Most of us use web browsers out of habit.
If you surf the web with Microsoft Edge, that may be because
you use Windows. If you use Safari, that’s probably because you are an Apple
customer. If you are a Chrome user, that could be because you have a Google
phone or laptop, or you downloaded the Google browser on your personal device
after using it on computers at school or work.
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In other words, we turn to the browsers that are readily
available and familiar. It’s easy to fall into browser inertia because these
apps are all fast, capable and serve the same purpose: visiting a website.
So if the differences are minimal, why bother looking for
something else?
By the end of this column, I hope to persuade you to at
least try something else: a new type of internet navigator called a private
browser. This kind of browser, from less-known brands like DuckDuckGo and
Brave, have emerged over the last three years. What stands out is that they
minimize the data gathered about us by blocking the technologies used to track
us.
That’s generally better than what most mainstream browsers,
especially Chrome, do. While some browsers like Safari and Firefox also include
tracking prevention, the smaller brands have been focused on even more privacy
protections.
We have also reached an inflection point in digital privacy.
The online advertising industry is on the brink of ceasing to use web cookies,
pieces of code planted in browsers that follow us from site to site and help
target us with ads. Google, whose Chrome browser is the world’s most popular,
has been trying to develop a new way to target us with ads without the cookie.
Let’s not wait for that. You can decide now that you don’t
want to be tracked.
“We’re at a fork in the road,” said Gennie Gebhart, a
director at the digital rights nonprofit Electronic Frontier Foundation, who
follows privacy issues. “Companies that keep the lights on by advertising to
users, Google included, are scrambling to see what’s the next play. It’s also a
time for users to be informed and make a choice.”
Unlike mainstream web browsers, private browsers come in many
forms that serve different purposes. For about a week, I tested three of the
most popular options — DuckDuckGo, Brave and Firefox Focus. Even I was
surprised that I eventually switched to Brave as the default browser on my
iPhone. Here’s how it happened.
What is a private browser?
It’s important to know what private browsers do, and what
they don’t. So let’s look under the hood.
Private browsers generally incorporate web technologies that
have been around for years:
— They rely on something called private mode, also known as
incognito mode, which is a browsing session that does not record a history of
the websites you have visited. This is useful if you don’t want people with
physical access to your device to snoop on you.
— Private browsers also use tracker blockers, which can
often be downloaded as an add-on for a browser. The blockers depend on a list
of known trackers that grab information about your identity. Whenever you load
a website, the software then detects those trackers and restricts them from
following you from site to site. The big downside of this approach is that
blocking them can sometimes break parts of websites, like shopping carts and
videos.
Privacy-focused browsers typically turn private mode on by
default, or automatically purge browsing history when you quit the browser. The
browsers also have tracking prevention baked in, which lets them aggressively
block trackers using approaches that minimize website breakage.
But private browsers do not prevent your internet provider
from seeing what websites you visit. So if you are on vacation and using a
hotel’s Wi-Fi connection, a private browser will not keep your browsing
information private from the hotel’s internet provider. For that type of
protection, you still need to connect to a virtual private network, a
technology that creates a virtual tunnel that shields your browsing
information.
Meet the private browsers
Firefox Focus, DuckDuckGo and Brave are all similar, but
with some important differences.
Firefox Focus, available only for mobile devices like
iPhones and Android smartphones, is bare-bones. You punch in a web address and,
when done browsing, hit the trash icon to erase the session. Quitting the app
automatically purges the history. When you load a website, the browser relies on
a database of trackers to determine which to block.
DuckDuckGo, also available only for mobile devices, is more
like a traditional browser. That means you can bookmark your favorite sites and
open multiple browser tabs.
When you use the search bar, the browser returns results
from the DuckDuckGo search engine, which the company says is more focused on
privacy because its ads do not track people’s online behavior. DuckDuckGo also
prevents ad trackers from loading. When done browsing, you can hit the flame
icon at the bottom to erase the session.
Brave is also more like a traditional web browser, with
anti-tracking technology and features like bookmarks and tabs. It includes a
private mode that must be turned on if you don’t want people scrutinizing your
web history.
Brave is also so aggressive about blocking trackers that in
the process, it almost always blocks ads entirely. The other private browsers
blocked ads less frequently.
For most people, not seeing ads is a benefit. But for those
who want to give back to a publisher whose ads are blocked, Brave hosts its own
ad network that you can opt into. In exchange for viewing ads that do not track
your behavior, you earn a cut of revenue in the form of a token. You can then
choose to give tokens to websites that you like. (Only web publishers that have
a partnership with Brave can receive tokens.)
Battle of the browsers
I tested all three browsers on my iPhone, setting each as my
default browser for a few days.
All have a button to see how many trackers they blocked when
loading a website. To test that, I visited nypost.com, the website of The New
York Post, which loaded 83 trackers without any tracking prevention. With
DuckDuckGo, 15 of the nypost.com trackers were blocked. With Brave, it was 22.
And Firefox Focus blocked 47.
But numbers don’t tell the whole story. Firefox Focus
sometimes broke elements of websites. On some sites, videos failed to load and
ad windows could not be closed.
Selena Deckelmann, an executive at Mozilla, which makes Firefox,
said that the strict privacy protections in Firefox Focus could sometimes cause
websites to break and that the company worked with web publishers so their
sites could load properly.
I didn’t experience major issues when using Brave or
DuckDuckGo, though there was an occasional hiccup. In one case, when using
DuckDuckGo to scroll through Wirecutter, a New York Times sister publication
that tests and recommends products, the names of some products did not fully
load. While the site was still functional, it looked odd.
In the end, though, you probably would be happy using any of
the private browsers. Even if you don’t make one your default browser, it is
useful for certain situations, like a sensitive web search on a health
condition.
For me, Brave won by a hair. My favorite websites loaded
flawlessly, and I enjoyed the clean look of ad-free sites, along with the
flexibility of opting in to see ads whenever I felt like it. Brendan Eich, the
chief executive of Brave, said the company’s browser blocked tracking cookies
“without mercy.”
“If everybody used Brave, it would wipe out the
tracking-based ad economy,” he said.
Count me in.
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