Choose a browser that tracks you less
Your browser sees almost everything you do online: every site, every search, often who you are. Some browsers are built by advertising companies, and quietly help with the tracking. A more private browser, one add-on and a couple of settings cut most of that out, without changing how browsing feels.
Pick a browser that is not built to track you
Firefox is the easy default: open source, not owned by an ad company, with strong tracking protection built in. Brave blocks ads and trackers out of the box. For higher-risk users, Mullvad Browser is built to make everyone look the same, so you are harder to fingerprint. Any of these will import your bookmarks and saved logins, so switching takes a few minutes, not an afternoon.
Firefox →Mullvad Browser →Add uBlock Origin
One free, open-source add-on does most of the work: uBlock Origin blocks ads, trackers and a lot of malicious domains, and it makes pages faster too. It is the single best thing to add to any browser. Brave already blocks much of this, so there it is optional; on Firefox, add it.
Change a couple of settings in any browser
Whichever browser you land on, two settings are worth a minute: turn on HTTPS-only mode (so pages load over an encrypted connection), and set cookies to block third-party cookies, which are the ones used to follow you between sites. If you share a computer, “clear cookies when I close the browser” gives you a clean slate each time.
Let your password manager fill passwords, not the browser
Use your password manager’s own extension to fill logins, and turn off the browser’s built-in password saving. It keeps your passwords in one place you control, rather than spread across a browser profile that syncs who-knows-where. See the password manager guide.
What this doesn’t do
A private browser stops websites following you; it does not hide your traffic from the network you are on (that is what a VPN is for), and it does not stop the apps on your phone from tracking you. That is a separate job, covered later in your plan under hardening your phone.
Last checked: 3 November 2026. Tell us if anything here has drifted.