Your browser sees everything. Every site you visit, every search you run, every link you click. Chrome sends a significant portion of that back to Google. It's not a conspiracy — it's their business model. Switching browsers is the single fastest way to reduce how much data you're passively handing over every day.
Both options below are solid. Brave requires almost no setup and it's private out of the box. Firefox takes about ten extra minutes to configure properly but gives you more control. Pick one and follow the steps.
Option 1 — Brave
Brave is built on the same engine as Chrome, which means it looks familiar, your extensions work, and the learning curve is essentially zero. The difference is it blocks trackers and ads by default and doesn't phone home to Google. For most people, this is the right choice.
Installing Brave
- Go to brave.com and download the installer for your operating system.
- Run the installer.
- When it opens, Brave will offer to import your bookmarks and saved passwords from Chrome. Do this, it'll makes the transition painless.
A few settings worth checking
Brave is private by default, but there are a couple of things worth knowing about:
- Brave Shields — the lion icon in the address bar shows you how many trackers have been blocked on each page. It's on by default. Leave it on.
- Brave Rewards — Brave has an optional ad program that pays you in crypto for viewing privacy-respecting ads. It's off by default. You don't need to touch it.
- Default search engine — Brave defaults to its own search engine. It's decent, but if you prefer something else, go to Settings → Search Engine and switch to DuckDuckGo or Startpage.
Brave also has a built-in Tor mode for its private browsing window. You won't need it for everyday use, but it's there if you ever want it.
That's genuinely it for Brave. Add uBlock Origin below and you're done.
Option 2 — Firefox
Firefox is the only major browser that isn't owned by an ad company or a tech giant with skin in the tracking game. It's open source, independently developed by Mozilla, and has been the privacy-conscious choice for a long time. Out of the box it's decent but not great — ten minutes of configuration changes that.
Installing Firefox
- Go to mozilla.org/firefox and download the installer.
- Run the installer and open Firefox.
- It'll offer to import bookmarks and passwords from your old browser. Do it.
Making Firefox actually private
Open Settings (the three lines in the top right) and work through the following:
Privacy & Security tab
- Set Enhanced Tracking Protection to Strict. The default "Standard" mode leaves some trackers through.
- Under "Send websites a 'Do Not Track' signal" — set to Always. Most sites ignore it but it doesn't hurt.
- Scroll down to "Firefox Data Collection and Use" — uncheck everything here. This opts you out of Firefox's own telemetry.
- Under "HTTPS-Only Mode" — enable Enable HTTPS-Only Mode in all windows. This forces encrypted connections wherever possible.
Search tab
- Change your default search engine from Google to DuckDuckGo or Startpage. Both are good. DuckDuckGo is the most popular alternative; Startpage returns Google results without the Google tracking.
- Uncheck "Show search suggestions" if you want to stop Firefox sending your keystrokes to the search engine as you type.
Home tab
- Turn off "Sponsored shortcuts" and "Recommended by Pocket" — these aren't privacy disasters but they're not necessary.
Firefox also has excellent extension support on iPhone and Android — it's one of the few mobile browsers that lets you run uBlock Origin. If you want tracker blocking on your phone, Firefox mobile is the way to go.
One optional but worthwhile extra — user.js
If you want to go further, arkenfox/user.js is a community-maintained configuration file that tightens Firefox's privacy settings significantly beyond what the UI exposes. It's not essential and is best suited to people comfortable with a little configuration. The readme explains exactly what each setting does.
Adding uBlock Origin — both browsers
uBlock Origin is the best ad and tracker blocker available. It's free, open source, and maintained by one person who has consistently refused to be bought out or compromised. It works in both Brave and Firefox.
A note if you're on Chrome: the original uBlock Origin no longer works properly in Chrome due to Google restricting the extension APIs it relies on. This is intentional. Another reason to switch.
Installing uBlock Origin
On Brave: Go to the Chrome Web Store and click Add to Brave.
On Firefox desktop: Go to Firefox Add-ons and click Add to Firefox.
On Firefox for iPhone or Android: Open Firefox, go to Settings → Extensions, and add uBlock Origin from there.
Setup
The defaults are good and you don't need to configure anything to get immediate benefit. If you want to go further, open uBlock Origin's settings and enable these additional filter lists under "Filter lists":
- Annoyances → uBlock filters — Annoyances — removes cookie consent banners on most sites
- Privacy → AdGuard Tracking Protection — adds an extra layer of tracker blocking
That's it. Most sites will load faster and the trackers following you around will drop significantly.
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