Concerned about ads? being tracked as your surf the net? Read on....
For browsers, Chrome is the market leader with over 63% market share. Safari is next closest with almost 20%. The rest are all individually below 6%. That surprised me a bit, I always thought Firefox would be a market leader, but it has fallen back dramatically in the past few years.
For search engines, Google is overwhelmingly the market leader with over 91% market share. Nothing even comes close (closest is just over 3% market share, Bing).
The worst security and privacy? Chrome for browsers, Google for search engines. Most browsers sell targeted ads, meaning they track you and your activities, feed that data to advertisers who respond with bids to display their ads. EVERYTHING you do online is monitored and tracked ... and sold to advertisers.
I want to make it clear: the tracking is your computer, your location, your searches, the pages you visit: this is NOT identify theft. It's big brother, well not quite - it's commercial big brother.
Chrome does have an "incognito" mode, but that isn't private either. Still tracking (a bit less info).
My browser of choice, until recently, has been Firefox almost exclusively for years. My search engine of choice is two-fold: Google (NCR) and Google Canada. NCR means "No Country Redirection". Google Canada gives me more local results while Google (NCR) gives me more general results. I need the more general results for better research of world-wide data.
I have noticed of recent that Google results are peppered with more and more sponsored results. These are links to sites that are somewhat related to my search, but clearly the aim is sales.
I decided to find an alternative search engine. My criteria is simple: 1) give accurate and comprehensive results; 2) minimize or eliminate ads; and, 3) minimize or eliminate tracking. I am prepared to accept slightly slower processing for these trade offs.
A VPN (virtual private network) is not an option for me. I am not trying to "hide" my footprints, just trying to be private about it and not have some commercial venture looking over my shoulder and selling information about me.
What I found amazed me.
I've already switched search engines. My "go-to" is now DuckDuckGo (https://duckduckgo.com/spread) . No tracking. Catches and eliminates most "hidden" trackers from Google and Facebook. Minimal ads. Same internet, more privacy.
I also discovered that DuckDuckGo also make a browser. I tried it on the desktop - it's not my go-to browser, but 2nd in line. It is my go-to browser on my cell phone now. Any links I click from an email or website I want to visit is fed through DuckDuckGo mobile browser. The search engine on my cell phone is now DuckDuckGo too.
I have switched desktop browsers and added a few extensions to help make it more private. I can't completely stop tracking, but I can minimize (or eliminate) ads. Here's my list of Chrome extensions. The list, by the way, is almost identical for Firefox.
- F.B. Purity, this allows for personalization on the Facebook experience, eliminate ads and entire sections I don't want to see
- AdGuard ad blocker, removes annoying web elements, speeds page loading, blocks all kinds of ads (banners, popups, and video ads – including Facebook).
- uBlock, the most popular and highly rated tracking blocker, removes ads of all types, has a filter to allow sites you select
- DuckDuckGo Privacy Essentials. Sets DuckDuckGo as the default search engine, changes all settings to support that search engine, and prevents any "auto" changes by the browser.
The short: Google with extensions for browser, DuckDuckGo search engine exclusively.