I've been reading up on safe browsers because, even though we all know Chrome is a slave-spy to Google, big claims like Duck-Duck-Go and Brave are privacy-safe make me wonder, how would anyone know that for sure? How can a user check this out?
While no one can know for sure, what I have dug up astonished even me. Aside from the PRISIM program, the 5, 9 and 14 Eyes consortiums, a required government back door to all information collected within browsers, known DARPA funding to very large IT companies such as Google and Amazon for unprecedented and utterly massive privacy-invasive data collection, and of course unending funding for development of more and more correlated data-mining algorithms, progress on these being unreported and their existence being virtually unknown to the public - aside from learning more about all this, I only started with a simple question - which browser is secure and protects my privacy?
Obviously none of them do. By design, browsers are unfortunately easily compromised, and in most the code is written so that data collection is part of the running of the browser itself. Every keystroke typed is saved, including your erasures, and your typing cadence and speed is also logged. This is a virtual "fingerprint", so if you use a browser anonymously, such as at a library, you can still be identified. YES. You can. Every website visited is logged and this data is purchased and collected by multiple companies, hundreds of them, plus the government. This is the scary truth. Browsers are as huge a spy device as your phone.
Some browsers sell more data than others, and some have more malicious intentions. I discovered that Brave, touted as being as secure as Duck-Duck-Go, is in fact owned circuitously by Google and is as insecure as Chrome -- while stating that it is a rival product and is safer regarding privacy concerns. More surprising to me was learning that Opera, supposedly owned by a company in Norway, is not only actually owned by a parent company in China, but has publicly stated that its goal is to capture data to spy on Americans. I was going to cut-n-paste a fabulous and clear description of this from James Long, but its easier to give you this link and ask you to scroll down a bit to his response (yes, sigh - on your browser):
https://www.quora.com/Is-the-Opera-browser-safe
We really no longer have ANY privacy, and what you need to internalize as a truth is that all intentions to collect our private data are malicious. ALL of them. The "advertising" reason for data collection is false, such data is collected to ultimately raise prices and destroy competition. Fake news based on knowing your preferences and leanings and then magnifying them affects the vote and serves to place power into the hands of the wealthy elite. Misinformation breaks up our society into small groups warring with one another, destroying community and cohesiveness. Free speech has been chilled. Education, already decayed, has been replaced with online courses of decreasing quality.
The overall effect is a steady decay in our freedoms and our quality of life, an overall and pervasive decrease in knowledge, and an sharp increase in violence. The rule of law is western societies is failing faster and faster.
Privacy isn't utilized only when you may need to hide something immoral or illegal. Privacy has historically been highly cherished and protected by those who understood what it meant - because it preserves your individuality and human rights, nothing more and nothing less.
To conclude - the least invasive browsers are Duck-duck-go, despite its silly name, and Tor, which is a bit clunky. I'm still researching Firefox. Sorry, but all others are deeply compromised. Do not remain logged into your Gmail ever, in fact only open Gmail (until you wean off it) in a single browser that you use exclusively for Gmail. Do not use a Gmail app, that will open up your entire computer or smartphone to Google. Do not allow your browser to coordinate "across your devices".
Happy New Year. Sigh.
