A web browser is essentially a program that's able to download bytes from a server, returning its information and parsing it, as HTML (Hyper Text Markup Language). But since then, the Web has gotten much more demanding, so just parsing HTML wasn't enough. So CSS was made, and eventually JavaScript, which marked a big point in the history. So big corpos took this as an advantage over us, victims, to spy even more on us...
Mozilla Firefox, or just Firefox, is a much known browser mostly for its "privacy" side. But in the dark reality, Mozilla has made tons of anti-user decisions, and they've also never cared about your privacy. So then, subject closed, Firefox and Mozilla are terrible and should be avoided in any way. But then, there are the forks...
Waterfox is a fork of Firefox that claims to respect more your privacy than the others. Alright, let's see if that claim is true!
So first, their privacy policy :
Your privacy is an important factor that Waterfox (that's us) considers in the development of each of our products and services.
An important factor. Alright, let's see the other points...
For us, "personal information" means information which identifies you, like your name or email address.
Yeah, that's for sure.
If we store your personal information with information that is non-personal, we will consider the combination as personal information. If we remove all personal information from a set of data then the remaining is non-personal information.
So if the so-called "non-personal" information is mixed with personal information, it's considered personal. But if they remove the personal information, it's non-personal. Sure, but what do they collect on their website then?
We may use cookies, third party web analytics, device information, and IP addresses for functionality and to better understand user interaction with our products, services, and communications.
Welp... and I thought these were for "good purposes"... maybe not...
We may also use cookies and/or IP addresses, to help us understand in the aggregate how users engage with our products, services, communications, websites, online campaigns and other platforms.
So, they use cookies, and collect IP addresses, use third party web analytics for "totally good purposes", and finally collect device information. All of that to "better understand user interaction with our products, services, and communications". That seems a bit too much in my opinion.
But then, all of that is the website. Surely if the website collects that much data, the browser itself won't, right? Well...
Remember when they claimed that they had no telemetry and limited data collection? (and that doesn't make any fucking sense because telemetry is data collection anyways, so they're literally admitting they still have telemetry...) In other words, being a privacy-respectful browser. But, to support the owner, you have to do that :
If you’d really like to help Waterfox out, please consider using the default search (Bing) with adblock disabled on it, it would be such a huge show of support! The default search is fairly privacy friendly.
And I'm out. The fuck, Bing, privacy friendly???!!! Is that guy really taking privacy seriously?
And probably the worst of the list, Alex Kontos (the owner of the Waterfox Project) will get sold to System1, a chinese company (and already does). Funny enough, the owner completely disagreed with anything that was said and responded with "Nothing is going to change for Waterfox except I'm actually going to get help with development.". Well no, you're not only getting help if you're getting sold. You're also getting tons of money.
Also, Waterfox now has 2 separate versions : Current (which was renamed "Third Generation") and Classic. Current is based on Mozilla Quantum, and Classic on an older version (not Quamtum). That also means Waterfox Current will collect much more data than Waterfox Classic, so beware of that. I'll be testing both versions.
So enough speaking, and let's test the browser!
After running Waterfox for the first time, it made 36 unsollicited requests (more if you count the mozilla portal requests). That's much more than a real privacy-centered browser would do!
Conclusion for this browser : Absolute trash, owner lies about it being privacy-centered, and too much unsollicited requests. Please avoid this at all cost!
Comodo IceDragon is basically Comodo Dragon but based on Firefox. Comodo is a trusted company, so the browser shouldn't be too bad, right? They also claim to respect your privacy. Let's verify that!
I don't think it's really necessary to take a look at their privacy policy, since it regards the entire company and not only the browser (it "just" collects personal information). Let's test the browser directly!
When I run it for the first time, I notice two things. The first thing is that a pop-up just showed after the launch of the browser that says "Set Yahoo! as my home page, new tab and default search engine (applies to all supported browsers)" to "keep my browsing experience safe". I smell the bad browser already, it even wants to change our home page but NOT ONLY for Comodo IceDragon, but to all the compatible browsers (like all the installed browsers on my PC). That's just bad, Comodo.
The second thing is that it made 50 unsollicited requests at, again, my first run of it. I guess it could go higher and higher like Waterfox did, so I'm going to stop there. 50 unsollicited requests is a lot for, again, a "privacy-respectful" browser, don't you think so? And for Comodo, an actual trusted company, that's bad. Why can't they just remove the spyware like LibreWolf or GNU IceCat did?
Now, there is a question that you could ask : Will I test Comodo Dragon then to see if it's better? The answer is : No. And the reason is simple : it will just be the same amount of privacy! (Which is technically trash). Well, this browser has Comodo protection in it, so it's not the worst browser I've ever seen. And it's still better than Waterfox since it made less unsollicited requests. Conclusion : This browser is still a decent choice though. But forcing users to use Yahoo! on all browsers available and making 50 unsollicited requests (and counting...) of a trusted company's browser is just terrible. Avoid this browser if you can. Moving on to the next one!
Basilik is a browser created by the same authors as Pale Moon, Moonchild Productions. The browser shouldn't be too bad... let's verify that!
First, they mention that this is still development software, so we won't go hard on them. Plus they made Pale Moon as I said above, so I guess I won't even go that hard on them.
There is no actual privacy policy, but couldn't they just add a button that redirects to Pale Moon's privacy policy? Anyway, let's test the browser then!
Just before I test the browser, there is no mention of privacy on Basilik's website. So my guess is that they didn't remove all spyware that Firefox had. Now, let's test it!
On my first run of it, I got greeted with 9 unsollicited requests, which is definitely better than the other Firefox based web browsers. Well, the amount of requests just goes higher and higher, but it's still alot better than Waterfox and Comodo IceDragon.
Conclusion : This browser is clearly better than the other forks we've seen above. Alot less unsollicited requests, it's made by Pale Moon authors so we can actually trust them more (Pale Moon the safest browser I've ever seen), etc. It's still development software though and might include some bugs, severe or not. Use it if you like development software and like to report bugs, else avoid it, for now (until it's not dev software anymore).
Cliqz is a web browser (and a search engine) both developed by Cliqz GmbH that claims to respect your privacy. Let's verify that!
On my first run of it, I notice 234 unsolicited requests (and counting...). But I think it's because the method that I use blocks the internet, so it tries to do requests but always get a bad status code. It did around 13-16 real unsolicited requests, so that's still something.
The browser offers Cliqz Tab, an all-in-one addon that has an anti-tracker, ad-block, cookie pop-up blocker, anti-phishing and prefer https. But it doesn't only do that! For example, you can change the search engine, block adult websites, share location, search via proxy, and alot more...
The browser also offers Cliqz Offers, it basically finds the best deals for you on the internet while browsing. Pretty useful.
It also offers a feature called "re:consent" which shows what personal data a website collects. That's really useful.
Of course, there are a lot more features that I didn't explain. But the thing is that all of these features are actually useful and won't bloat the software like Avast does for example.
The only cons of this browser is that it still does a lot of unsolicited requests to Firefox's "detectportal" and Mozilla's Cloudflare DNS and the last con is that I couldn't make the anti-tracker, ad blocker etc to work. But it's still a promising browser.
Conclusion : This isn't by far the worst browser I've ever seen, especially for a Firefox fork. It's really worth a try, though I couldn't make the privacy protections to work, and the browser is still doing a lot of unsolicited requests to Mozilla's websites. Use it at your own risk for now, I'll see in the future if it gets better.
The Firefox based web browsers are terrible. Well, Basilik is good, but still development software. Of course, there are still other forks that I haven't tested yet, like SeaMonkey for example. But I think I won't test more of them, because it's the same thing : spyware, spyware and more spyware. Firefox is just so terrible that almost no browser (except LibreWolf and GNU IceCat, but LibreWolf is dead and GNU IceCat is focused on freetardism) has removed all of the spyware. Use these forks at your own risk. Now, let's move on to Chromium based browsers!
Before I start talking about them, I need to clarify a mistake that people make, and that I've made too. No, Chrome based web browers do NOT exist. Simply because Chrome isn't open-source, but Chromium is. So you should call them the Chromium based web browsers. Now, let's move on to the first browser, which is...
The worst web browser in terms of privacy and security. A huge browser dedicated to data collection and telemetry. But at least, they don't hide it unlike Mozilla.
I already smell the bad, bloated browser here. Why? Because the Spyware Watchdog (rip) already reviewed it and said it was horrible and bloated. But maybe it has changed? Well, we'll see about that.
Fuck their privacy policy, it's all in Deutsch and their English version of the website hasn't been updated since 2016 (atleast, their news), and finding the privacy policy is like a maze. We'll just skip it and go straight forward on testing the browser.
First, at the first run of the browser, I'm being greeted with 18 unsollicited requests. I mean, it could be worse, but I saw something in the search bar : "Effectuez une recherche sur Iron SecureSearch ou saisissez une URL" (translation from French to English : "Search something on Iron SecureSearch or enter a URL". Don't you see the fishy trap? Yeah, Iron SecureSearch. Probably some shit search engine that uses Bing or Yahoo (or even Google) with no protection at all, and that probably spies on us. For a "privacy-respectful" browser, the "Iron sign-in" is enabled by default (basically Chromium sign-in, just renamed) and you have unsollicited requests. This shouldn't be happening. And, if that's not enough, there are already bookmarks like "Iron Forum", "Anonymous VPN", "IP-Secrets" etc.
Conclusion : For a "privacy-respectful" browser, it doesn't fulfill the claim. Their privacy policy is in deutsch per default, their english version of their website (srware.net) hasn't been updated since 2016, and finding the privacy policy is like impossible. The browser isn't even "privacy-respectful", unsollicited requests and a shitty search engine per default, no thank you. Just avoid at all cost. Neeeext browser!
Ah, an interesting one here. As you may or may not know, Avast acquired Piriform in mid-2017. And after acquiring it, they decided to use the notoriety of CCleaner to make... CCleaner Browser! (It's just Avast Secure Browser in a different name, but we'll still review it because why not.) Reading their privacy policy is, again, useless, because it's Avast's privacy policy and it's not for CCleaner Browser only, but the entire CCleaner software and/or the entire Avast suite. But again, they collect personal information, and bla bla bla... Well, let's test it then!
On my first run of it, I've got a brilliant 17 unsollicited requests, and moez because the program that I use to check requests is blocking the browser to check for updates, but I'm not counting that. Still, for a "privacy-respectful" browser, this is a bit too much, but clearly not the worse. After all, it has got nice features like HTTPS Encryption, Extension Guard, Anti-Fingerprinting, Phising and Tracking : but again, these features can ALL be outclassed by addons.
Conclusion : Is it worth it? Absolutely not. Uses Google as default search engine and all features can be outclassed by addons. This is just Chromium with pre-installed addons, nothing more. Also, there is a feature that can show sponsored content (and it's already on by default, of course). Forced Do Not Track request which is useless nowadays and always was. It has a performance tab which "improves computer performance" by just suspending inactive tabs, which modern browsers already do nowadays. Avoid this browser, it is clearly useless and outclassed by addons. Moving on to the next browser!
I think you've heard about the new Microsoft Edge being low on RAM, having a good tracking protection (from Microsoft, damn) and good speed. It is actually time to test it! Again, we won't read the privacy policy, as we all know that Microsoft collects personal information and bla bla bla. Anyway, let's move on to the testing part!
We will be using the Dev Channel, it's Canary but more stable but less stable than Beta. Anyway, let's start!
On my first run of it, I notice 187 fucking unsollicited requests. Well, not too surprising from Microsoft, but still... couldn't they do something better?
Ok, we'll try to set up the browser settings and see if it changes anything.
52 unsollicited requests. Well, it's not the best you can do, but I've made the settings so Microsoft Edge doesn't look ugly on the new tab and has still better privacy-respectful settings than before. Microsoft Edge still offers a good tracking protection as well as a dark mode, but they really force you to use Bing. Changing the search engine is hidden for some reason, and you currently can't change the search engine in the search bar on the new tab.
Conclusion : I've expected better on this browser since I actually love it. Maybe it does a lot of unsollicited requests, well it's Microsoft, but actually, it's worth a try. If you skip the unsollicited requests and hidden search engine changing, it's a pretty good browser overall so you could maybe give it a try. Sadly it's not available on Linux though it's planned (no release date though). Next browser is...
Iridium Browser is a browser (damn, so much revelations with B3RAP) that secures your privacy, that's it (from what they claim to do). Let's verify that!
First, their privacy policy is almost like a blank page. They give us no information about if they get any information, the things you would usually see on privacy policies of other companies. Anyway, let's start testing the browser!
On my first run of it, I was greeted with 20 unsollicited requests. From Spyware Watchdog, it's just Google's SafeBrowsing issues. But I don't think so, I think it's more. So I've configured the browser's settings and...
9 unsollicited requests. That's better. But let's try to make even less requests...
5 unsollicited requests. I think it's the best we can do. Actually, Iridium Browser almost fulfills the claim. This is the best privacy-respectful browser we've reviewed in this section. Sadly, the current latest release is from November of 2019. It's still recent, but they aren't that active if you think about it.
Conclusion : Pretty good browser overall that almost fulfills the privacy-respectful claim. You should really use this browser, I highly recommand it. Neeeext browser!
Well well well... look who we have here : a not privacy-respectful browser. But wait! We'll see how much it is non privacy-respectfulby seeing how much unsollicited requests it makes, and their privacy policy!
First, let's look at their privacy policy :
"Anonymous usage statistics". You shouldn't even collect any usage statistic at all since "anonymous personal information" does NOT exist, it's just dumb.
"When you install an Opera application, a random installation ID is generated.". If it's random and doesn't mean anything, why would you even need one?
"We may collect this identifier, as well as your device ID and hardware specification, operating system and environment configuration, and feature usage data."
Damn... that's a lot! (Well, from a chinese company, not too surprising.) Also, what is the feature usage data? The VPN's usage data so you can even more spy on me? Anyway, let's move on :
"In short, this information helps us to improve our products and services. We have no practical way to use this information to identify you personally."
Excuse me, but my feature usage data is personal. It's an awesome browser after all, right?
"We may store this usage data up to three years."
3 YEARS??!!?! ARE YOU KIDDING ME?! This is just too much. Let's stop there and move on to testing the browser!
On my first run of it, I notice 105 unsollicited requests. Damn, that's a lot (but still less than Microsoft Edge).
Ohh, waaait, I'm so dumb! Their free VPN secures your privacy! Of course it does... SurfEasy. I'm out. Their adblocker and "free VPN" can be outclassed by addons, their "free VPN" is just some shit free "unlimited" VPN that tracks you.
Conclusion : AVOID this browser AT ALL COST! It's just terrible and it shouldn't even exist.
The Epic Privacy Browser is a browser where the developers claims that it highly respects your privacy and security online. They even claim to have a free VPN. Let's verify that!
At my first run of it, I notice 58 unsolicited requests. But wait! This is mainly because of 3 tabs opened that loaded their website. If we configure everything, we get...
22 unsolicited requests. That's better, but we can always do better.
Also, the default search engine is Yahoo, and there is another option which is Epic's search engine (probably shit anyway). You can't even add a search engine, you're basically stuck with those two.
Conclusion : Clearly not the best browser in terms of privacy and security. It's just like CCleaner Browser, the built-in ad blocker, free VPN, video downloader etc. can be outclassed by addons. And we fact that we can't change the search engine (stuck with two shit ones) and forced update checking is just ridiculous. Avoid this browser and use something better like Iridium which ACTUALLY protects your privacy.
Cent Browser is a web browser developed by the Cent Studio which claims to be "the most feature rich chromium" and to protect your privacy. Let's verify that!
On my first run of it, I'm greeted with 24 unsolicited requests. Certainly not good, but still not the worst. Configuring the browser's settings and...
13 unsolicited requests. I think that's the best we can do. Apart from the fact that it has a considerable amount of unsolicited requests, the browser is very feature rich, which many people will like. But I still don't recommand it for pure privacy and security.
Conclusion : Yes, this browser is very feature rich, but no, it doesn't respect privacy even if it has a WebRTC anti-ip leak, it can be outclassed by an addon. Use this one only if you want a really feature-rich browser, but if you want privacy, I don't recommand it anymore.
Maxthon is a web browser developed by Maxthon Technology Co, Ltd. And today we'll see if it's a good browser or not!
Installing it is very simple and only requires you a single click (when in the installer).
At my first run of it, I notice 240 unsolicited requests. But wait! The browser loaded their website, and the new tab also loaded images and things like that. Let's configure the browser's settings and...
9 unsolicited requests only! That's already promising here. Now, this isn't advertised as a privacy-respectful browser, but it did much better than some other browsers here.
Conclusion : Pretty good browser, not advertised as a privacy-respectful browser though when configured it makes much less unsolicited requests. I recommand it, I even think it's compatible with Windows XP!
Bright Browser is a new browser that launched in January of 2020. But is it any good? We'll see right now!
On first run, I'm hella greeted with 65 unsolicited requests (and counting...). We can do better. Let's configure the browser's settings and...
21 unsollicited requests (and counting...). It doesn't seem like a good browser. But- we're going to test if the built-in ad blocker blocks YouTube ads and trackers!
And surprise surprise... it actually does! Well, obviously it's a simple ad and tracker blocker, but it does work.
Conclusion : Here we have some browser that tries to advertise it-self as quite privacy-friendly while you can't disable Google SafeBrowsing and many more Google shit services. Just use Iridium Browser with an ad and tracker blocker and BOOM! You have a good set. Just avoid and use something better and be smart ;)
The Chromium forks are a lot better than the Firefox ones. There are more of them, they are more secure IN GENERAL, they are just better. The best 2 browsers that we've seen is Basilik in the Firefox ones and Iridium Browser in the Chromium ones. Maxthon is also worth a try.
Remember when I've said that Pale Moon was one of the safest browser I've ever seen? Well, the alternative is simply it! Their privacy policy is clear : the browser doesn't collect any personal information except if you want to (like using Pale Moon Sync I guess), but there are also third-parties that makes connections, like geolocation services. Now, let's test the browser!
On my first run of it, it made 15 unsollicited requests. This is mostly due to the start page. Let's configure the browser's settings and...
No more unsollicited requests! Congratulations, this is the safest browser now! Pale Moon is also based on Goanna, a fork of Gecko. The interface seems kinda old to me, but it's okay. (Pale Moon is based on a very old version of Firefox if you didn't know.)
Conclusion : This is clearly the best browser here. No unsollicited requests if you configure the browser's settings, okay interface, Goanna-based engine and works with almost all of the modern websites nowadays (just for example that you won't get the modern YouTube UI, you will get the old one). I highly recommand this browser, use it if you can!