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Most of the mainstream browsers nowadays can be easily tracked via regular cookies, flash supercookies, unique id numbers (e.g. Chrome), and various other less known tricks.

Does there exist any browser implementation whose main focus is on privacy, such that when http requests are sent to a server, the only thing known to the server is the IP address of the client and nothing else? The browser must present a generic face to the server indistinguishable from any other user of the browser.

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  • The problem with such implementations is that a generic face is more recognizable than ordinary users. Just disable sending of User-Agent and you'll stand out like nothing else. Dec 28, 2011 at 14:46

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Some people use a "browser on a USB stick" ( a b ). Since all the cookies, etc. are stored on the stick, when you unplug the "stick I use for banking" and plug in the "stick I use for browsing Youtube", there's no way either site can access the data stored in the other unplugged stick.

Other people recommend booting an entire operating system from a USB stick when doing online banking. I have Ubuntu on one USB stick and Fedora on another USB stick. I hear that other people like Puppy Linux or Chrome OS for their "OS on a USB stick".

In particular, the Fedora "Live USB creator" tool allows you to set how much of the USB stick to reserve for "persistent storage". If that is set to zero, then you can be sure that no cookies, etc. are stored on the stick.

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Its a little quirky but qtweb has the most finely grained privacy controls of any browser i've seen, and does user agent spoofing out of the box. You can disable most features easily including user agents, plugins and and cookies.

I'd note despite turning off nearly everything that could identify me(plugins, useragent, etc) the profile that pantopticlick gave me was unique, but things like supercookies and other client side tracking would not work. However this is the closest i could get to your requirements

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Unfortunately, browsers are complex and trying to implement too much anonymity can create havoc with website compatibility. Just ask anyone who keeps cookies off. It wreaks with functionality.

On that note, I suspect you are shooting for privacy rather than anonymity. IE9 is probably the best one with its No tracking feature. While other browsers are at the mercy of third party compliance, IE9 give users a bit more control by forcing compliance upon third party trackers.

I remember reading about the politics and drama that went to implementing this feature. When it was first announced, ad companies threaten to sue. That tells me this is a good feature when it threatens their business model.

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Another feature I would strongly suggest is a password manager. LastPass is my choice here. Along with strong plugins, two factor authentication, my favorite feature is the one time passwords. Along with your master password, you can also use the one time passwords if you are logging into a public machine, rather than using your master password.

Outside of Firefox/Chrome/Opera/IE Privacy modes, I wouldn't bother with the rest of the hacks. It's debatable how effective they are at protecting your privacy.

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SRWare Iron is based on Chromium with a focus on privacy.

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