There are many people who, partly out of hearsay, partly out of mistrust, partly out of reason, but also out of ignorance, fear the espionage of large companies and governments on anything they look at and do. on the Internet. The online privacy issue concerns not only websites, but also and above all computers and, specifically, browsers that are the programs to open and browse the web.
Speaking of the most used browsers in the world, Chrome, Opera, Safari, Firefox and Internet Explorer, speaking of the privacy issue, is there really one better than the others or there is not much to worry about "> differences between Chromium and Google Chrome).
The privacy settings for Google Chrome, described in detail in another article, allow you to disable the various features that communicate with Google servers, including the prediction of URLs, spelling correction, pre-rendering of web pages and usage statistics and crash reports.
By default, most of these options are active, but still disabled in the advanced settings.
Here you can also enable non-tracking of data, as long as the sites respect this choice.
SEE ALSO: Do not be tracked online by sites by blocking the collection of personal data
The problem with Chrome can come from extensions that can contain intrusive advertisements and collect personal data without the user noticing.
In this regard, Google has blocked extensions and applications with adware on its Chrome Web Store but it is up to the user to pay attention to what they install, checking the permissions of the extensions from time to time.
In essence, Google is concerned with giving security to Google Chrome by supporting full user privacy even if not everyone is convinced of it, mainly because of the huge business that the company does on the internet.
We could talk about this debate for a long time, but one thing is absolutely true: Google gets a great deal of information about each of us, perhaps from Chrome but above all from other online services such as Gmail, the search engine, Google Maps, Youtube, Google Drive and everyone else, whatever browser you use.
However, it is appreciable that we can all read the Privacy Policy of Google Chrome, the official document that explains each data treatment.
2) Firefox and Mozilla
Firefox has long been presented as the best browser for privacy, because it is open source, because managed by the non-profit organization Mozilla Foundation (of which, it should be noted, Google is among the main investors), and is at the center of most private privacy protection browsers (such as the previously mentioned Tor Browser)
Also on the mobile side, Firefox for Android is open source and its code is available to anyone who requests it.
According to many, Mozilla does not trade and does not collect user data from Firefox.
There is some information that passes on Mozilla's servers, such as data to synchronize favorites and passwords, which are encrypted as for Chrome.
Firefox's privacy settings are easy to use, less granular than Chrome, also because there are less functions to manage.
All add-ons for Firefox, unlike those of Chrome, before being published are reviewed or classified as experimental, making it more difficult to spread extensions with adware.
Mozilla has a privacy policy for Firefox that explains what information is collected based on the functions used: synchronization, the use of extensions, bug statistics and so on.
In theory, therefore, the privacy protection of Firefox clearly says that all the information sent is not personal, even if some of it may contain things such as the sites visited, IP address, and other information on online browsing.
Recently, however, Mozilla has received a good deal of criticism for the choice of showing advertising (only in the USA and I don't know if it has been confirmed) in the initial form, in the form of "sponsored tiles".
In conclusion, everyone agrees that Mozilla is reliable and that Firefox, on the whole, is a fairly private and protected browser, with a good reputation on privacy, which can also be improved through add-ons (see the best Firefox extensions for security).
3) Safari and Internet Explorer
Firefox and Chrome are open source browsers (Chrome almost entirely) while Internet Explorer and Safari are private software, with protected code and not usable by external developers, from Microsoft and Apple, of which even experts do not know much about the treatment of privacy .
From a security point of view, however, they are highly protected browsers, with powerful functions such as blocking cookies on Safari and protection from monitoring by Internet Explorer.
Apple has a global privacy policy, which actually gives advertisers a lot of space.
Microsoft releases a new privacy document with each new version of IE, (you can currently read the one on Internet Explorer 11).
Their closed-source approach may be the reason why it gets more news every time a security problem is discovered in Safari and Internet Explorer.
Put simply, there is nothing in these two browsers that suspect privacy issues so any assumptions about it are only based on personal opinions.
4) Opera
As for the less used Opera, it should be noted that with the transition to the Blink rendering engine, the same as Chrome, it has switched to a semi-open platform.
Opera's privacy statement is very concise and reassuring : very little information collected, all stored in an aggregate way.
READ ALSO: How to surf the internet privately
In conclusion
Each browser probably sends some information to the company that created it, explicitly used to support activated features.
Everything therefore lies in the trust you have in the developer.
The important thing is to know how to use your browser's security settings and choose what to share and what to keep for yourself, being careful what extensions you install and what permissions are granted to them.
The real problems of online privacy do not come so much from the browser, but from the tools used and the sites you visit.
You can not think, for example, that if you do not use Chrome you prevent Google from knowing who we are because then we should also give up Gmail, Google search and all its other services, including Android smartphones.
In addition, there are far more effective tools for collecting personal data, such as persistent monitoring cookies.
Although web browsers could do more, the weak link in internet security is always ourselves, who can easily fall into traps and deception.
Firefox is perhaps the most reliable browser, it has nothing more than Chrome except the fact that Google, making money on the internet, can be less credible.
Apple and Microsoft are in a similar position to Google, with the added problem of making browsers firmly closed.
In any case, those who are concerned about privacy on the internet, the browser is the least of the problems .
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