Privacy: what are the differences between private browsing, TOR and a VPN?

Choosing the way you browse the web will have a big impact on the protection of your data. For this reason, if we pay attention to this question, we can quickly wonder if using private browsing alone is sufficient to maintain optimal security when surfing the web. Indeed, other methods such as the use of a VPN or the use of TOR can provide more security in everyday life. But how are these differences quantified?

As security issues on the web become increasingly important, certain recurring questions gain visibility over the years. Among them: is private browsing really private? Do VPNs offer true anonymity online? Is this also the case for free VPNs? Is TOR the most secure way to browse in 2022? All these questions with a specific aim: to protect personal data to both avoid the sale of the latter by web giants for advertising purposes, but also to avoid the theft of our information by cybercriminals (who usually resell them on the dark web). In this context, more and more Internet users are looking for the most secure way to browse the web, and private browsing, VPNs and TOR generally appear to be the most popular solutions. But what are the real differences between these three tools?

Private browsing: An effective but insufficient first step

The idea behind private browsing is simple: protect the user’s privacy by preserving their daily habits. It allows you to browse incognito, and offers a whole bunch of additional options to the user. For example, take the case of purchasing a plane ticket. If you click on the flight price search for the second time, you will see that prices may have potentially increased. In fact, the site, through the use of cookies, recognizes your IP address and notes that you are particularly interested in this or that flight and artificially increases the cost of the ticket. Private browsing allows you to avoid this kind of unpleasant surprise by opening a new window, since it allows you to pretend to be a new visitor to the said site.

To be clear, on a private browsing window, browsing history, cookies and site data are not retained. So, as soon as you close the window in question, everything disappears, and it is impossible to go back to previously performed tasks.

The main advantage of private browsing is that everyone can enjoy it, starting today, without additional installation. On Google Chrome, click the drop-down menu, then “new private browsing tab”. On Mac and Safari, you must click on the two squares in perspective at the bottom right of the browser to access the option called “private”. On Firefox, private browsing is accessible to the left of the main tab, via the clearly recognizable mask icon. On the Microsoft Edge side, simply open an “InPrivate” window which can be found in the drop-down menu located at the top left of the screen.

However, private browsing has many real limits when it comes to data protection: for example, it does not allow you to prevent your service provider or employer from seeing which sites we may have visited. A website will also always be able to detect the IP address that is used.

This option is therefore limited: to be clear, we walk around incognito, but not anonymously. In terms of confidentiality, private browsing is therefore far from sufficient since the sites visited and the access provider can identify us.

VPN, the simple solution for the average user

When using a VPN, all internet traffic passes through a secure connection that encrypts all user data. A third party will therefore have much more difficulty intercepting this information, and will have to decrypt it if they succeed. Furthermore, the VPN allows you to hide the user’s IP address since it displays that of the VPN, generally in a foreign country.

Some VPNs are offered free to users, but they are generally slow. Other VPNs with paid subscriptions offer trial offers of a few days to a month, just to get an idea of ​​their capabilities before converting your free offer into a paid offer.

Despite all these advantages, it is important to find out about a VPN provider’s ability to keep traces (or logs) of its network traffic. Many services of this type offer so-called “no-logs” policies, but it is nonetheless essential to check this type of information before subscribing to a VPN subscription.

We can also note that for almost total anonymity, it is possible to combine both private browsing (which leaves no trace of browsing on your computer) and a VPN (to remove traces of your browsing on all servers) . This ensures relatively secure anonymity. Despite everything, this is not the most complete method for protecting your data on the internet.

TOR, the most secure way to browse the web

Origin of Tor

Tor is used by privacy enthusiasts, particularly for its reliable encryption and its good reputation when it comes to internet privacy. Despite its cryptic and abstruse appearance, it is ultimately quite simple to use software that offers the purest form of anonymity on the web today.

Tor was originally used by the US Navy, which sought to securely communicate intelligence information during the 1990s. At the time, it was a new type of technology allowing you to protect your internet traffic with various confidentiality overlays. By 2003, the project was released as free, open-source software, while the military began using its own VPN system.

Concretely, what is Tor?

Tor is a multi-proxy network that does not rely on specific proxy servers to process data: instead, it employs the connections of a multitude of other Tor users to mask the IP of the original user. Currently, more than 3 million people use this method, which makes the risk of tracing the original source of an internet request almost impossible.

The software can also be used to bypass geographic restrictions on certain websites (including streaming sites), like a VPN. Since 2015, Tor messaging has allowed its users to communicate privately. And that’s not all: Tor also offers its own web browser called Tor Browser. It can be downloaded for free and legally, and is compatible with major operating systems (Windows, Linux, MacOS, Android).

The main advantages of Tor

• Requests sent by the user are automatically encrypted during navigation
• Impossible for a cybercriminal to infect the Tor browser to steal data
• All data, cookies and history are deleted from the computer and network once the browser is closed
• A good way to circumvent censorship in certain countries (especially in China)
• Prevents governments, businesses (advertisers) and cybercriminals from collecting data and metadata on internet users’ browsing habits

Disadvantages of the browser

• Sometimes slow performance when browsing (due to routing data through different nodes), so it is advisable to have high internet speed to take advantage of this
• Sometimes suspicious use (many Internet users use Tor to perform illegal actions, such as visiting the Dark Net)
• High startup time (much more than Microsoft Edge, Google Chrome or Firefox for example)
• The network does not allow downloading or sending large files

Should we use a VPN in addition to Tor?

Tor allows you to remain anonymous on the web, but the use of a VPN in addition is recommended, particularly to keep other activities private (such as downloading torrents or streaming videos). Be careful though, not all VPNs are suitable for Tor (some of them may slow down the connection considerably).