The browser decides what websites can learn about you by default. Choosing a privacy-respecting one gets you more than any list of extensions bolted onto a browser that works against you.
What actually differs between browsers
- Default tracking protection. Whether third-party cookies, known trackers, and cross-site storage are blocked out of the box.
- Telemetry. What the browser reports to its vendor, and whether you can turn it off.
- Business model. A browser funded by advertising has a structural conflict of interest with your privacy. This is not name-calling; it predicts default settings accurately.
- Fingerprinting posture. Whether the browser tries to make you look like other users or happily exposes every detail of your hardware. See Fingerprinting.
The realistic options
Firefox. Independent engine (Gecko), strong tracking protection (Enhanced Tracking Protection with Total Cookie Protection isolates cookies per site), deeply configurable. Some telemetry on by default, all of it switchable. The base for further hardening.
Brave. Chromium engine with aggressive built-in blocking and meaningful fingerprinting defenses. Ships crypto/rewards features many users disable first thing, but the privacy engineering underneath is real.
Mullvad Browser. The Tor Browser's anti-fingerprinting work, without the Tor network, designed to be paired with a VPN. Strongest fingerprint resistance outside Tor Browser at the cost of some site breakage and convenience.
Tor Browser. The only browser designed for anonymity rather than privacy. Different tool for a different job; see Tor.
Safari. Solid tracking protection and sandboxing, reasonable choice if you're staying in Apple's ecosystem, limited extension and configuration depth.
Chrome and Edge. Technically excellent security engineering; the privacy posture is what you'd expect from companies whose revenue depends on knowing what you do. Fine against malware, not built to be private from their vendors.
Concrete picks with reasoning are in Recommendations > Browsers.
Private mode does not do what people think
Private/incognito windows delete local history, cookies, and site data when the window closes. That's all. Websites still see your IP address, your ISP still sees your traffic, your employer's network still logs the connection, and you can still be fingerprinted. Private mode protects you from people who share your computer (a legitimate use) not from the network or the sites you visit.
One browser is a profile; two are a boundary
Whatever you choose, consider a two-browser split: one browser for the accounts that know your name (email, banking, shopping), another with stricter settings for general browsing. Cross-site tracking works by linking your logged-in identity to your browsing; separating them at the browser level cuts that link far more reliably than cookie settings. This is compartmentalization in its cheapest form.