Browsers Which Protect Your Privacy?

valkraider asks: "Browsers are getting better at protecting user's privacy. Mozilla has pretty good cookie preferences. Many browsers like OmniWeb for Mac OS X will block images from sites based on wildcard expressions (like *ad*). Most browsers have settings to delete cookies and cache and such at the end of each session. Even IE for windows (not Mac) will allow you to 'import' a privacy file and control many things pretty tightly. Currently on PCs I use Mozilla with no disk cache, no persistent cookies, no third party images,and many blocked image sites. I can do almost the same with Chimera on Mac OS X. What are people's favorite browsers for protecting your privacy?" Which browsers provide the best balance between functionality and privacy? What privacy features would you like to see, that are missing from those currently available?"

Comments

Treating Flash like images

[mrblah]

So many sites are using flash now instead of normal images that the image blocking, while very nice, is becoming less useful. It'd be nice to be able to enforce the same controls on flash content (and other forms of content delivery) as normal images.

The Browser's not the solution

[orthogonal]

Use a proxy to filter out what you don't want. Use the browser to render the pages.

The proxy'll work with any browser that allows you to set a proxy, so that you can set up a rule set that doesn't change when/if you change browsers (i.e., in cases where the site only supports, e.g., IE).

More importantly, the proxy (if it supports regexed grepping) can be set up to remove or alter any arbitrary HTML -- something most browsers aren't set up to do. And it provides a additional layer of defense when the browser is buggy (see the earlier /. story today on IE's 'ability' to run arbitray code from a supposedly 'local' page).

I use Proxomitron under Windows. It does arbitray regex, so I can remove ads, flash, abitrary javascript, etc. I can also add or change elements (showing hidden fields is useful in debugging). And I suspect I'll be able to come up with a filter for the IE bug I mentioned above.

A question.

[leastsquares]

Maybe I am being naive, but...

How is the process of blocking Ads protecting my privacy?

Re:A question.

[Zaffle]

Maybe I am being naive, but...

How is the process of blocking Ads protecting my privacy?

Advertising companies (especially DoubleClick) serve up ads for a lot of websites, they also note down what sites you goto, and build up a profile. (Note: this can be stopped using DoubleClicks opt-out feature, however not all advertising sites have this option, and then, they are all opt-out, not opt-in)

This might not seem like such a bad thing, (eg hey, now I'm only getting ads for games and linux stuff, not tampons and other crap (appoligies to woman and everyone else I offended with that remark)), however they also try their hardest to link this profile with your real name, address, etc.

This all comes back to a case awhile ago, where a woman sued a supermarket because she slipped on a large patch of water in one of the aisles. The supermarket then, using her "discount" card, produced logs in court showing she would regularly purchase large ammounts of alcohol.

In the end, do you really want companies you don't know, knowing a lot about what you do on the web, and where you go?

True, your ISP knows almost everything (if they bother), unless you use FreeNet or something, and Visa/Mastercard/Amex know a lot about your spending habits, but just how much are you willing to put up with?