Firefox also sends user IP addresses with these identifiers. The fourth identifier, created by the server, is associated with an open web socket used for Firefox’s push services. Two created by the browser persist across browser restarts, while the third changes between browser sessions but could be linked together because old and new values are sent together in a telemetry message, the paper said. The research picks out four identifiers that Firefox uses. These behaviours can be disabled but they’re turned on silently by default, the paper claims. These browsers share some privacy issues, the paper warns, including auto-tagging each browser instance with unique session and browser instance identifiers that can persist across restarts. The paper lumps Safari, Firefox, and Chrome together in the second band. This means it doesn’t remember your identifier across browser restarts. Brave gets the top class all to itself because it uses what the study calls ‘ephemeral’ identifiers that link a handful of transmissions and then reset. The study placed browsers in one of three privacy classes, based on the time span over which they retain identifiers. Brave, which has accused Google of privacy violations, is “by far the most private of the browsers studied” when used with its out of the box settings, according to the paper. It also explored what the browser did when it was idle.Įven though Mozilla makes a talking point of privacy in Firefox, it was Brave, developed by Mozilla’s founder (and creator of JavaScript) Brendan Eich, that won out. To do this, it looked at the data shared on startup after a fresh install, on a restart, and after both pasting and typing a URL into the address bar. It used several tests to deduce whether the browser can track the user’s IP address over time, and whether it leaks details of web page visits.
The study examined six browsers: Chrome, Firefox, Safari, Brave, Edge, and Yandex. Users looking for a privacy-focused browser might want to consider Brave first, according to a study published this week.ĭouglas Leith, professor of computer systems at Trinity University, examined six browsers for his report – Web Browser Privacy: What Do Browsers Say When They Phone Home? He found that Brave’s Chromium-based browser is the least likely to reveal unique identifying information about the computer using it.
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