WHY YOU SHOULD STOP USING CHROME & EDGE
They bombard you with annoying ads
Google added an ad blocker to Chrome in 2018, but it’s buried deep in Settings. To see it, click the three dots top right, followed by Settings, ‘Privacy and security’ then ‘Site settings’. Next, scroll down and click ‘Additional content settings’, followed by Ads. Here you’ll see the option to ‘Block ads on sites that show intrusive or misleading ads’ (see screenshot right).
However, you’d be forgiven for not noticing this feature because it’s far from effective – in fact you’re likely to see as many online adverts as ever. Google makes most of its money from advertising, so it’s not in the company’s interest to provide its own alternative to ad-blocking add-ons such as ublock Origin ( www.snipca.com/38558) and Adblock Plus ( https://adblockplus.org).
Most Youtube videos these days have at least one ad before, after and even during playback, particularly when you’re watching in Chrome. This suggests to us that the browser’s so-called ad blocker is merely a means of forcing websites to adhere to Google’s advertising standards – preferably by moving to its Google Ads business platform.
As we’ll explain shortly, there are several browsers with far more effective ad blockers, but Edge isn’t one of them. Microsoft’s browser has the same ineffective option as Chrome to ‘Block sites that show intrusive or misleading ads’, though you can bolster its ad filtering by switching to ‘Strict’ tracking prevention. Click the three-dot button in the top-right corner of Edge, choose Settings and select ‘Privacy, search and services’ in the left-hand column. Select ‘Strict’ under ‘Tracking prevention’ (see screenshot below) to display fewer adverts.
They share your browsing data with Google and Microsoft
We’re sure you’re aware that Google gathers your data as you browse the web, but you may not realise how much information Chrome secretly shares with the internet.
Even if you don’t use the browser’s Sync feature, which saves data including your bookmarks, browsing history, passwords and contact details to Google’s servers, Chrome still extracts your personal information in the background. This lets Google and its commercial partners target you with ads based on your interests and activities – unless you change specific privacy settings in Chrome.
You can find some of these options by going to Settings, ‘Sync and Google services’, then ‘Other Google services’. Settings you may want to disable include ‘Make searches and browsing better’ (this shares details of every web page you visit with Google); ‘Allow Chrome sign-in’ (signs you into Chrome when you use Google services such as Gmail, Maps and Youtube); and ‘Help improve Chrome’s features and performance’ (this sends Google statistical data about how you use the browser).
Additionally, in the Sync section, click ‘Control how your browsing history is used to personalise Search, ads and more’ and turn off the option ‘Include Chrome history and activity from sites, apps and devices that use Google services’. This will prevent Google from using your browsing activity to target you with ads – in theory, at least.
Also remember that although Chrome’s Incognito mode stops the browser storing details of the things you search for and the sites you visit, this information is still shared with Google. The only way to stop this happening is to switch to a more private browser.
Edge doesn’t extract as much of your personal data as Chrome, and doesn’t collect your info in its Inprivate mode, but it still shares details of your browsing activities with Microsoft. This is done to personalise advertising and to keep the browser “secure, up to date and performing as expected”, which you may regard as an invasion of your privacy.
To limit the data that Edge shares, go to Settings, then ‘Privacy, search and services’ and disable the options ‘Improve your web experience by allowing Microsoft to use your browsing history from this account…’ (see screenshot above) and ‘Help improve Microsoft products by sending optional diagnostic data…’ (these may already be switched off if you’ve previously tweaked Windows 10’s privacy settings).
Microsoft does let you delete browsing info Edge has collected, but it’s a well-hidden option that requires a lot of clicking. Instead take a shortcut to www. snipca.com/38905 and follow Microsoft’s instructions.
They don’t block trackers as well as they claim to
Both Chrome and Edge claim to protect your privacy online by blocking thirdparty cookies that track you around the web. In truth, their tracking protection falls far short of that offered by rival browsers, as we’ll explain later.
Because Google’s business model is based on data monitoring, Chrome’s treatment of web trackers is predictably self-serving and will soon become even more weighted in its own favour. Google is planning to drop support for thirdparty cookies in Chrome and replace it with a new tracking system called FLOC (Federated Learning of Cohorts), as part of its Privacy Sandbox initiative ( www. snipca.com/38779). This controversial change will allow Chrome to build its own profile based on your browsing activities, which it will share with advertisers so they can show you relevant ads. Google believes that FLOC offers greater privacy than cookies, because it groups you with other Chrome users who have similar interests, rather than using unique identifiers.
However, the system’s many critics – including Duckduckgo, Brave and the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) – warn that it will share your data automatically with companies that pay Google for the privilege, and this is unlikely to be completely anonymous ( www.snipca.com/38791). Following this criticism, Google has delayed the rollout of FLOC until 2023, but it’s already available in Chrome as part of the ‘Privacy Sandbox’ trial. Go to Settings, ‘Privacy and security’, select Privacy Sandbox, then switch off the ‘Privacy Sandbox trials’ option in the central pane (see screenshot above right).
Microsoft has no plans to introduce FLOC in Edge, but by default the browser is set to use ‘Balanced’ tracking prevention, which blocks tracking cookies only from sites you haven’t visited. You can boost your protection by switching this to Strict, as explained earlier.
They suffer frequent security flaws
You’d expect the world’s most popular browsers, from two of the world’s biggest companies, to offer the most reliable protection against hackers, but Chrome and Edge are frequently found to contain serious security flaws. So far this year, Google has rushed to fix at least seven ‘zero-day vulnerabilities’ in Chrome (these are software security flaws exploited by attackers before the program’s developers know about them).
Edge is much more secure than Microsoft’s previous browser, Internet Explorer, but is also susceptible to worrying flaws. For example, in June Microsoft patched a vulnerability that could have allowed hackers to inject and run malicious code in any website via Edge’s Translate feature ( www.snipca.com/38793).
Of course, other browsers suffer security flaws, and because many are now Chromium-based they may even have the same vulnerabilities as Chrome, but the popularity of Google’s and Microsoft’s browsers makes them a more lucrative target for hackers. It’s therefore essential to keep both up to date: select About Google Chrome (see screenshot below) or About Microsoft Edge from the Help section in the main browser menu to install any pending updates.
They allow dodgy extensions
Last December, cybersecurity company Avast identified malware in 28 extensions for Chrome and Edge. These could “redirect user’s traffic to ads or phishing sites and steal people’s personal data” ( www.snipca.com/38794). Concerns have also been raised about fake reviews in the Chrome Web Store, which trick users into installing imitations of official browser tools ( www.snipca.com/38796).
Extensions are vetted before they’re allowed into the stores, but the trouble arises when they’re subsequently updated with malicious code that goes unnoticed by Google and Microsoft. This carelessness means that users only learn that their data may have been stolen after the fact.
For some reason, Chrome leaves protection against this risk disabled by default. To turn on Enhanced Safe Browsing, go to Settings, ‘Privacy and security’, then click Security and select ‘Enhanced protection’ under Safe Browsing (see screenshot below). In Edge, ensure that ‘Microsoft Defender Smartscreen’ and ‘Block potentially unwanted apps’ are enabled on the ‘Privacy, search and services’ page.
Other Chromium-based browsers let you install potentially risky extensions. But they also offer built-in features, such as VPNS, ad blockers and tab managers, that mean you don’t actually need to install so many extensions. Brave, for example, makes you think twice before installing an add-on by warning that you should “only install this extension if you trust the developer”, while Vivaldi devotes a section of its forum to the discussion of reliable extensions ( www. snipca.com/38797).
Chrome is a notorious memory hog
It’s no secret that Chrome uses a lot of system resources - just open Windows Task Manager (right-click the taskbar and select it) and you’ll probably see the program at the top of the list for processor and memory usage.
On our PC, it consumes nearly a quarter of the available RAM – 1,734MB of 8GB – across 30 separate processes (see screenshot above right). This is because Chrome uses a separate background process for every tab, plug-in and extension, which is useful if one crashes because it won’t affect the others, but adds up to a big strain on your system resources.
Other browsers can also be memory hogs, particularly Firefox. However, as you can also see from our screenshot, Edge’s memory usage is less than half of Chrome’s when we opened the same tabs in both browsers, and Brave uses even fewer resources. They also demand less processing power – just 0.1 per cent of our CPU compared with Chrome’s 4.3 per cent share - which means they won’t run down your laptop battery.
They lack the best tools of rival browsers
Chrome was once regarded as the cuttingedge alternative to the staid Internet Explorer. But these days, it seems merely to copy other browsers, and even then it’s slow to do so. For example, Chrome recently added the option to place related tabs in groups, which Vivaldi introduced in 2016. Meanwhile, its ‘Reader mode’ for decluttering web pages, which comes as standard in most browsers, remains hidden on its Experiments page (type chrome:// flags in the URL address bar, then type Reader Mode in the search box at the top and change the box from Default to Enabled). Chrome doesn’t even have a proper dark mode or picture-in-picture for viewing videos in a floating window, both features long offered by Opera, Firefox and Vivaldi.
Edge also lacks many tools offered by the browsers covered in our next section, and it hasn’t significantly improved since its Chromium relaunch last year. Also, because it’s owned by a huge corporation and tightly integrated with Windows, it will always lag behind nimbler rivals such as Brave and Vivaldi.