Privacy: A compromised entitlement
In the era of exponential technological advancements and digital transformations, it is a relevant question to pose if our data is safe or are we being provided with the privacy we aspire. Privacy and cyber data go hand in hand. Moreover, it is appropriate to vocalize that the privacy and personal data of an individual are traded for the free resources available on the internet. From information shares on social media sites to cookies collecting user browser history to individuals transacting online to mobile phones registering location data — information about an individual is generated thorough each use of the internet. With the constant changes and re-definition on how the personal data is collected, stored, analyzed and shared to learn about an individual, it is the need of the hour to examine the ambiguity of the internet.
With the availability of private browsers and search engine in the market, it is safer to surf the internet.
The following are the privacy-oriented search engines.
DuckDuckGo
PROS:
- Commendable user experience and perfect privacy
- Displays ad based on the query made on the search engine not based on you. Therefore no social engineering techniques used on you and your interest.
- Lets the user select a country to get the most relevant result and 1-page result with infinite scroll.
CONS:
- Less personalization.
- It is a search engine, not a browser. It can be used as an extension on chrome.
Qwant
PROS:
- Based in Europe(Stricter data privacy protections as compared to the US).
- Offers light user interface as it includes links, news, videos, shopping etc.
- Modern and intuitive user experience.
- Includes a time filter(past 24H,past week,past month).
CONS:
- Does not allow to limit search result to last year. The maximum limit is the past month.
- It is slow considering duckduckgo and other search engines.
- It has signed a censorship agreement in 2019.
StartPage
PROS:
- It uses Google search results for fetching the result. Unlike Google, Startpage does not record user IP addresses and strops away any uniquely identifying user information before sending the search request to Google.
- It offers a free proxy with every search results. The optional proxy allows you to visit linked sites anonymously too. While in the protection of the StartPage proxy, the third-party sites and its advertisers cannot see you. Plus, the site cannot download malware onto your computer.
- It does not give out referrers. A referrer is an HTTP field that identifies the address of the webpage that is linked to the resource being requested. By checking the referrer, the webpage can see where the request originated.
CONS:
- Unimpressive user interface.
- Owned by advertising company(They claims that they are providing privacy-focused products and there is no guarantee for the same. Hence it is up to the user to trust the search engine).
- uses only Google search result.
The following are the privacy-oriented browsers.
Brave
PROS:
- Better privacy and uses HTTP secure connections whenever possible.
- Build-in Ad Blocking as a core feature.
- Faster and uses fewer data resources.
- Lets the user buy anonymity to use a site by using cryptocurrency. (Cool feature)
CONS:
- Lack of Extensions and Add-on plugins.
- Some features are still in Beta
Tor
It is a free, open-source project that allows anonymous internet surfing. The tor browser network is built of layers upon layers of independent nodes run by Tor users. Each node encrypts the incoming and outgoing traffic, and with several random jumps, it becomes impossible to trace your request.
PROS:
- Offers powerful encryption.
- Its the ultimate anti-censorship tool
- It can’t be targeted by a distributed denial-of-service(DDoS) attack as its a distributed network of independent nodes.
CONS:
- It could be slow because of the nodes present in random geographical locations. Hence each query takes time to execute.
- Blocked access on various websites as the list of Tor exits are public and many ISPs block them.
- You could be closely watched by authorities as it is a hub for malicious activities.
EPIC
PROS:
- Protection of privacy at entry-level and anti-tracking.
- It wipes all browsing traces on exit.
- Provides a secure search.
- One-click anonymizing proxy.
CONS:
- Can’t add third-party apps and extensions.
- Since it doesn’t save history, one has to keep all hyperlinks and other content required in other places.
- Nor compatible with password managers.
VPN
Finally, the infamous VPN(Virtual Private Network) which assures another level of anonymity to its user. A VPN gives you online privacy and anonymity by creating a private network from a public internet connection.VPNs mask the IP address, therefore, making the users online activity virtually untraceable.VPNs essentially create a data tunnel between your local network and an exit node in another location, making it seem as if the user is in another place. VPN encrypts data when its sent over a Wi-Fi network. Moreover, the users search history would stay hidden but will be available in the VPN server’s IP address(it could be in any of the servers located in different parts of the world) thus making the user’s online activity private.
Any data sent over the internet is vulnerable to attacks. Therefore it is frankly impossible to hide your online activity(unless you have military-level security!). Moreover, it is the choice of the user whether its privacy over personalized services or vice versa. Privacy is an emerging and increasingly important field in the internet society. Therefore making the right choices for safe and secure internet surfing is essential.
