In today's article, we test the best anonymous browsers and find out what level of privacy they can provide and which ones you can trust.
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If we haven’t done anything wrong, then we have nothing to hide – that’s what some users think. But in reality, everyone has personal information that they would like to keep secret. Privacy-oriented browsers do not collect data about user activity on the network. The information is stored locally on the computer or encrypted, and the browser does not have access to it. Some browsers even encrypt user traffic several times and redirect it between several servers. Neither server has access to the user’s IP address or the website they visit. Such browsers are practically unable to track the online activity of their users. But such browsers also have serious drawbacks: they block many plugins, make some websites practically unusable, and additional encryption and the use of many servers for pre-tracking interfere with the operation of the browser.
If you don’t want your data collected and sold at a high rate to ad networks, you need to look for a web browser with higher privacy features. And of course, built-in features are better than extensions. No need to decide which extensions to install, choose safe ones – browsers with built-in privacy tools will take care of your data. Plus, built-in features work seamlessly together. Although if your browser isn’t tracking you, the search engine can record every query you make. Therefore, a good browser should give you a choice of reliable search engines, not just one default search engine. We recommend a privacy-focused search engine that protects you from traces and provides neutral search results.
Tracking — is the tracking of the user using all possible browser identification techniques. There are several technical tracks: Evercookie, Cookie, Fingerprinting, IP address, given analysis. There are others, but these user tracking techniques are used most often.
Private browsers use blacklists of tracking scripts (such as these) and simply block their execution. All modern browsers for anonymous surfing have the option of automatically clearing private data upon exit. For the phone, this cleaning is enough to cope with Evercookie tracking.
With browser printing, it’s a bigger deal, because most of the browser’s data is not transmitted out of a desire to tell more about itself, but in order for the web page to be displayed correctly. What is the security option – A web browser can send information about itself that will be similar to a maximum number of other browsers.
This is a very simple browser without extra features. The trash can button, which is displayed on any page when scrolling from the top, mentions the privacy of the browser. After clicking the recycle bin button, all browser history and saved data are cleared. There is also a button to clear the history in the notification curtain.
The browser must block ad and analytics trackers, social trackers, and others. There is an “Invisible” mode – the function of blocking screenshots, which closes access to the contents of the browser window. Due to this, even the screen off animation does not work. Therefore, it is impossible to intercept the content displayed on the display.
Unlike its competitors, Firefox Focus does not hide its blacklists, through which it blocks trackers. Detailed information.
In the description of the Play Market, there is a lot of advertising and nothing concrete. The official website is in development. You could easily pass it by, but the statement “Yo Browser provides not only easy Internet use, but also your privacy and security” also made us include this browser in the test.
The browser has an interesting function to quickly open incognito mode: after clicking on a link, a proposal is asked to choose in which mode to open it, normally or incognito. When exiting, it is suggested to clear the cache, cookie, and history. You can turn on auto-cleaning at exit.
There is a night mode, thanks to which the background and some elements of most sites are painted black, as well as a built-in QR code scanner. You can block the display of images and advertisements. There is also an option to disable JavaScript and cookies.
«InBrowser — is an incognito browser. Every time you exit InBrowser, everything you’ve done in the app will be erased, including history, cookies, and sessions.” This is what the developers say: it is not just a separate browser, how many incognito modes are allocated in a separate application. A direct competitor to Firefox Focus.
In general, the browser creates a strange impression, but in terms of functionality it is the best among compact browsers with anti-reflection. It can integrate with Orbot (to create Internet connections through the Tor network without VPN), change the user agent (Chrome, Firefox, Internet Explorer, Safari are available to choose from). This means “safe mode” — blocking screenshots and protection from being displayed in the list of recent applications by standard Android means.
From additional functionality:
«Ghostery discovers and blocks tracking systems on the Web, protecting your data, speeding up page loads, and choosing exciting elements.” In general, a normal browser with blocking of ads and trackers. According to the developers, the blocking is very advanced, but no one explains how advanced it is.
Just like many other browsers, it can clear all private data when exiting. To activate the functions, you need to go to “Settings-> Clear on exit” and check all the boxes. The loading of tabs in the background is buggy: if, without waiting for the page to load, you open a new tab and open a new address in it, then the loading of the initial page will remain.
Another completely standard browser with Chromium anti-tracking protection. It differs only in that it itself collects usage statistics to “improve the relevance of search results and ensure the operation of the most advanced privacy protection functions.”
Supports synchronization with Cliqz desktop browser, has a built-in QR code scanner. You can also enable automatic clearing of cache, history, cookies and other personal data after closing the application in the settings (Settings -> Конфіденційність -> bottom of the list).
The Yandex browser cannot block trackers on its own, so it has support for the extension, thanks to which you can add the Disconnect extension to it.
There is not much to talk about here: both the browser and Disconnect are well-known products about which many reviews have been written.
On any smartphone, all the browsers in question work so fast that it is very difficult to detect the difference in speed with the naked eye (if they exist at all…). The problem with the display of web pages was also not indicated.
It all depends on the preferences, but we recommend stopping either on Firefox Focus or on the Yandex browser + Disable. Firefox Focus doesn’t support tabs and by and large doesn’t look like a full-fledged browser at all, so it makes an office that you can trust. Yandex is a really bad browser. The Disconnect extension is also well known and trusted. By the way, you can read about traces of the Yandex browser and how bad it is here.
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