By contrast, two web browsers share identifiers that are tied to the device hardware and so persist even across fresh installs
If you’re a privacy buff you might be best served by using Brave as your main browser, according to a study published recently. Google Chrome, Safari, Firefox, Microsoft Edge and Yandex Browser were also scrutinized.
Professor Douglas J. Leith of Trinity College Dublin assessed the privacy risks that were associated with the backend data exchange between browsers and their makers’ respective servers that takes place during general web surfing. The study conducted several tests to find out if the browsers track users’ IP addresses over time and whether they leak details of the web pages visited.
To assess this fairly, the researcher combed through the shared data in several scenarios – on startup, after a fresh install, after it was closed and opened again, after both pasting and typing a URL into the address bar, and when the browser was just sitting idle. Based on the tests’ results, the browsers were divided into three privacy categories.
Brave was the most private of the pack, ending up in a class of its own when tested in its out-of-the-box settings. Prof. Leith wasn’t able to find any kind of identifiers that would allow IP address tracking over time, nor were there any signs of the browser sending details of the visited webpages to backend servers.
Chrome, Safari and Firefox – which between them account for more than 85 percent of the browser market share – all ended up in the second category. All have been re ..
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