5 Most Secured Browsers to Protect Your Privacy in 2022

06-Mar-2022

2022 will still have a lot of people working remotely, and if that is not absolutely the case, we may have a situation where a lot of organizations will embark on the hybrid nature of work. One thing is, however, certain, we can never have the opportunity to go fully back to the physical workspace, and this entails that employees will largely depend on the use of secured browsers to protect privacy.

The nature of work in 2022 depicts that we shall still need to depend more on devices and apps to enhance the smooth flow of processes; a lot of employees will be expected to make good use of their personal PCs and smartphones to enhance productivity. Hackers know that the proliferation of devices to ensure that work is done is a golden opportunity to carry out their nefarious activities; they see the extensive use of personal devices as better chances for entry points and means of creating vulnerabilities they can capitalize on to introduce malware; this calls for organizations and individuals to think more along the line of privacy browser.

Hackers don’t just attack only organizations as you may erroneously believe; they will hurt you; they will hurt members of your family; they will hurt your friends; they will hurt your colleagues. For this reason, protecting the privacy of the organization, employees, family members, friends, colleagues, and customers is still a very critical issue.

While there are a lot of browsers in the market, you must ensure you have the best browser for privacy since all can’t work to the same degree.

What makes a browser secure?

What makes a browser secure

Since the browser has gone from the initial intended function of displaying text documents to other functions such as streaming and a tool for interactions with games, videos, and images among others, it has become very important that a privacy browser must be your watchword. Everybody will love to have a single browser that will handle a lot of media and functions, however, this makes it more difficult to secure, since you may have unintentionally created entry points for attacks.

Attacks may come from any of these sources:

  1. When you connect to an online resource such as a DNS server, that directs your browser to the correct site to fetch content, the communication can be intercepted, and you are directed to a malicious site. This exposes the browser to unsolicited content and downloads.
  2. Attackers usually target vulnerabilities in plugins you install on the browser itself to snoop or install malware.
  3. Sometimes, the browser itself may be flawed, and attackers capitalize on this to snoop on any sensitive information you transmit through the browser.

While it may be debated that no browser can be 100% secure, the following are qualities you need to ensure that you are surfing with the most secure browser.

Ability to update to the latest version

Secured browsers enable regular updating that vendors release to improve the functioning of their products.

The most desirable features you expect from secured browsers are:

  • Anti-phishing – For the evaluation and filtration of suspect links on websites and search results.
  • Anti-malware – For scanning and blocking suspect files you want to download.
  • Plugin security – To evaluate and block any insecure plugin.
  • Sandbox – For the isolation of the browser’s processes, stopping it from affecting the operating system.

Best privacy browsers will also have auto-update functions that will notify users and prompt them to do updates whenever the vendors release new versions.

Availability of security-related settings

Secured browsers enable users to customize security-related settings. With that, you can block reported fake sites or attacks, disable cookies completely, block pop-up windows, JavaScript, camera/microphone usage, and Plugins/add-ons from running automatically.

Ability to disable and add plugins

A privacy browser must enable the addition and removal of plugins. Plugins that are not in use can be potential entry points; they should be disabled, and you can re-install them any time you have the need. Also, it must have the potential for the installation of any plugin that can help to improve security.

How does a browser protect my privacy?

How does a browser protect my privacy

Any time you visit a website, there are chances of a first-party cookie being placed on your browser to customize your browsing experience; also, a third-party cookie can also be allowed to be placed by other companies to deliver ads that are solely targeted to you. An example of a first-party cookie is when a website remembers your username, while a third-party cookie can show you an ad for football boots because you visited a website about football.

Apart from cookies, other methods that companies can use to track you include a unique identifier your smartphone generates or device fingerprinting that is based on your browser’s special configuration and settings. While you may not completely get rid of targeted ads, a privacy browser enables you to have privacy when you adjust the privacy settings to see and delete cookies on your PC, decide if you want any cookies, tailor settings by websites, and turn on your private browsing mode.

Tips and tricks to protect your privacy on any browser

It’s necessary for you to feel concerned about your online privacy; you are not alone. However, you can do a few things to ensure you browse safely.

Use strong password

Social media platforms are a good way to pass information across, but when you overshare, you are attracting undue attention that can lure cybercriminals to go for your identity or try to access your financial information. Those seemingly innocent security questions you answer when you want to change your password or financial accounts are trackable.

You need strong passwords for your social media accounts to prevent people from logging into your account. A strong password should be a minimum of 12 numbers, upper- and lower-case letters, and special characters; you also need to change your passwords regularly.

Unfortunately, the human brain lacks the power to think up passwords randomly. However, the Urban Free VPN Password Generator helps in instantly generating passwords that are mathematically complex, secure, and random that cannot be cracked by brute force.

Clear cookies and cache

Some websites you visit create some files they call cookies which along with the browser’s cache can help pages to load faster and make it easier for you to surf the web, however, these cookies also retain information about your preferences or login credentials. Unfortunately, some of these cookies constitute privacy risks, when they track the sites you visit.

Even with a VPN such as Urban VPN that creates an encrypted connection or tunnel between your device and the internet, which should hide your public IP address and replace it with one of the thousands of IPs within their network from across the globe, cookies can still save information about your location and country, especially for e-Commerce stores and streaming services. It’s the reason some websites can still determine your real geolocation even with an active VPN. The only way to resolve such issues is to regularly clear your cookies and cache.

Disable cookies altogether by installing Adblocker and anti-malware

Just as you are thinking about cookies, you need to also consider malware that has been around for a long time and also constitutes a nuisance to your browsing. You can, however, get rid of both completely by installing Urban Adblocker which is the free Adblock solution that helps you block out the noise while you’re browsing any website.

When you install the Urban Adblocker, you will not only be blocking those annoying ads which companies have targeted at you through third-party cookies, you’ll also ensure secured browsing and protection against malware and other forms of malicious software that can sneak into your devices. Adblocker usually stops your browser from downloading malicious ads, thus safeguarding your browser from malware, and also opts you into the Malware Protection filter list by default.

Why malware is very dangerous is that you may not even know when you have downloaded it until it is very late and having different types such as adware, viruses, malvertising, and ransomware, hackers can capitalize on malware to take complete control of your PC or network. The knowledge that malware can easily hide in otherwise normal-looking websites or software, deems it very important that you ensure secured browsing.

The most secured browsers in 2022

The most secured browsers in 2022

Having looked at the general features you should expect from a browser, we need to look at the five most secured browsers in 2022 and what each of them has as an advantage.

1. Chrome

Chrome browser

Chrome easily comes as the number one browser due to its clean, polished UI, and versatility. Google does not stop to add to the browser’s bounty of stock functionality regularly. Some functionalities that make the browser stand out include hiding with incognito mode, casting your screen, integrated music control, using the magic of the Omnibox, quick search, managing tab groups, opening accidentally closed tabs, searching your tabs, cleaning up Chrome, and setting startup pages.

Chrome browser incognito mode

Despite that Chrome is a speedy browser, you may have situations where something gums up the works; if that happens, you don’t need to fret as the browser has some built-in tools that will resolve the problem. You simply go to Settings > Advanced > Reset and clean up, then click Clean up computer. This ensures that you can use Chrome’s internal antivirus to find and remove any malicious software that may interfere with the browser.

If you still have problems, click Reset settings to their original defaults, and that will reset your startup page, new tab page, search engine, and pinned tabs. It will also disable extensions and clear temporary data like cookies. The browser will, however, not delete Bookmarks, history, and saved passwords.

2. Safari

Safari browser

For the millions of people who use iOS, Safari comes as one of the most secured browsers for 2022. The fact that it’s built into iOS with some peculiar features, gives it leverage for the users’ browsing experience. The users of iOS can easily feel natural belongingness to Apple’s ecosystem. And they operate in a very familiar setting.

It’s a known fact that Apple does not allow a global setting for changing default apps, hence you need Safari to function as your default browser every time you open a link directly. Apart from that, Safari browser intact all other services and apps Apple provides such as Apple Pay, Apple Care, Apple One, and more.

3. Brave browser

Brave browser

Brave, quite unlike a lot of private browsers, is a very privacy-focused web browser; Brave also has all the necessary configurations or extensions by default, which is not common with most private browsers.

Users can enjoy the lightning-fast browsing speed that is associated with the Brave browser. As one of the secured browsers you can rely on in 2022, it has all you require in terms of privacy and security-related features such as private tabs, script blocking, HTTPS, and cookie blocking.

4. Firefox

Firefox browser

As we have with Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox also boasts of every efficient quality you can think of in an ideal web browser for iOS. A peculiarity of Mozilla Firefox is being able to share the link with Safari, and since it’s not possible to change the default browser on iOS, this works as a great workaround.

Other basic requirements you can get from Mozilla Firefox that enhance security and privacy include password sync, bookmarks, history, and private browsing, among others.

5. Edge

Edge browser

The last but definitely not the least among the most secured browsers to protect your privacy in 2022 is the Microsoft Edge; you may even want to consider it as the next alternative to Google Chrome.

The Chromium engine that powers the Microsoft Edge enables an exceedingly superfast browsing experience, apart from making it sleek and smart. The browser can be customized to a very great extent, and this enables a highly personalized browsing experience.

An added advantage is the ability of the browser to support Chrome extensions over the Mac version; this confers a lot of proficiency on the browser.

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