It’s a scenario familiar to most internet users: your browser is your portal to the web, handling everything from confidential searches to banking details and private messages.
But the very tool trusted with these secrets often turns out to be a major data harvester.
New research conducted by Surfshark, analyzing the privacy practices of the top 10 most popular browser apps in the United States, sheds light on just how invasive some browsers can be-and it’s not good news for Chrome users.
How Much Data Do Top Browsers Really Collect?
According to the findings, Google Chrome stands out as the most voracious collector of user data among all browsers tested.
Chrome collects a staggering 20 different types of data, spanning categories such as contact information, financial details, browsing and search histories, precise identifiers, diagnostics, and even data from a user’s address book.
Notably, Chrome is the only browser among those analyzed that actively collects detailed financial information, including payment methods, card numbers, and bank account details, as well as a user’s contact list.
This is in stark contrast to the other leading browsers, which gather an average of only six data types. The Bing app ranks as the second-most data-hungry, albeit collecting 12 data points compared to Chrome’s 20.
This new research also reveals a concerning industry trend: 30% of mobile browser apps analyzed routinely harvest user data for third-party advertising purposes-whether to serve targeted ads within the app or to share data with external advertisers.
Opera, Bing, and Pi Browser are among the browsers actively using user information for this purpose.
Privacy-Focused Browsers: A Safer Alternative
There’s a clear dichotomy among browsers, with privacy-oriented options like Brave and TOR dramatically limiting what they collect.
Brave, for example, only gathers basic identifiers and usage data, while TOR emerges as the most privacy-protective option, collecting no user data whatsoever.
This makes TOR uniquely positioned for users who prioritize anonymity and robust protection against tracking.
The analysis also underscores the differences in location data collection. While 40% of browsers-including big names like Chrome, Safari, and Opera-collect some form of location data (typically “coarse location,” less precise than GPS-level detail), the Bing app is unique in demanding exact geographic coordinates.
Still, 60% of browsers demonstrate that location data isn’t necessary for normal operation, raising questions about the motives behind its collection.
Browsers such as DuckDuckGo and Firefox strike a moderate balance between privacy and functionality.
These apps collect less invasive information-contact details like names and emails, user identifiers, usage data, and diagnostics-making them suitable for users with some privacy concerns but who still need full-featured browsing experiences.
Despite growing privacy worries, Chrome and Safari maintain a near-monopoly in the mobile browser market, accounting for 90% of global market share.
For example, in the United States, Safari holds 50% of the market, Chrome 43%, and the remaining 7% split among other browsers.
Similar trends are seen in Europe and parts of Asia, illustrating that many users prioritize convenience and integration over privacy-even as these browsers, especially Chrome, absorb more user data than ever.
A crucial distinction highlighted in the research is between data that browsers collect automatically and data users voluntarily provide for convenience, such as storing payment details.
In Chrome’s case, deep integration with Google services-Google Search, Gmail, Maps, and more-means that users often feed data into a wider network, further intensifying potential privacy exposure.
Researchers selected the 10 most popular browser apps in the U.S. using AppMagic’s 2025 download metrics for the iPhone App Store, with Safari added given its default status on iPhones.
They then scrutinized each app’s privacy details as displayed on the Apple App Store, focusing on third-party advertising, data linkage, and the types of data collected.
As privacy debates intensify, these findings may push users to reconsider their browser choices.
For now, if protecting your personal data is paramount, the worst offender is clear: Chrome is the browser that simply can’t stop collecting.
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