There's a lot of secret tracking, stupid scripts, and nasty surprises that can happen to anyone not making use of the right tools. I will provide some links to web browser addons that will increase the security of your surfing.
| Browser | Comodo Dragon | Pale Moon | Opera |
|---|---|---|---|
| Anti-Track | uBlock Origin | Ghostery | Disconnect |
| Auto-HTTPS | HTTPS Everywhere | Encrypted Web | HTTPS Everywhere |
| Clearing | History Eraser | BP CL SDC | History Eraser |
| JavaScript | NotScripts | NoScript | uMatrix |
| Search | DuckDuckGo | DuckDuckGo+ | DuckDuckGo |
| Utility | Disable Autoplay | NetVideoHunter | Chrome Extension |
I suggest that you change Plugins to click to play, and only enable Flash (and Silverlight, if you're one of those Netflix-watchin' types). Then, go forth and enjoy adless, surprise-free, high security web browsing.
I've recommended Dragon instead of Chrome for privacy reasons. Google is a great company that does great things, but they think they need to know everything. I'll tell them what they need to know about me, and when.
Similarly, there's a link to Pale Moon instead of stock Firefox because Mozilla has taken a direction that I disagree with. They've forgotten what they set out to do, which was create the most bad-ass, futuristic, and customizable browser of all time. But that's fine; it's open-source, so a few others have picked up those reins.
Opera, these days, is just an alternative to Chrome, since it uses the same rendering engine and a similar GUI.
If you're running Windows, you should also have at least one system scanner for those rare occasions when something does manage to slip through. If you're using Mac OS X or Linux, you should still have one, but I haven't done any research in those areas because I'm lazy. Anyway, here's the security programs (for Windows XP SP2 or later) which I've used and recommend:
Please enjoy responsibly.