge with Adblock and VPN extension on PC
I'd rather use Brave that is open about how they make money, and let you more or less control how it works, than other Chromium browsers. And I sadly need chromium for work, as catering to under 5% of other browsers is just not exactly efficient.
You can use any browser you want if you have pihole as your DNS it will block all of the major telemetry and ads anyways.
I have no complaints after using Brave for 3+ years now. I never have to watch ads on UA-cam and I get paid monthly in BAT crypto. I recommend it to everyone I know.
I use a DNS filter that gets a lot of work out of the browsers. It's not perfect but I do get to select what requests are allowed through.
brave. i pirated so much with it but not any viruses, but when i switched back chrome i got 100% memory and disc usage, installed malwarebyte with Rkill and removed them along with windows defender
I don't know the best browser, but I find myself using firefox a lot with the settings adjusted to tighten it down a bit.
Thumbs up for making that kind of research .. very useful to know what happens behind the scenes .. however, what about Librewolf, Waterfox and Thorium .. especially the last one .. how good are these browsers when it comes to tracking and privacy?
Mullvad Browser is just Tor Browser that doesn't use Tor. Thus, it's just as "quiet" as Tor Browser without the benefits and downsides of using the Tor network. LibreWolf is also very quiet, though in testing it did lose to Mullvad in a couple of non-critical privacy categories.
While the Tor network needs some traffic to help hide the users that really need its protection, it's not polite to use Tor for media streaming or other high bandwidth tasks.
The data and tests I've seen have shown the opposite and even mulvad losing to brave in a few categories.
If you really care about 'better' privacy and security, there is only one option is to go through a VPN. Playing games with your browser is pointless and too time consuming for the vast majority, plus the fact that browsers are always being updated.
how does Lynx browser stack up?
*I miss the good ol monochrome days of dialup when you had zero trackers or advertising of any kind. Just PC 2 PC.*
Can you please do the same thing for Librewolf and mullvad browser?
Not sure how possible to test safari like this, but that would be quite interesting
The big players you cover (Chrome, F.F., Edge) are _not_ where you go if you want privacy. Brave is definitely a move in the right direction, but I ended up with LibreWolf - though there are others.
For the news story’s it depends. I actually am ok with tracking when I click on a news article and which I avoids which then can recommend me news I’m actually interested in.
Can't help but notice on the torproject site, there is no news after 2021. No more need for news in 2022 or 2023?
Which browser would you use for online banking? Privacy and security is a different thing. I use bitdefender safepay. What do you use?
Brave is number one on my laptop and phone because it blocks ALL ads
Thanks for the video. Were you recommending Tor, then VPN, or VPN, then TOR? It looked like you were recommending VPN over TOR, but that is difficult to configure, and, from what I hear, may compromise privacy