"The Fractured Future of Browser Privacy"
Security researchers, privacy advocates, and developers recently gathered at the USENIX Enigma security conference in San Franciso to discuss their views on how browsers should protect users' data. Representatives from Mozilla Firefox, Google Chrome, Microsoft Edge and Brave participated in a panel discussion in which they acknowledged the importance of competition between companies in the browser industry to continue pushing change and efforts towards enhancing privacy. There are several ways browsers can prevent tracking by websites and ad networks, which include adding anti-fingerprint measures, blocking trackers embedded in sites, encrypting information about what sites a user is visiting, and allowing users to customize their privacy protections. All mainstream browsers are making an effort to improve privacy but through different approaches and tradeoffs. This article continues to discuss how browsers are combatting tracking efforts to bolster user privacy, the tradeoffs associated with these efforts, and debates surrounding how privacy issues should be addressed by key players in the web browser industry.