Net

Look at this website http://startpanic.com

If you give that website a permission it will scrounge through the database of your web browser in use and list every single webpage you've ever visited using that browser (unless you were using some session masking ability available on some browsers like the chrome and safari). Of course, it's a mere showcase of the security vulnerability of web browsers on the market, and all the private data is perfectly safe and for your eyes only, so I suggest you to try it just for the scare factor. 

It's rather surprising that the utility/algorithm for the webpage is capable of retrieving even deleted histories of the web browser in question. I think the sites does that by reading through permissions files and cookies, but then I'm not too proficient with the internet technology in general. That is, I know what tools to use to get my stuff done, but not enough to know how those tools work in practice, just like the vast majority of web users out there. 

Considering the continuous push from governments around the world toward 'controlling' the net and its information content for one reason or other, this is rather disturbing. I'm even more amazed that most browsers that are considered better compared to internet-standards-ignoring heap of mess they call IE are still vulnerable to such simplistic snooping. The whole issue of internet security and privacy is edging closer toward some kind of critical mass, and I don't know what will happen once the movement hits the threshold. I don't want to sound too alarmist or anything, but this seem to be something worth worrying about. 

Only way to stay safe from such snooping would be to run a separate server that encrypts ever one of your signals, but that would be an overkill not to mention detrimental to general web performance, something that can't be tolerated in this day and age. The most consumer-friendly way to offset the danger of privacy would be twofold. First would be continuous pressure on the governments from the population itself, and the second way would be for software developers to come up with better, more secure web browsers. 

I'm pretty big on the whole search for the ideal web browser. I think I might have used practically every single major web browsers on the market by now. How many layman these days can say they've used Sleipnir/Lunascape/Opera/Chrome/Firefox/Chromium/Lynx/Telnet/IE on regular basis just to find the web browser that is perfect for almost every usage scenario? I certainly tried them all and quite extensively too. And every single one of them fall short in one way or the other, some of them even more so then others. 

At the moment I'm leaning towards a mix between Opera and Chrome. I used to be a major firefox user, but all those extensions really bog the browser down, to the point that it takes some ungodly amount of time to just start the browser, at least compared to the competition. I thought I would miss the extensions for firefox, but the fact of the matter is extensions built right into the browser are becoming increasingly niche in this age of web 2.0 applications. For example in Chrome I can block ads and pull websites off the browser and onto the desktop, transforming them into an instant program I can access by double clicking a single button that opens up in its own application window. Like Gmail/Gchat and even third party sites like the del.icious bookmarking service (which had been quite a life saver in my cross-platform journeys). So the focus of web browser for me is in speed and safety. At the moment Chrome is the browser that fits the two profiles perfectly. The whole java sandbox idea is much more isgnificant than it would first appear. The sandbox system is capable of stopping almost every single unintended break-in to the system from the web front. It's also quite possibly the fastest browser on the market, and has full backing of the google corp. Lot of people have mixed feelings about google corporation, but I like them. At least they are better than microsoft. 

If there's one trouble with Chrome it would be the amount of RAM and processing power the browser requires. I think the whole architecture of separate tab processing cycles and sandbox mechanisms make it necessary to consume such resources. For a compulsive multitasker and laptop user like me resource consumption of web browsers is something to keep a keen eye on, and Chrome is a monster in that regard. Which is the reason why I keep Opera at hand for some excessive multi-tabbing. Opera is really well optimized for older operating systems. It's probably the only modern web browser capable of running in win 98/95 environment.