For several years now, there has been a struggle against anonymity on the Internet. But thanks to the efforts of people like Edward Snowden and organizations like Wikileaks, we are becoming more aware and able to take a closer look at online security issues.

More and more companies are gaining access to data about you and your life, which is undoubtedly frightening. The state is watching you, Google also collects a huge amount of data about you with the help of its products, Facebook is experimenting with the behavior of users on the Internet ...

A key element of your online security is your web browser. Browsers like Google Chrome and Firefox run java scripts and accept cookies by default. Therefore, the most popular browsers are not suitable for us. Even anonymous browsing modes in browsers do not protect you from government surveillance.

I seriously tackled this issue and will tell you about three browsers that will provide you with the security and anonymity of the network as much as possible.

In the documents that surfaced thanks to Wikileaks, the US National Security Agency described the TOR as a king of high protection and anonymity, who has not yet been removed from the throne. If the NSA said that, it’s not just that.

TOR was originally a project of the US Naval Research Laboratory, which explains why this browser and the network on which it operates are so unapproachable. In fact, Bulb Routing (a data transfer algorithm, a technology that TOR uses) was patented by the US Navy in 1998. Today TOR is developing thanks to the non-profit research and educational organization TOR Project.

TOP protects your personal data and online activity in several ways. First, JavaScript and cookies are disabled by default. Secondly, TOR redirects traffic through many free servers around the world.

Messages are repeatedly encrypted and then sent through multiple network nodes called onion routers. Each router removes the encryption layer to expose the trace instructions and send messages to the next router where it will repeat itself. Thus, intermediate nodes do not know the source, destination and content of the message.

TOR is developed on the basis of a modified version of Mozilla Firefox, uses the NoScript and HTTPS extensions, as well as TorButton, TorLauncher and TorProxy. The browser can be launched from a USB flash drive and is available for Mac OS X, Windows and Linux operating systems.

If you are looking for something similar to Google Chrome, I advise you to take a closer look at Epic. It offers less security than TOR, but has all the Google Chrome features you're used to.

On the browser download page, there is a list of 11 vulnerabilities through which information about you is leaked. By default, tracking sites and ads are blocked. Also disabled are saving cookies, cache, history, autocomplete, which are enabled by default in other browsers. The network is accessed through a proxy server with a US location. Thus, you are more difficult to track and you can access Internet services that only work in the United States, such as HULU, Netflix, Google Play.

Epic has an interesting feature that lets you see which services are tracking you in other open browsers on your computer.

The pirate browser is the creation of the guys behind the well-known torrent network The Pirate Bay. Like TOR, it is built on a modified version of Firefox, uses some components from TOR and the FoxyProxy extension.

The browser was originally designed to bypass internet censorship in countries where The Pirate Bay is blocked. But at the same time, there are options to block tracking as in the previous EPIC browser.

What's the bottom line?

At the moment, TOR is the leader in internet anonymity. So if you are looking for maximum protection, then this is for you. If you just don't want to be followed by other websites, then EPIC is worth checking out. And if you need access to prohibited sites, then choose "Pirate Browser".

But as sad as it may sound, no browser can provide you with 100% anonymity. Even TOR cannot guarantee complete. An example is the recently closed child pornography site lurking in the bowels of the TOR network. The FBI was able to launch a virus on the network, which obtained a list of addresses of users of the illegal site.

What conclusions can be drawn from this? People motivated by malicious intent cannot be classified and anonymous for a long time, especially if the government gets down to business.

Google once said that you have nothing to hide if you haven't done anything criminal. What do you think about anonymity on the Internet? Do you need it?

In contact with

Imagine a picture: May, you come to the supermarket and buy a rake. A week later, you come back in, and a horde of sales consultants runs out to meet each other, vying with each other to offer to buy various types of rakes. The most advanced of them try to get you hoes, and some even shovels. And none of your explanations that you have all the equipment left from last season and in fact you went to buy a lawn mower, do not work.

You somehow fight off the consultants, paving your way with the shovel, which they did manage to foist on you, and leave. But on the way home, you notice a poster on the fence that says that all owners of the rake bought last week at three o'clock and the shovel bought today at 5:40 am are getting a discount on the wholesale shipment of radish seeds sold by the company from the neighboring town.

This is how targeted advertising and user tracking works on websites. You go to the site, it assigns you an ID and starts tracking your actions. If this system operates only within the framework of one website, that's okay. But there are many offices (mainly, but not only ad networks) that can track your movements on many sites and make a whole map of your network adventures and interests.

In addition to privacy, speed also suffers. Each tracking script placed on the site slows down the loading of the web page, and when there are many of them, such a slowdown becomes noticeable even to the naked eye. A couple of years ago, Mozilla developers tested the loading speed of sites with and without protection mode and found that the average page load time in anti-tracking mode was reduced by 44%. On mobile devices, blocking tracking provides another plus: less data received.

User tracking (tracking) methods

In this article we will look at how to deal with tracking, but first, let's figure out how it works. Tracking is the tracking of a user using various browser identification techniques. There are at least five techniques: Cookie, Evercookie, fingerprinting, IP, and behavioral analysis.

Cookie

The oldest and most intelligent tracking method. The cookies were designed to identify the user. The principle of operation is very simple: the user opens the site, it requests information from the cookie, if there is no information, the site decides that the user is on the site for the first time, generates a unique identifier and writes it (with some additional information about the user) in the cookie.

Now (in theory), on subsequent visits, the site will be able to recognize the user by the unique identifier that was recorded in the cookies on his computer. It is clear that after clearing all cookies, the user becomes anonymous for absolutely all sites. However, in addition to the HTTP Cookie, there are also Flash Cookie and Silverlight Cookie. And you need to clean them separately.

Evercookie

This type of tracking can be safely called the “Internet deanonymization project”. It stores the user ID wherever possible. Both standard storages are used: HTTP, Flash, Silverlight Cookie, as well as various tricks like PNG Cookies (the server gives the browser an individual picture with the identifier recorded in it, it gets into the browser cache, and at the next user's visit, the site inserts the picture into the canvas and reads the written information into it), as well as HTML5 storage (Session Storage, Local Storage, Global Storage, Database Storage via SQLite, and so on), the log of visited web pages (only for old browsers), ETag header, java persistence API. Everything that can be used is used.

It is very difficult to remove Evercookie. However, it has one drawback - just like in the case of cookies, the data is stored on the hard drive (or in the phone's NAND memory). This means that normal incognito mode is invulnerable to Evercookie.

Browser fingerprint

In this case, the user is recognized by reading data about the browser, its settings and the device from which the user visits the site. Is there a lot of this data? Yes very many. The simplest: user agent (name, version and bitness of the browser and OS, type of device on which the browser is installed, functions supported by the browser, etc.), browser language, time zone, screen resolution, color depth, support for HTML5 technologies (hello, fans of digging in hidden browser settings), the presence of doNotTrack, cpuClass, platform, installed plugins and information about them, fonts available on the system.

Various clever techniques are also used: Canvas Fingerprint, WebGL Fingerprint, WebRTC Fingerprinting. According to the creators of the scripts, the probability of recognition now exceeds 90%. And in some cases it is 99, (9)% (not so many people like to install the Canary version of Google Chrome and dig into the chrome: // flags settings to activate new HTML5 chips). Lack of technology: in practice, recognition cannot be one hundred percent, because it is based on statistical data and there will always be a probability of error.

Tracking by IP

Using your IP address, you can find out the location (often with an error) and the name of the provider. However, due to periodic IP changes in both wired and wireless networks, this method is extremely unreliable and in practice is used only for approximate location determination.

Behavioral Analysis

Identification based on individual characteristics of user behavior and tastes: mouse movement speed, favorite search filters, preferred products, image viewing speed, click rate, and so on. The disadvantages are obvious: to track actions, you need to use heavyweight scripts that will not only load the channel, but also slow down computers. The recognition accuracy is too fluid and depends too much on various factors.

How browsers struggle with tracking

As you can see, there are only two reliable methods to identify a user: Cookie and Evercookie. To protect yourself from them, it is enough to go to all sites in incognito mode, which is available in almost any modern browser. But then you will face another problem: besides tracking, cookies are also used for many other useful tasks. For example, to store an authorization token, which allows you not to enter your username and password each time you enter the site. You won't be able to save money on traffic and page loading speed with the help of incognito.

Tracking-protected browsers work differently: they use blacklists of tracking scripts (like these) and simply block their execution.

Most browsers for anonymous surfing (Firefox Focus, Yo Browser, InBrowser, Ghostery, Cliqz and some common browsers) also have the option to automatically clear private data on exit. For a smartphone, this cleaning is quite enough to cope with Evercookie.

With the browser fingerprint, things are more complicated, because the browser transmits most of the information not from a desire to tell more about itself, but so that the web page is displayed correctly. As an option for protection - the browser can send information about itself, which will be similar to the maximum number of other browsers.

Test bench

For the browser test, a Samsung Galaxy S7 smartphone and the following pages were used:

• https: // site
• https: // site / 2017/08/15 / mobile-mesh /
• https://www.svyaznoy.ru/
• http://www.theworldsworstwebsiteever.com/
• http://www.samsung.com/ru/

Brave

“Brave is on a mission to fix the web by providing users with a safer, faster and more user-friendly experience through a compelling new reward ecosystem. Brave is more than a browser, it is a new way of thinking about how the Internet works. "

After such loud statements, you expect something special, but after a couple of minutes after installing the browser, you understand what is wrong. The browser is a Chromium with ad blocking and tracking prevention features with the ability to enable / disable blocking for a particular site.

The main difference from Chrome is that there is no news on the main page and there is no traffic saving mode.

• Engine: Blink
• ROM consumption (excluding application data): 108 MB
• RAM consumption (only the home page is open): 130 MB
• RAM consumption (five test sites open): 372 MB
• Number of blocked trackers (for five test sites): 29

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It's easier than ever to create a new browser today - there is Chromium, which you can fork and add any functionality. Companies do this according to the same logic that toolbars were once created - it's just an attempt to drive their brand to the user and force him to use other products of the company. But when independent developers do it, the product aims to say its "moo" in the virtually static browser market. Don't think - I don't believe you will switch to one of the indie browsers. But to see what they offer is interesting, isn't it?

To pass or not?

When it seems that in some area everything that is possible has already been said, trying to do something differently is breathtaking: at first you think it's wildness and utopia, but as a result you start to look at the market leaders in a new way. For the same reason, in the December issue] [we talked about "weird" mobile operating systems like Tizen, Firefox OS or Maemo. Therefore, in my opinion, when talking about alternative browsers, it is incorrect to put the question point-blank: to switch or not. No, you definitely won't. But you can try to repeat the functionality you are interested in in your favorite browser - for this, in each case, I tried to choose the appropriate extensions.

The idea of ​​creating a browser that closely interacts with popular social networks has been exciting the minds of developers for a long time. There were many attempts to create such a combine, but, perhaps, the Rockmelt company did better. No wonder they were able to get serious financial investments.

The project of the same name was launched in 2009 and immediately enlisted the support of one of the founders of Netscape. A year later, the first beta version was released, built on the Chromium sources, and in a short time it managed to collect a decent number of fans. Unobtrusiveness has become the main feature of Rockmelt. Integration with Facebook and Twitter was implemented as an additional functionality, not an annoying add-on.

Rockmelt may have had a bright future, but in 2012, the developers turned the desktop version down and focused on building an iOS app. Despite the drastic changes, the mobile application was born quickly and turned out to be quite interesting.

So, we are offered a solution that is interesting primarily by the interface. Browser control centers around a single line of input. It is both an address bar and a navigator for various content groups. For example, you can choose a specific topic and immediately get a bunch of previews of new posts that correspond to it. The presence of additional gestures allows you to perform a number of operations (sharing, likes) with one click or swipe.

Thus, together with the browser, we get a content generator. At the same time, we have the ability to quite easily influence the conditions for issuing materials. You just need to go to any site and click on the pimp "Follow". The resource is added to the list of watched (RSS feed is taken into account), and new materials will be added to the personal news feed.

Extensions:

• Content generator. Plugin for Google Chrome Feedly;
• New materials by category. Plugin for Google Chrome: StumbleUpon;
• Interaction with social networks (publications, sharing, and so on). Google Chrome Plugin: Buffer.

SRWare Iron

Project audience: conspiracy theorists

The first releases of Google Chrome (as well as Chromium) made a lot of noise. Users drew attention not only to the interesting interface and speed of work, but also to a couple of points of the license agreement that hit privacy.

After that, a boom in articles on the topic "Big Brother is watching you" began, eventually forcing Google to reconsider its ambitions. Despite this, Chrome still has several features that somehow violate the user's personal space.

For example, everyone knows that immediately after installation, Google Chrome generates a unique identifier that is transmitted to the company's server. The offer function works in a similar way. All data entered is sent to Google for the purpose of providing search suggestions. In much the same vein, there is reasoning about other nightmares: background update service, sending error reports, and so on.

SRWare is ready to solve all the voiced problems. In fact, this is the same Google Chrome, but with a clipped language. It does not transmit any information to the Google server, but it also brings a few nice tricks:

• stand-alone installer;
• built-in ad blocker;
• the ability to change the User-Agent.

Verdict: The solution is primarily for conspiracy theorists. The browser has few additional functions, and all of them are implemented using the appropriate extensions. As a result, it turns out that all the benefits are reduced only to providing an additional level of privacy.

CoolNovo

Project audience: web developers, enthusiasts

Another project that grew out of the Chromium fork, CoolNovo compares favorably with similar alternatives. Firstly, the developers from the Middle Kingdom set ambitious goals for themselves, and not just create another clone with a couple of additional extensions. Secondly, they are positioning their solution as a complete replacement for Google Chrome. The idea of ​​such a solution managed to win the hearts of users, and the browser itself has received a number of awards.

One of the most interesting and useful features is IE Tab. My main activity is partly related to the development of web applications, which implies the need to test if the layout is displayed correctly in browsers that use different rendering engines. IE Tab simplifies the testing process in Internet Explorer. It eliminates the need to launch a separate copy of IE, and allows you to change the engine used for rendering with one click.

The gesture control also deserves special attention. At one time I was used to using such functionality in Opera, and I must say that the implementation in CoolNovo is not worse.

The developers adhere to the same views about the inviolability of personal space as the guys from the SRWare Iron project. All secret transfers of information to the company's servers are cut off at the root.

Other more interesting features are worth noting:

• instant translation of pages into other languages ​​(via Google Translate);
• creating screenshots of a page or a selected area;
• quick cleaning of history;
• a separate side bar for placing frequently used widgets and extensions;
• ad blocker.

Verdict: CoolNovo has long been the leader among Chromium-based alternative builds. Today it continues to hold its positions and is still a good solution for users who want to get a pumped browser out of the box. The only sad thing is that recently CoolNovo has become less frequently updated. If this goes on, then sooner or later a competitor in the person of Chrome will throw it out of the way.

Extensions:

• Fast and flexible cleaning of history, cookies and other files of network activity. Plugin for Google Chrome Click & Clean Click & Clean;
• Link shortener. Plugin for Google Chrome URL Shortener;
• Gesture control. Plugin for Google Chrome: CrxMouse or Gestures for Chrome;
• Reading mode (without displaying pictures and unnecessary layout elements). Plugin for Google Chrome: iReader or Сlearly;
• Button to quickly subscribe to RSS. Plugin for Google Chrome: RSS Subscription Extension;
• Super drag. Plugin for Google Chrome: Super Drag;
• Translator. Google Chrome Plugin: Google Translate.

Maxthon

Project audience: All inclusive lovers

Maxthon is one of those projects that have experienced a rebirth. He first saw the light in the early 2000s under the pseudonym MyIE. Then it was a convenient wrapper for IE donkey and a number of useful functions. It had a built-in download manager, tabs instead of separate windows, and other useful things.

When Firefox began to boom, and subsequently Google Chrome, MyIE was forced to go into the shadows for a major overhaul. Total straightening brought it back with a new name, updated feature set, and a completely different face.

Today Maxthon is more like a powerful internet hub than just a browser. Under the hood of the adventurer, two engines are hosted - WebKit and Trident (used in Internet Explorer). Moreover, unlike most similar solutions, Maxthon is able to independently determine the pages for which the use of Trident is more preferable (as a rule, these are old sites). I deliberately took out an old project from the pantry, adapted for viewing in IE, and tried to look at it Maxthon. Without thinking twice, the browser immediately switched the display to retro mode and rendered the page using Trident. In addition to working with two engines at the same time, Maxthon's strongest points are its own cloud and the availability of versions for mobile platforms (Android, iOS). Your own cloud not only allows you to store various small information like browsing history, a list of open pages and similar things, but it is also quite suitable for storing files.

For example, I was very pleased with the ability to save files from a web page with one click to the cloud. This function looks most advantageous when working on a mobile / tablet. The usefulness of Maxthon does not end there, but rather just begins. Among them:

• support for gestures;
• SuperDrop function that simplifies interaction with the browser interface without a mouse;
• ad blocker;
• completely redesigned interface of the application (not just another clone of Chrome);
• simultaneous processing of search results from several search servers;
• viewing pages in read mode (without unnecessary information);
• saving videos from YouTube;
• mute the sound on any page;
• simultaneous viewing of several tabs in one window;
• download manager;
• own extension store;
• setting an arbitrary time for refreshing open pages;
• night surfing mode. When this mode is activated, Maxthon darkens the bright background of the pages, thereby reducing eye strain;
• improved performance and more.

Verdict: Maxthon will appeal to both casual users and hardcore geeks looking for new adventures. The availability of versions for mobile platforms and a full-fledged personal cloud are two key features that allow Maxthon to beat many competitors. Add to that the good performance, numerous wins in web standards compliance tests, and you have an almost perfect, but little-known browser.

Extensions:

• Retro mode (page rendering using IE engine). Plugin for Google Chrome: IE Tab;
• Taking screenshots. Plugin for Google Chrome: Webpage ScreenShot;
• Night mode. Plugin for Google Chrome: Hacker Vision or Turn Off the Lights for comfortable viewing of videos;
• Password store. Plugin for Google Chrome: LastPass;
• Ad blocker. Plugin for Google Chrome: AdBlock;
• Built-in notepad with the ability to store notes in the cloud. Plugin for Google Chrome: Memo Notepad;
• Resource sniffer. Plugin for Google Chrome: Web Developer.

Project audience: lovers of everything fresh

Chromium is the father of many WebKit-based browser games. It forms the foundation of almost every new browser, and it is hardly possible to shake its dominant position.

So, you probably already know that it is on this project that all new items are tested before getting into Google Chrome. Support for new HTML5 chips, fixing terrible bugs, new interface - all this is primarily received by Chromium users. Alas, you have to pay for the frequency of updates with stability. Major problems that prevent the browser from working normally are rare, but apt.

It is rather difficult to single out some original interface features or features, since they are more the implementation of new HTML5 features and are relevant for web developers, and not mere mortals.

Nevertheless, Chromium still has a number of differences that can interest a common user. For instance:

• there is no sending of error reports;
• the RLZ identifier is not transferred to the company's servers;
• there is no Updater hanging in the background;
• only open and free media formats are supported;
• the performance is very high.

Verdict: A special version of Google Chrome for enthusiasts and geeks. Everything new appears right here, and the named user groups will definitely like it. Chromium is hardly suitable for mere mortals, since it is a product primarily for testing. And there are very few users eager to be the first to test, say, the Battery API.

Avant Browser

Project audience: web developers

The primary goal of the Avant Browser developers is to provide users with an easy way to combine the engines in one application. It would seem that the task is not easy, but looking at Avant Browser, you are convinced of the opposite. The developers were not only able to put together all the popular engines under one wrapper, but also came up with an easy way to switch between them. Changing the rendering engine is done in a couple of mouse clicks.

This is where the super-useful functions end, and remain typical for such solutions:

• a simple cloud storage capable of storing RSS subscriptions, favorites, passwords and other information;
• ad / pop-up blocker;
• creating screenshots of pages;
• simple implementation of gesture control;
• creating aliases for pages, with which you can quickly go to frequently visited sites;
• built-in RSS reader;
• mail client.

Verdict: Avant Browser cannot be considered a complete application for everyday use. It is more of a specialized solution that can do a good job for web developers, but not for the average user. There are simply no other interesting features in Avant Browser.

Numerous scandals provoked by the disclosure of information about the surveillance of users by state intelligence services are irrefutable proof that the modern Internet has long ceased to be a free cyberspace in which everyone could feel full.

In the light of today's realities, anonymity on the Internet is nothing more than a myth that only the most naive and inexperienced users continue to believe in.

The number of organizations and the methods they use to track and collect information is growing rapidly. Social networks, search engines, advertising companies, national agencies like the NSA, all of them strive to get as much data as possible about users and their preferences. It is generally accepted that viruses specially created for this purpose are engaged in stealing data from a computer. But in our case, everything is much simpler.

The main "informants", leaking information to third parties are the most common browsers. Regardless of the claims of the developers themselves, the effectiveness of anti-tracking tools in popular browsers remains at a very low level. If you want to feel more or less secure on the Web, you should use special modified browsers for surfing.

Tor browser

The most famous "anonymous" web browser is the Tor Browser. In fact, Tor Browser is the same Mozilla Firefox, but with minor modifications.

Cookies are disabled in it, the script processing mechanism has been redesigned, and most importantly, the TOR system is integrated, which provides anonymous exchange of information on the Internet.

Tor Browser is distinguished by its ease of use, does not require specific settings, and has an easy-to-use interface (Vidalia) for connecting to the secure Tor network.

Minuses

These include the relatively slow loading speed of web pages in Tor Browser, the inability to use some additional functions on the sites, as well as problems with playing flash videos.

Epic

Epic Browser is a simple to use Chromium-based browser for surfing anonymously. Unlike Tor Browser, Epic Browser does not use the Tor system. Tracking protection in Epic is provided with a comprehensive set of different tools from Do Not Track to proxy server.

The main features of this browser include protection from tracking, automatic removal of all traces of work when the program is closed, the use of a special incognito mode, a secure Internet search mechanism, and a proxy server to hide the real IP address.

Minuses

The disadvantages of Epic Browser include the lack of support for plugins and some search modifiers. There were also problems when viewing some, mostly gaming, and also using interactive elements.

The pirate browser

The Pirate Browser is a Mozilla Firefox based secure browser from the developers of the famous torrent tracker The Pirate Bay. Outwardly, it practically does not differ from Firefox except for the design of some sections. The browser is equipped with a Tor client, as well as an extensive set of tools for working with proxy servers.

Despite the fact that The Pirate Bay, like the Tor Browser, uses the Tor network, it does not provide anonymity on the Internet as such. This browser is primarily intended to circumvent censorship restrictions. The pirate browser is easy to use and portable. It also does not need any settings.

Minuses

The disadvantages of The Pirate Browser include relatively slow loading of web pages, problems with playing flash-content, and also weak protection against tracking compared to Tor Browser and VPN-networks.

Need to download music from VK?

There are several projects on the global network today, the authors of which claim that they are creating a safe and secure browser for users. Moreover, each of them puts its own meaning into the concept of security. Ideally, the safest browser should have the following qualities:

• Lack of collection and storage of user data under any pretext;
• Force the browser to use the secure encrypted HTTPS protocol wherever possible;
• Protection against hidden installation of unwanted extensions;
• Advanced tools for detecting and counteracting malicious code on web pages;
• Disable some elements of sites that can be used by intruders;
• Spoofing a user's real IP address or using a whole chain of IP addresses;
• Additional methods of protection against various tactics of user identification;
• Built-in ad blocking as well as browser kernel level blocking.

Alas, not a single program is capable of providing all the items from this list today. However, we have selected for you those safe and secure browsers that in 2018 are trying to take on at least some of these tasks:

• Waterfox- simple secure browser based on Firefox;
• - Strongest protection and privacy from the Tor development team;
• Opera- a well-known browser with security and privacy features that competitors do not have;
• - an attempt to make a secure browser based on Chrome;
• Comodo dragon and IceDragon- browsers from a well-known manufacturer of antiviruses and firewalls;
• Brave Is a safe and secure web browser project from the founding father of Mozilla.

We decided to figure out who is who and take a closer look at each of these programs.

Waterfox - Firefox without unnecessary services

Let's start the review, as it seemed to us, with the simplest of all projects - the Waterfox browser, which is being handled by a small group of enthusiasts.

Waterfox is based on Firefox and is almost identical to version 56 in terms of interface / performance at the time of this writing. This is the last version of Fire Fox before they significantly changed the engine (the Quantum project) and introduced the new Photon interface.

The Waterfox developers have removed from the browser from Mozilla, in their opinion, everything unnecessary that could negatively affect the user's security, safety and privacy. This is the main difference. In particular:

• Removed integration with Pocket deferred read web service;
• Removed telemetry;
• Removed other data collection by the browser about the user;
• Removed sponsor cells on the new tab page;
• Disabled some controversial, according to the authors of the Firefox technology.

In theory, this could also give a small performance bonus, as well as lead to a decrease in resource consumption by the browser. But it is unlikely that the numbers here are even somewhat serious.

In terms of interface, Waterfox looks like Firefox Australis. This style was used in FF 29 through 56 inclusive. It differs markedly from the current Photon in the appearance and arrangement of the main elements. For example, it has light, rounded tabs, large cells on the start page, and a customizable main menu that Mozilla has deprecated in Photon:

The Waterfox developers barely touched Australis. The only exception is the item for duplicating the current tab in the context menu. It is in Waterfox, in modern Firefox, but it was not in Firefox Australis:

Using the codebase of the old Firefox allows Waterfox to remain compatible with all XUL extensions that simply do not work in Firefox since version 57:

Finally, the creators of Waterfox also allow users to use unsigned extensions as well as 64-bit NPAPI plugins, which Mozilla has also dropped.

Note that Waterfox is not the only project that is positioned as "Firefox stripped of excess", as well as "Firefox with a classic interface." Here at least Pale Moon comes to mind (there is an interface in the style of FF 4), and also the new Basilisk that uses the Australis interface.

Tor Browser - maximum protection and IP change

Tor Browser is another Firefox-based secure web browser, but putting it on a par with Waterfox and the other projects described above would be a big mistake. The work is going on here strikingly more serious.

In addition to the Firefox framework, Tor Browser combines a number of extensions and mechanisms to improve security, and most importantly, the Tor module. This is special software for establishing a secure anonymous network connection.

Tor is a rather complex system and uses whole chains of proxy servers, which makes it much more difficult to identify you.

Besides the Tor Browser, the Tor module is also used by several other web browsers (like The Pirate Bay's PirateBrowser), plugins, messaging clients, Linux distributions, and so on.

However, it is Tor Browser that is the official and most well-known example of Tor implementation in a specific solution and is recommended primarily on the Tor Project website.

In the screenshot above, the "new Tor chain" command will change your IP. For the site you are looking at at the moment, this will be the IP of the last link in the chain (in our case, it turned out to be Romanian). The "new personality", in addition to changing the IP, will also restart the browser, clearing all intermediate data, which you inevitably manage to accumulate even in a very short surfing time.

You can also increase the general security settings. By default, the security level of the browser is set to the standard value, but you can rearrange it 1 or 2 levels up. In this case, the program itself will explain to you what you will change in this way:

Just keep in mind that all the chains and the specified security measures, even without an increase from the basic level, already have a very noticeable effect on the performance of the program compared to regular Firefox, not for the better.

Tor Browser is currently based on Firefox 52 ESR - this is the official special version of the "fire fox" with an extended support period. Due to the continuous support of patches, it will not be considered obsolete until the summer, until Firefox 60 replaces it on the ESR channel. Obviously, the future Tor Browser will be based on Firefox 60 ESR.

Thanks to its current foundation, Tor Browser offers an Australis interface and support for legacy XUL extensions. In the settings, you can notice a few items that are missing in Firefox:

The Tor Browser has some mechanisms by default to protect and alert the user to potential security or privacy threats. Sometimes the browser makes comments even at the expense of very well-known resources, for example, the most popular WordPress platform and all sites that use it:

However, the ideas of the Tor Browser developers find their response. For example, the notification shown above is for the Canvas API's anti-user tracking mechanism. It was with an eye on the Tor Browser that Mozilla implemented a similar tool in its Firefox 58 in January.

As for the extensions for strengthening protection, they are presented in the Tor browser, first of all, NoScript and HTTPS Everywhere.

The first blocks plugins (not to be confused with extensions) everywhere, except for trusted resources, and is also able to protect against certain types of attacks. The second forces the browser, wherever it is supported, to use the secure HTTPS protocol with encryption support.

Finally, sometimes Tor Browser will just give you various tips if you are seriously concerned about your security and / or anonymity.

Unlike most of the projects listed in this article, Tor Browser has its own release numbering system, separate from Firefox. At the time of this writing, version 7.5 is current. With each update, the authors add new measures to strengthen the protection of the program.

Opera - Reliable VPN

The Opera browser, unlike other participants, certainly does not need a special introduction. In our article, it came to be thanks to built-in anti-ad and tracking tools, as well as a free VPN integrated into the web browser.

Having lost their own engine, the creators of Opera began to look for how to stand out from the rest and not get lost in the army of Chromium-based browsers. As a result, the possibilities described above turned out to be.

Opera became the first major market player who dared to add its own ad cutter to the program. In addition, this tool is able to block various mechanisms for monitoring the user. For example, did you know that site owners can even see a record of your cursor movements if they want to?

As far as the built-in VPN is concerned, this was not the case in conventional browsers either. The mechanism will help you change the IP address and go where your provider, employer or someone else prohibits. The scheme is not as complex as in Tor, and your privacy / protection level will be noticeably lower.

But for many, this solution will be enough, and the speed of opening pages through Opera VPN should be higher than in Tor. notice, that of all browsers in our selection, only Tor Browser and Opera can change IP.

Opera offers a few additional security settings for the user, which you will not find in Chromium browsers. For example, recently a curious item appeared in the program to protect the properties of its shortcut from editing by third-party programs and extensions. However, we repeat, Opera is not an alternative to Tor Browser with its comprehensive approach to user protection.

SRWare Iron - Chrome No Tracking

In September 2008, when it first released its Chrome browser, Google immediately faced strong criticism of the amount of information that its brainchild collects about the user in one way or another.

One of the first such active critics were the Germans from the SRWare company, and literally two weeks after the release of Chrome, they managed to release their own browser based on it, called Iron. In terms of interface, it was almost indistinguishable from Chrome.

Almost ten years have passed since then. The developers still continue to support their program, from time to time updating Chromium to a more or less current version.

Iron should be different from Chrome by not sending any user information to Google or elsewhere. It also does not install the background update service into the OS memory and disables some other Chrome mechanisms by default, including those that could theoretically be used to authenticate the user.

The developers at SRWare also planned to make their own ad blocker in Iron and slightly improve the Chromium interface out of the box, adding, for example, a custom new tab page. Alas, after ten years we did not see any of this. But for Russian-speaking users, modules from Yandex are offered:

Moreover, the developers did not seem to be able to smoothly integrate them with Chromium. The security system built into Chromium “swears” at all this stuff.

Iron is also trying to install the Tampermonkey extension intended for custom scripts, but why it is there is a mystery to us. By default, in the Iron assembly that we are familiar with, all these extensions are never included. Although Yandex is still used as a search, and its bookmarks hang on the bookmarks bar.

By the way, from the official site we managed to download for some reason exclusively the 32-bit assembly of Iron.

Comodo Dragon and IceDragon - protected by Chrome and Firefox

The ability to create their own browsers based on Chromium and Firefox, without even making any special changes, but simply coming up with their own name and logo, is still popular with many companies of different sizes that want to make themselves known. As a result, we have dozens of such "unique" browsers.

However, we definitely do not want to reproach all the developers without exception who are trying to create something of their own on the basis of Google and Mozilla projects. The next ones in our review are Comodo Americans. This is not a group of enthusiasts, but quite a respectable company, which employs over 600 people.

They are known as the developer of the eponymous antivirus, firewall and a number of other security programs. Therefore, the browser from them is also interesting to us. Based on Chromium, Comodo Dragon first saw the light of day in 2010.

During installation (screenshot above), the program prompts you to use your own DNS servers from Comodo, assuring you in the description that it is safer and even faster with them.

The interface of the program, as it was easy to assume, has not gone far from Chromium / Chrome, but a certain metal theme catches the eye, which the authors pulled on the browser. Some additional features are built into the web browser, others are added in the form of extensions and, in comparison with Iron, Chromium does not "swear" at anything here.

It is noteworthy that all modules are created by Comodo itself. Almost all special functions are rendered as buttons on the toolbar:

The first button on the left is responsible for using the HTTPS protocol. The second gives information about IP, DNS and plugins. The third allows you to find out how safe the currently viewed resource is. The following features are not directly related to security.

So, the fourth button allows you to share content on social networks. The fifth is responsible for the comfortable loading of multimedia from those resources where there is no direct opportunity to download audio / video. At least with YouTube, it definitely works:

The sixth feature is perhaps the most interesting. If you select a word, picture or something else on the page, and then try to move it to the left or right edge of the browser, then special panels will appear there, divided into sectors. They need to "dump" the selected content.

The left panel will allow you to share content, respectively, the sectors there are Facebook, Twitter, G + and other social networks. The right panel is responsible for searching. For example, we picked up an image and "dropped" it on Image Search, thereby launching a Google image search with the selected image:

In short, a curious feature, although not related to user safety. As for the settings, we noticed in Comodo Dragon the option to start the "incognito" mode at the start of the default browser. Below there is a setting that will allow you not to transmit information to sites about where you came from.

Now for a few controversial points. First, as in the case of Iron, Comodo, obviously, entered into a partnership agreement with our Yandex. Hence the start page (by the way, not working in the current build) and so on from Yandex. Secondly, at the time of this writing, Chromium 64 was already relevant, and Dragon was based on version 60.

Finally, third, and this surprised us the most, the browser managed to install an antivirus along with it and some other application from Comodo, although during the installation of the web browser there was no talk about them.

Finally, note that in addition to Dragon, Comodo also has IceDragon.

The latter is based on Firefox (ESR) instead of Chromium and, alas, is noticeably inferior to Dragon in terms of the number of additional functions, as if the authors devoted their time to it strikingly less. Of all the above, we found only a mechanism for dragging and dropping the content of web pages onto the panel with sectors.

Brave - Security & Tracking Protection

The Brave project started in early 2016 and we talked about it on ITRew when the browser was at a very early stage of development. Since then, about two years have passed and now the program has begun to look much more mature, although active work on it is still ongoing.

The development team there is very professional. Its head is Brendan Icke - the creator of JavaScript, one of the founders and until 2014 the chief engineer of the Mozilla company. Brave is based on Chromium, but has a largely original interface. The highlight of the program is blocking ads, enhancing the security and privacy of the user.

Brave's homepage is attractively styled, a la Bing, with a different image every time. There is also time, access to frequently visited sites with the ability to customize, but the most interesting thing is that there are special counters (see the screenshot above). They reflect the main features of Brave.

We worked with the program quite a bit, opening only about 20-30 web pages. However, this was enough for the number of blocked trackers and ad units to exceed a hundred. Trackers mean anything that tracks your activities and preferences. On every web page in Runet, there are at least those from Yandex and Google.

Also, in a short period of time, the browser automatically redirected us from HTTP to secure HTTPS 55 times. Here we will clarify that due to inline blocks, there may be more than one such redirection per page. By the way, you can see not only general numbers, but also specific results of Brave browser protection for each web page:

In Brave, the combination of all these mechanisms is called shields. In the settings, they even stand separately from the "security" tab. Some of the shields like script blocking are disabled by default.

The program also provides for such a feature as the creation of new personalities. It is available directly from the main menu and will create tabs for you that are separate from others in terms of internal data. They don't change the IP address like Tor and are obviously much closer to the so-called tab containers that Mozilla has been working on for Firefox for quite some time.

The point is to separate your different types of activities (personal affairs, work, shopping) from each other and not allow sites to receive information about all this at once. In addition, it should be convenient to work with multiple mail accounts or social networks.

In general, the functionality of Brave, considering that it is the youngest of everything that has been dealt with in this article, is impressive. In addition to what was described, we liked the following features of the web browser:

• Creation of private tabs instead of private windows;
• Displaying the loading speed of each page;
• Search within the page, case sensitive and case insensitive;
• The functionality of sets of tabs;
• Color indication of active tabs;
• Clickable audio indicator on tabs;
• Full-size preview of the tab on hover;
• A solid list of search engines, including specialized ones with a quick search function in them through a set of one or more characters.

Meanwhile, right at the time of writing, Brave has been updated from version 0.19 to 0.20, and the list of changes there was quite weighty. If the available functions are not enough for you, then the program in a special section will advise a set of extensions that can strengthen your web protection and not only. They are activated by simple toggling the slider on the right:

Which browser is the most secure?

In our opinion, the most serious and comprehensive approach to the security of its user in comparison with other web browsers in this collection is by far the Tor Browser. This is what we recommend.

In the Tor Browser, in addition to the module for anonymous surfing, security hardening tools and mechanisms are integrated. At the same time, the authors of Tor Browser do not look for some kind of sponsors like Yandex and do not litter the program with extraneous components. Unfortunately, the user has to pay for security and anonymity with the speed of the application and a number of other inconveniences.

Among other projects, we are ready to mention Brave and Opera.

Brave, in addition to the list of defense mechanisms, is also notable for its original interface. While the developers of Comodo Dragon / IceDragon, SRWare Iron and Waterfox, making minimal changes in Chromium / Firefox, attached their logo to them, the authors of Brave did a little more complicated and complex work.

They have created largely their own interface, equipping it with a number of interesting additional functions. However, remember that Brave is not backed by a group of inexperienced enthusiasts, but by web industry veteran Brendan Icke from Mozilla, and you can feel it.

In turn, Opera, having included a free VPN service after a high-quality ad / tracking blocker, has managed to stand out from other web browsers with functions that were previously unusual for them. They were risky for the company itself, but certainly not superfluous for users.