10 Secure Browsers to protect your online privacy in Canada in 2022!

As the world becomes more and more interconnected each day, it has become necessary to stay safe & secure online while browsing on internet. There are many secure browsers for online privacy that don’t track your online activity. They’re built to prevent anyone from laying their hands on your data and information.

Secure Browsers for online privacy

Privacy and Security both are two different concepts and much bigger concerns these days. From a security and privacy point of view, the safest browser is one that offers a range of robust data-protection features and makes them simple to use.

In this listicle, you will see all the top-notch browsers that would help to protect your data from prying eyes.

 

Why Do You Need Secure Browsers for online privacy? 

Need a Secure Browser

“You know that dream where you suddenly realize you’re stark naked? You’re living it  whenever you open your browser.” The New York Times 

People are now learning that they have to do more than just hide their IP address with help of a VPN subscription or use a secure password manager. These days, it’s also essential to find the most secure browser.

What does secure browsing mean? It means traversing the web without leaving a digital footprint everywhere you roam. Why do you need a secure browser? The best secure browser ensures that no one is spying on you. Your chances of being infected with a virus are mitigated.  If you bank or shop online, you’ll be able to feel more confident about the privacy of these transactions. So it makes sense to use a secure web browser to prevent this from happening.

 

10 Best Contenders for secure Browsers

  1. AVG Secure Browser
  2. Avast Secure Browser
  3. Brave
  4. Google Chrome
  5. Mozilla Firefox
  6. Opera
  7. Safari
  8. Microsoft Edge
  9. Epic
  10. Tor

 

The Best Browsers for Security and Privacy in Canada

Let’s take a thorough look at each of the above-mentioned browsers to find the best and secure ones.

Best Browsers for Security

 

AVG secure Browser 

Member of the Avast team, the AVG browser is designed by dedicated security experts to ensure your security and privacy whenever you’re online. Supported on the Chromium platform, you can customize it with all your favorite Chrome extensions.

Here’s a quick look at the features you get with AVG secure browser.

  1. Anti-Tracking – Block third-party tracking cookies and other web-tracking technology with anti-tracking.
  2. Anti-Fingerprinting – Secure your device against browser fingerprinting methods with this feature and stay anonymous while browsing.
  3. Anti-Phishing – Avoid predatory websites and scammers to prevent identity theft with this amazing spec.
  4. HTTPS Encryption – Defend your sensitive personal information such as your credit card number while online shopping with automatic HTTPS encryption on any website you visit.

 

Avast Secure Browser 

Based on Google’s open-source Chromium platform, this browser automatically blocks online ads to drastically improve your website load time and is 4x faster than its competitors. Avast Secure  Browser includes built-in security and privacy tools that prevent hackers from stealing your data.

The Anti-Phishing feature blocks all the damaging websites and downloads. Anti Fingerprinting technology disguises your device and helps you fight back against the new privacy threat of browser fingerprinting. With the advanced Bank mode, you will be able to keep all of your sensitive financial information safe and securely shop and bank online.

Brave 

The name says it all. This browser is brave and robust enough to keep your online activity safe and secure. While relatively new on the scene having just entered the market in 2016, this browser aims to be a game-changer in the business.

Brave has many features that keep your browsing activity private. Default ad blocker stops ads from tracking your online activity. Brave’s security settings allow you to choose what data you want to delete whenever you close the app and block fingerprinting attempts. Password manager provides protections against unwanted, malicious scripts, and HTTPS encryption.

In December 2018, Brave fully transitioned to the Chromium codebase, so you can add more functionality simply by using the Chrome Web Store, which sells various extensions.

Google Chrome -security canada

Chrome 

Google Chrome is by far the world’s most popular browser, commanding about two-thirds of the global browser market share. Part of its code is also open-source, which permits users to scrutinize, and also adopt elements of its code.

When it comes to security and privacy there is good news and some bad news. The good news is that Google updates Chrome frequently. The default safe browsing protections will keep off some dangerous websites and phishing attacks. 

Now the bad news. Although Google Chrome is by far the most widely used web browser, there are still a few gaps. People may be concerned to hear that Google Chrome isn’t a secure browser and if you’re really concerned about privacy, you cannot trust an online browser that’s owned by a company that’s infamous for keeping and tracking its user’s data.

Mozilla Firefox 

Firefox establishes itself as a strong contender in terms of security, privacy, and transparency. Now when we say that you can rely on it for your privacy, we mean it, and the reason behind is that Firefox is owned by a non-profit organization which means that Mozilla isn’t particularly motivated to sell its user’s data. Amazing!

It is the only widely used web browser that is completely open-source and free for anyone to inspect. Just like Chrome, Firefox’s frequent security updates help keep hackers and other cybercriminals out.

The browser is well known for its highly customizable privacy settings and has long been a  favored alternative to its brethren from Google, Microsoft, and Apple. Firefox is safe, but for truly robust protection you’ll need to add a few critical add-ons.

Firefox is relatively lightweight, compared with its competitors. it is equipped with Anti finger print technology in its default settings. To keep itself in the game,  Firefox features Content Blocking, which allows users to block all trackers the browser detects.

Opera 

Opera, a decent browser, was developed in Norway in 1955. Opera’s browser security includes several tools to up your defense game. The following features throw some light on what this old player has to offer.

  1. Built-in adblocker- The Opera browser has a built-in ad blocker and uses a  tracker blocker that takes from the EasyPrivacy Tracking Protection List, which can help protect users from unwanted ads and being tracked by advertisers and other websites.
  2.  Chromium-based – It bases part of its code on Chromium, which is open-source and therefore can be scrutinized.
  3. Workspaces – Puts tabs in separate groups for whatever context you need, music venues, travel, memes, anything. You can work faster and switch between contexts with one click.
  4. Integrated proxy – Not a true VPN but it can conceal your IP address, helps hide your location, and lets you view the web with enhanced privacy.

However, I wouldn’t recommend Opera to be your first choice if security and privacy is your major concern. Opera’s default window will cache your data, and its Private one won’t.  It tracks bandwidth and logs usage, and Opera itself is owned by a company based in a country that is infamous for privacy violations.

Safari 

Safari is the flagship browser for Mac OS and iOS devices and claims to be the world’s fastest browser when it comes to speed. Quite a popular browser for its rivals like chrome and edge and like its competitors it does not offer open source code so you simply can’t poke around to see how safe and secure the browser is. Let’s see some of its highlighting features:

  1. Sandboxes -Safari runs all pages and tabs in separate sandboxes, meaning  that malicious code from one tab won’t infect your entire browser or accessing your  data
  2.  Cross-site tracking– This feature prevents advertisers from following you from one page to another to learn more about your behavior and preferences.
  3. Intelligent Tracking Prevention (ITP) – This recent addition to safari’s security prevents websites from tracking users, making it difficult for advertisers to target.
  4. Extensions – Safari Extensions add functionality to your browser to help you explore the web the way you want while safeguarding your privacy.
  5. Customization – Safari brings robust customization options including a customizable start page and even more third-party extensions which give you the power to make your browser YOURS

 

Microsoft Edge

Microsoft Edge is the newest browser from the PC software giant MICROSOFT, after replacing the longstanding Internet Explorer as their default browser. Edge runs on Chromium, the same browser kit developed by Google that powers Chrome, AVG Secure Browser, and many others. With the chromium base, part of its code is open-source, so you can partially see what’s going on in there.

Microsoft clearly wants this browser to have the edge on its predecessor in terms of page load speeds, but what’s up with its security and privacy policy? With weekly, automatic software updates, Microsoft keeps Edge light years ahead of Internet Explorer in terms of security. Automatic Profile Switching helps switch between your work and non-work accounts easily.

However, there have been some doubts. According to a company spokeswoman:

“Microsoft Edge asks for permission to collect diagnostic data for product improvement purposes and provides the capability to turn it off at any later point. This diagnostic data may contain information about  websites you visit. However, it is not used to track your browsing history or URLs specifically tied  to you.” 

Regardless, such data collection can reveal much about the user’s identity, and not much can really be done about it and that’s a fundamental flaw in Edge’s security.

Epic  

This epic browser lands on your device with many privacy-oriented features activated by default, such as no History, no Web Cache, no DNS Prefetching, no DNS Cache, and no Third Party  Cookies. Epic includes built-in protection against thousands of tracking Scripts, tracking cookies, and other tracking Agents.

Unlike other tracker blockers & privacy tools, Epic never collects, shares, or sells any data from its users. Epic’s encrypted proxy when turned on hides your IP address and encrypts your browsing. It lets you access websites that may be blocked such as Netflix, Hulu, YouTube,  Pandora, Spotify, and others.

With its incognito mode, you can land on your web pages without the fear of being watched. On close, Epic deletes all the databases, shortcuts, data related to current tabs, extension states,  history, and visited lTOR inks.

Tor  

Developed by The Tor Project in 2002, and based on Firefox’s browser “TOR” is an acronym for  “The Onion Router.” The name comes from its uncanny relation to the onion and anyone who has ever cut into an onion knows that it’s made up of many layers.

 

Tor browser-canada security

 

The idea behind TOR is that many layers of encryption keep users safer, much safer.  Therefore, this is the best secure browser because it incorporates a three-layer proxy. TOR  browser will have its web traffic encrypted in three layers by bouncing your communications around a distributed network of relays selected from thousands of volunteer computers.

This hides the user’s actual location and IP address so that they can enjoy an anonymous and completely private online experience.

TOR is as easy to use as any of the more common browsers despite all of the more complicated processing that is taking place behind the scenes. Tor Browser comes with default extensions that enforce automatic HTTPS encryption and prevent unauthorized websites from running scripts in your browser.

The Tor browser may actually be secure to a fault but the internet speed is likely to be  affected as it routes traffic over three different hops through the Tor network.

Bottom Line 

As you have seen, each of these above-mentioned browsers has its own pros and cons and with the best choice, you can maintain privacy and anonymity online. And even then, the most secure browser would malinger and track your web traffic and sell it to a third party.

I would recommend choosing a good VPN and add an extra layer of protection to your online activity.