Nice article 
I would like to contribute two things to your guide… Browsers & Search Engines. As similarily stated above, some of these browsers and search engines will expose your data to big companies while surfing, just like Facebook and Google.
Browsers
Choosing the right browser will benefit you on one of these things: privacy, security, or stability. Some of the browsers that I am (or you are) familiar with are:
- Chrome
- Firefox
- Safari
- Opera
- IE
- Edge
- Tor
Chrome is too much of a privacy/stability hog. Firefox only blocks trackers by default. Tor is outrageously slow, only for anonymity. I did like Opera once because of their “free VPN” however it is broken, then I got too bored to use Opera afterward. I don’t like Edge & Safari. Internet Explorer… does anybody use that anymore?
There is one browser that I did not include in my list is Brave. In my opinion, Brave is more secure than any other browser. Brave is built from the Chromium source. You can watch what Brave is here
Why Brave is different (and better) than Firefox and Chrome
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Brave blocks ads, trackers, third-party cookies, and upgrades to HTTPS by default
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Brave lets you get rewarded by watching privacy-respecting ads. You can opt-in/opt-out at any time. You can also be part of a Brave creator too! These rewards allow you to tip any verified Brave creator, like me.
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Brave lets you download Chrome extensions (obviously). Here are some of my favorites (all of them are open source):
Privacy Redirect (Invidious, a Youtube private front end, is the icing on the cake!)
Stylus (NOT TO BE CONFUSED WITH STYLISH AS THAT STEALS YOUR BROWSING HISTORY DATA)
SponsorBlock (works with any Invidious instance too, not just Youtube!)
Buster (works only on reCAPTCHA, just one click, that’s it)
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Brave is on a “mission to fix the internet”
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Brave tries to rip out as much Google as possible.
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Brave has built-in Tor browsing. It doesn’t have many features as the original.
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Brave is fully compatible with YubiKeys.
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Although Brave is technically built from Chromium, Chromium is not the same as Chrome though.
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InterPlanetary File System (IPFS) is integrated into Brave, this is great for bypassing censorship in your country!
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Want to know what’s happening today around the world? Brave Today has got you covered.
Don’t believe me that Brave is faster than Firefox? Brave has run a test performance on GC, Brave themselves, and Firefox. Watch it here
Fun fact about Brave: The person who made the browser, Brendan Eich, also co-founded Mozilla and made THE JavaScript language.
Honorable Mentions:
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Vivaldi: Created by the co-creator of Opera. open source, SUPER customizable UI, not fast on blocking ads and trackers as Brave does
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Ungoogled Chromium: An incredibly locked-down tight version of Chromium, a 100% de-googled browser, it’s not easy to install extensions and not so easy to update like the other Chromium-based browsers
Search Engines
There are search engines that invade privacy, such as Google (mostly Google), Bing, and Yahoo. And some search engines are safer to use. Three of the safest search engines I know are DuckDuckGo, Qwant, and StartPage. I like DuckDuckGo more than Qwant and StartPage.
Why choose DuckDuckGo than Google?
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DDG can save time. You can use this feature called !bangs. !Bangs are a shortcut for searches, like “!robloxg big paintball”. You can learn more about !bangs by simply searching “!bangs” by setting DDG as your default search engine.
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When Google got caught changing up searches, most primarily on politics, more people switched to DDG. For the first time ever, DDG had reached over 100 MILLION searches in a SINGLE DAY! BIG NOTE: I will NEVER be into politics.
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As you may know by searching already, DDG has a search filter. There is an all safe version here if you don’t feel comfortable with the search filter in the original DDG engine.
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They have a Tor circuit of DDG.
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It’s highly customizable. You can give DDG a super dark theme. You can sync themes across other devices too by bookmarking the link that’s given to you.
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DDG doesn’t care what you search up. Google, on the other hand, does.
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DDG has more features that Google doesn’t have, like a “youtube cheat sheet” or “qr a qr code generator exists on DDG”.
Conclusion
In conclusion, if you want faster, safer, more secure browsing, use Brave + DDG or Qwant. Qwant is more for users that live in Europe.
If you thought that I would say use Firefox, it ain’t safe anymore due to backdoor telemetry. Yes, that’s a thing. I would also give this article a good read on why Mozilla can’t be trusted, written by Mozilla themselves (AS I SAID: I will NEVER be into politics).
Edit 1/27/2021: Browser Honorable Mentions, more reasons why I like Brave and changed a reason, new reason why Mozilla is a traitor in conclusion, changed all Youtube links to an Invidious instance