ARE THERE ANY SECURE BROWSERS?

In a word, NO, not really! They are all gathering your data to some extent.

But firstly there is probably not even much point worrying about browser security if you are using Windows 10, and even more so, Windows 11, or Google, or Apple, because they are all full blown spyware. And around 98% of people are!  

Even just focusing on desktop users and leaving out the much bigger mobile market, around 95% of people are using a spyware operating system of some sort on their PC or laptop. Windows 7 which I am still using everyday, is spyware too, just not quite as full on as Win 10. 

https://sift666.blogspot.com/2023/12/i-use-windows-7.html

Because I'm swapping between Windows 7 and Linux Mint, and using three different browsers on each operating system, I've become a bit obsessed with browsers lately.

https://sift666.blogspot.com/2024/06/why-i-use-the-waterfox-browser.html

WHY SO MANY? – On Linux Mint Firefox is my default everyday browser, Vervaldi is for my first level alt accounts and any sites that work better on a Chromium based browser, and Floorp (a Japanese Firefox fork designed for privacy) is for my second level alt accounts and for when I'm attempting to be a bit more anon online.

I find it quicker to keep logged in to my different accounts on different browsers because it's much faster to open a browser than to log out and then back in to another account. 

My strange habit of using multiple alt accounts mostly dates back to when I was posting on multiple blockchain and social media platforms, and wanted to be able to jump back and forth between my alt accounts really quickly - to the point on occasion of appearing to have an argument with myself :) - These days I have given up using most of them and am mainly just using one account on Facebook of all places!

Almost all popular browsers are based on Chromium except for Firefox, and the Firefox forks like Waterfox, Floorp, & Librefox. I don't really like Chromium based browsers on the whole, and regard them all as spyware. 

Chrome is the worst for spying by a country mile, but of course it's also the most popular. My pick of the Chromium browsers is Vivaldi and it's the only one I actually like. I use Vivaldi as my default on my Android tablet. It has a lot of good features and if I used Windows 10 I'd probably also use it there as my default browser.

Out of the Firefox based browsers, Firefox itself is the slowest and the least secure, but it is the default browser on Linux Mint, where it works perfectly, and it's security can be improved by changing some of the settings.

Waterfox is probably the least secure of the popular Firefox forks, because it's now owned by an advertising agency, but it's the only browser I've found that runs well on both Windows 7 and Linux. Neither Librefox or Floorp will install on Windows 7, so that is why I use Waterfox as my default on Win 7. Waterfox still works on Windows 7 while Firefox itself seems to be getting gradually worse.

https://sift666.blogspot.com/2024/06/why-i-use-the-waterfox-browser.html

FINGERPRINTING – This is more insidious than cookies, which can be turned off. 

Tracking has moved toward browser fingerprinting while we are still being distracted by cookies. The idea behind fingerprinting is to collect information about the browser and its environment for the purpose of identification. This includes the browser type and version, operating system, language, time zone, active plugins, installed fonts, screen resolution, CPU class, device memory and various other settings. The attributes become the users fingerprint.

These fingerprints are unique in the majority of cases. You can see your own fingerprint at amiunique.org. If a browser fingerprint happens to be non-unique, it can be made unique by combining it with the device’s IP address. In other words, browser fingerprints are capable of identifying users even when cookies are turned off.

Fingerprinting is actually remarkably easy to do - here is mine: