Choosing a web browser

Google Chrome

Homepage: https://www.google.com/chrome/browser/desktop/index.html
Supported OS: Windows, Mac, Linux, Android

Features:

• Modern, well supported and fast web browser.

Downsides:

• Is google getting too big? Should we be putting so much in the hands of one company? Email, Google Docs, Google Drive, Youtube, and Google Search.
• Seems like we are giving Google the ability to see everything we do.
• You need to manually opt-out of Google tracking
• Are you ever really out?

Improve Privacy

• Install Ad Block Plus
• Disable Tracking: https://www.google.com/settings/ads
• Download the cookie opt-out plugin: https://www.google.com/settings/ads/plugin
• Pause search activity: https://www.google.com/settings/accounthistory
• Disable Shared Endorsements: https://plus.google.com/settings/endorsements
• More: http://gadgets.ndtv.com/internet/features/how-to-stop-google-from-tracking-you-on-the-web-550286

Firefox

Homepage: https://www.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/new/
Supported OS: Windows, Mac, Linux

Features:

• Modern, well supported and fast web browser.
• Better at privacy than Google

Downsides:

• Firefox shares limited information about your browser’s performance with Mozilla.

Improve Privacy

• Install Ad Block Plus
• Disable Tracking: about:preferences#privacy
• Disable "Enable Firefox Health report"
• Control your browsing history: "Use custom settings for history" and configure as needed.
• More: https://www.pcworld.com/article/3041336/privacy/how-to-seize-control-of-your-privacy-with-mozillas-firefox-browser.html

Opera

Homepage: http://www.opera.com/
Supported OS: Windows, Mac, Linux

Features:

• Our secure browser protects you from fraud and malware on the web.
• Tired of online ads? Opera is the first major browser that can block ads for you without add-ons.

Downsides:

Microsoft Edge

Supported OS: Windows

Features:

Downsides:

• It's Microsoft and Windows only.
• Yuck...

Epic

Homepage: https://www.epicbrowser.com/
Supported OS: Windows, Mac

Features:

• Behind a VPN, your real IP address can leak through certain types of WebRTC calls -- only Epic blocks them.
• Epic blocks fingerprinting scripts and functions like image canvas data access to protect you which no browser extension can do.
• When you're using Epic with our encrypted proxy on, your data is encrypted and hidden from the government, from your ISP, from Google, from your employer, and from hundreds of data collectors.
• On close of Epic, there's no easily accessible record of your browsing history left on your computer.
• Epic protects you from over one thousand tracking attempts in a typical browsing session. Over a year of browsing it works out to hundreds of thousands of bits of data about you that Epic protects.
• Epic blocks as many tracking methods as possible without "breaking the internet", and much of what Epic blocks speeds up your browsing experience.

Downsides:

• Epic's one-click proxy does slightly slow browsing down, although for high-spec machines this shouldn't be an issue.

Brave

Homepage: https://brave.com/
Supported OS: Windows, Mac, Linux

Features:

• Brave is open source, and built by a team of privacy focused, performance oriented pioneers of the web, founded by the inventor of Javascript and co-founder of Mozilla.
• Browse faster by blocking ads and trackers that violate your privacy and cost you time and money.

Downsides:

• Fairly new so not super stable.

Tor Browser

Homepage: https://www.torproject.org
Supported OS: Windows, Mac, Linux

Features:

• Tor Browser lets you use Tor on Microsoft Windows, Apple MacOS, or GNU/Linux without needing to install any software. It can run off a USB flash drive, comes with a pre-configured web browser to protect your anonymity, and is self-contained (portable).

Downsides:

• Downsides? Using Tor will be slower than with other browsers and it can be demanding to use to its full privacy potential. Some people think that anyone who uses Tor is trying to hide something. Of course they are right. If privacy is that important, let them think what they want.

Waterfox

Homepage: https://www.waterfoxproject.org/
Supported OS: Windows, Mac, Linux, Android

Features:

• Waterfox is partners with Ecosia, a search engine that plants trees with its generated revenues.
• Absolutely no data or telemetry is sent back to Mozilla or the Waterfox project.
• Disabled Encrypted Media Extensions (EME)
• Disabled Web Runtime (deprecated as of 2015)
• Removed Pocket
• Removed Telemetry
• Removed data collection
• Removed startup profiling
• Removal of Sponsored Tiles on New Tab Page

Downsides:

• Allow running of all 64-Bit NPAPI plugins
• Allow running of unsigned extensions