Your web browser knows a lot about you, and tells the sites you visit a lot about you as well if you let it. Weve talked about which browsers are best for privacy before, and the best tools to lock your browser down, but there are also entire browsers designed to keep your data as secure and private as possible. Lets take a look at some of them.

Whether your preferred browser is Chrome or Firefox, you have a few options to help you browse more securely assuming youre ready to give up on the version everyone else uses and try something new. Here are some options worth trying out.

Tor is going through a rough period right now, but overall, the service is still excellent if youre looking to preserve your anonymity and privacy, and if you want to keep away from malicious tracking cookies and ads. Tor routes your traffic across a series of relays designed to keep your real identity and computer as anonymous as possible. Its not perfect and it certainly has its drawbacks, but if anonymity is your end goal, the Tor Browser (more specifically, the Tor Browser Bundle) is a great way to go.

The Tor Browser is based on Firefox, open source, and comes preconfigured to access the Tor network. The vast majority of built-in plugins and services have been disabled or stripped out, and its important that you leave them that way, or else data you mean to keep private can leak to the sites youre visiting. Available for Windows, Mac, Linux, and in portable forms for all of those, its a great way to surf when youre using an untrusted system, want to keep your identity concealed, need to get around content filtering or site-specific blocks, or want to keep your physical location a secret from sites downstream/

Remember Tor is designed for physical and digital anonymity, not security and encryption. What you do while youre using it may give away that anonymity (such as sending emails or logging on to web services), and while communications inside the Tor network are encrypted, as soon as you leave the network, your data is in the clear (if its not encrypted another way.)

Epic Privacy Browser is based on Chromium, is open-source, and is available for Windows and Mac. Weve highlighted Epic before, and while theres genuine scepticism about the browser and its roots in Chromium (the open-source platform upon which Chrome is also based), overall Epic does what it promises. The browser blocks ads, tracking cookies, social boxes and widgets (until you interact with them), blocks tracking scripts and modules from loading (which results in faster-loading web pages), and sandboxes third-party processes and plugins. Epic Browser even encrypts your connection whenever possible (largely by shunting to HTTPS/SSL whenever its available), routes your browsing through a proxy, and protects you from widgetjacking or sidejacking when youre browsing over Wi-Fi.

All of these features are great, and the browser itself is fast and works smoothly. Of course, it doesnt support extensions or plug-ins by design, and its a little heavier than your normal Chrome install, but once its up and running you shouldnt have a problem actually using it. Youll also have to give up some of the conveniences you may be used to in order to protect your privacy, such as autofill, address saving, password saving, history and cache all of those elements are either never stored, or deleted when you close the browser.

Comodo is an internet security company that has been in the business of protecting data for decades. Comodo develops three web browsers, and each of them offers additional protection that you wont find in a standard download of Chrome or Firefox.

Comodo Dragon is a Chromium-based browser that was one of Comodos first browsers. It incorporates a number of Comodo-branded tools into the browsing experience, such as the companys own SSL validation, where every site you visit has its SSL certificate and identity validated by Comodo. Youll receive a notification to let you know everything is OK, or if Comodo thinks the site youre trying to visit is questionable.

If you allow it to, Comodo will route all of your browsing through its secure, encrypted DNS, so you leave fewer traces of your movements around the web. Comodo Dragon also blocks third-party tracking cookies, widgets and other site components from loading. Because its branded by Comodo, it will prompt you to use Comodos other security products as well to complement it, which is a little ironic if youre using a privacy-focused browser in order to not be sold to all the time. Its worth noting that Comodo says that Dragon will only run on Windows 7 and below (although we had no issues with it in Windows 8).

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The Best Privacy And Security-Focused Web Browsers