In the browser war, most of the emphasis is placed on the Big Three. Safari, Google Chrome, and Mozilla Firefox are the most well known, and each offers ways to protect your privacy and security. None of them are perfect, unfortunately, as we saw yesterday when we learned about the Punycode phishing attack. One lesser-known browser is better at privacy and security, though. That’s the Epic Privacy Browser.
What Is Epic Privacy Browser?
This is a browser built on Chromium, the open-source project forming the basis for the Google Chrome browser. Epic Privacy Browser features an always-on privacy mode, an encrypted proxy, tracker and cookie blocking, and more. It is billed as featuring “the most comprehensive local private browsing in any browser.”
My Browser Has Privacy Mode, So Isn’t That Good Enough?
Maybe, maybe not. Even with private browsing mode, or incognito mode, turned on, you’re still being tracked and information is still left behind on your computer in some form or fashion. Google tracks you, your internet service provider does it, the government keeps an eye on your browsing history, and so do hundreds of other data collectors. This all happens even when incognito or other private browsing modes are turned on. Epic Privacy Browser prevents much of that, and it also deletes a ton of cached information and cookies every time you close it down.
What Kind of Stuff Do Browsers Track?
It’s not just the browsers, but the search engines, too. The bad thing is, you don’t even know they’re tracking you. Google and others track where and what you browse on the internet for purposes ranging from targeted ads to determining what your birthday is. Epic Privacy Browser actively blocks thousands of those trackers, and informs you of the fact.
What Is This, a TMO Ad for Epic Privacy Browser?
You might think so, but let me put your mind at ease. Epic is far from perfect, and there are things that simply don’t work at all in the browser. First of all, Netflix is a no-go on Epic, because Google has ended support for the Silverlight plugin—which Netflix requires—on Chrome and Chromium. A plugin called Widevine is what Google uses in Chrome to support Netflix and others. So far, Google has refused to provide that plugin to Chromium developers, so Netflix won’t work under Epic.
Then there are the crashes. Several times a day, I have to force-quit Epic Privacy Browser. The developers say a fix is coming for that within a couple of weeks, but it’s still a problem now. Clicking links in email and other programs is also a problem, but that’s another one that the developers are fixing for the next version of Epic. Links in Epic itself work fine, of course.
I’ve also noticed that Epic Privacy Browser is a bit slower to load pages, likely because of the effort it’s putting into identifying and blocking trackers and certain cookies.
Final Thoughts on Epic Privacy Browser
If you’re concerned with your privacy you might be willing to compromise a bit in your browsing experience. If so, Epic is fairly decent. It’s not perfect, but I’m willing to continue using it simply because it takes away many concerns. Previously, I had to put in quite a bit of thought about my privacy and security. I’m not exactly the type to wear a tin-foil hat (no offense to those who do), but I do worry about the security of my data as well as my privacy. With Epic Privacy Browser, I can do what the tagline at the top of a blank tab in Epic says. I can breathe free, knowing that my browsing is private.
Epic Privacy Browser is available for Mac and Windows, and costs nothing. On top of browser choice, you should also think carefully about doing a security checkup on your Mac.
What about antidetect browsers like gologinapp and others? Good alternative?
Hi Jeff, thanks for the great write-up and your support!! Yes, building a privacy browser that works and is fast is hard but we’re working the kinks out :-D.
Built-in VPN
I thought I’d add that in the right side of the address bar there’s a socket icon that can be changed from red to green. When it’s green, that means that Epic’s built-in, free, unlimited VPN is on (an encrypted proxy) which protects your browsing history from being tracked by your ISP and many others (especially your government and employer). That additional encryption and hop in terms of retrieving website data could also slow down your browsing slightly…but you’re exactly right, privacy & peace of mind are worth it :-). In case it’s ever too slow, one could switch the proxy off, but it’s not recommended for privacy reasons and especially since your ISP can now track & sell your browsing data in the U.S.
In terms of the Force Quit issue, it’s a bug related to Sierra (doesn’t happen to my Mac for example which isn’t yet updated) and yes will be fixed in 2 weeks or so in an update as well as the receiving links from email clients and other software (sorry about both bugs btw, annoyances I know).
We hope to get Widevine from Google soon to support Netflix — this is after years of trying — it’s ridiculous that they provide the Widevine api/toolkit to any developer in a day or two, that is unless you happen to be building a Chromium browser in which case they refuse to give it to you.