Awesome Private Browsing

A curated list of awesome private web browsing tools, projects, software, ideas, and resources.

Accepting all contributions that surface useful content on the topic of private web browsers and technologies.

Contents

• Browsers
• Browser Extensions
  • Anti-Tracking
  • Security Extensions
• Fingerprinting
  • Canvas Fingerprinting
  • Counter Fingerprinting
  • Other Fingerprinting
  • Passive Fingerprinting
  • TLS Fingerprinting
• Surveillance Capitalism
• Web Analytics

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Browsers

• Vivaldi: "Privacy is not dead. You have choices in browsers and search engines."
• The Browser Company: building "A browser equipped for the way we use the internet in 2021."
• Brave Browser: "3x faster than Chrome. Better protection from Google and Big Tech."
• Tor Browser: Firefox-based browser that connects to Tor network.
• Apple: Apple's whitepaper on Safari's privacy by design approach.
• Google Safe Browsing: Safe Browsing gives users the ability to protect themselves from multiple types of unsafe sites and applications.
• Chrome Developers: Design document on Google Chrome's security sandbox.
• Chrome Developers: User-Agent reduction in Chrome Privacy Sandbox.
• Menlo Remote Browser: routes all online activity through a remote cloud-based browser
• Viewfinder Remote Browser: remote isolated web browser that runs in the cloud to protect your device.

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Browser Extensions

Anti-Tracking

• uBlock Origin: "wide-spectrum content blocker with CPU and memory efficiency as a primary feature."
• AdBlock Plus: "Surf the web with no annoying ads"
• Ghostery: "Browse Fast, Block Ads & Trackers with Ghostery Privacy Suite"
• Disconnect: "Protect yourself from malicious internet tracking, ads, web content, and other privacy threats."

Security Extensions

• NoScript: "allows JavaScript, Java, Flash and other plugins to be executed only by trusted web sites of your choice"
• OttoJS: "Runtime Third-Party JavaScript Security."

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Fingerprinting

Canvas Fingerprinting

• Google Research: Picasso: Lightweight Device Class Fingerprinting for Web Clients
• @antoinevastel: "Picasso based canvas fingerprinting"
• FingerprintJS: "How Does Canvas Fingerprinting Work?"
• AdTechMadness: "Overview of Google’s Picasso"
• Dali.js: Dali.js, Picasso-like device attestation payload

Counter Fingerprinting

• Am I Unique: basic information a user's browser configuration and how trackable it is
• EFF CoverYourTracks: EFF project that allows you to understand how easy it is to identify and track your browser
• BrowserLeaks: gallery of testing tools that show what browser data can be leaked
• DeviceInfo: web browser security testing, privacy testing, and troubleshooting tool.
• Privacy Analyzer: tool lists information that any website, advertisement, and widget can collect from your web browser
• User-Agent Switcher: Spoofs & Mimics User-Agent strings.
• Cookie-Editor: extension to quickly create, edit and delete cookies without leaving your tab
• HUMAN Security: "Inside Anti-Detection Browsers and Account Takeovers"

Other Fingerprinting

• Jesse Li: "Detecting incognito mode in Chrome 76 with a timing attack"
• FingerprintJS: "Incognito Mode Detection: Detecting Visitors Who Browse in Private Mode"

Passive Fingerprinting

• p0f: Passive fingerprinting of TCP/IP communications.
• nmap: Nmap Reference Guide on OS Detection

TLS Fingerprinting

• ja3: JA3 is a method for creating SSL/TLS client fingerprints for threat intelligence.
• Salesforce Blog: "TLS Fingerprinting with JA3 and JA3S"
• jarm: JARM is an active Transport Layer Security (TLS) server fingerprinting tool.
• ja3er: ja3er is a project about collecting and sharing JA3 hashes.

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Surveillance Capitalism

• The Age of Surveillance Capitalism on Wikipedia: Shoshana Zuboff suggests that Big Tech business models represent a new form of capitalist accumulation, "surveillance capitalism".
• Vivaldi: "Open letter: Ban surveillance-based advertising"

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Web Analytics

• analytics.usa.gov: Aggregated data of US government website analytics, updated frequently.
• Simple Analytics: Pprivacy-first Google Analytics alternative.
• Matomo: Google Analytics alternative that protects your data and your customers' privacy.
• Plausible: Simple and privacy-friendly alternative to Google Analytics.
• Umami: A simple, fast, website analytics alternative to Google Analytics.
• Aurora: 100% Cookie-Free Open Website Analytics. Collect Anonymous Data.
• Nullitics: Zero-effort open-source cheap analytics.
• Ackee: Self-hosted website analytics.
• Shynet: Modern, privacy-friendly, and detailed web analytics that works without cookies or JS.
• Pirsch: Pirsch is a simple, privacy-friendly, open-source alternative to Google Analytics.
• Countly: Product analytics with data ownership controls.
• OnSiteJS: Privacy-conscious web analytics.
• OffSiteJS: Decentralized, private-by-design web analytics