Yandex Browser reaped a lot of controversy in the first half of 2022. After being found to use user data, Yandex Browser was named the most unsafe browser in 2022.
The ExpressVPN site, which focuses on security and privacy, ranks Yandex Browser as the least secure browser compared to other browsers.
According to ExpressVPN Analysis, Yandex Browser collects user data and stores it on Russian servers. A study released by Trinity College Dublin in early 2020 ranked Yandex as one of the lowest-ranked browsers in terms of privacy.
The study revealed that Yandex Browser has problems when it comes to data sharing. Yandex Browser is said to send a hardware identifier to the bakc-end server. Apart from that, this browser also searches the data through the autocomplete function in the app.
ExpressVPN mentions that Yandex Browser users can't get out of this data collection method. This means that users have no alternative to circumvent Yandex Browser's data collection methods.
The site places Yandex Browser at number 16 which is the last ranking of the safest browsers.
Meanwhile, several popular browsers such as Microsoft Edge, Google Chrome, and Safari also rank quite poorly.
Edge ranks 15th, Safari ranks 13th, and Google Chrome ranks 12th. ExpressVPN's website ranks DuckDuckGo, Tor Browser, and Mozilla Firefox as the safest browsers because they respect the principle of anonymity.
Despite ExpressVPN's claims, Yandex Browser has a number of advantages not found in other browsers.
This browser has integrated security features, a simple and easy to operate UI, to VPN and incognito browsing features.
Yandex browser allows users to customize the widgets on the main page along with the background theme. This browser also allows users to synchronize user data with Yandex accounts if the user agrees to it.
Yandex browser does not require users to log in using an Apple or Google account to be able to enjoy all the features in it, so this browser is still safe to use if users do not link data.
In the App Store review column, Yandex gets a rating of 4.7 out of 8,7000 users. Yandex browser users also share positive reviews about the browser's features and performance.
This rating is quite high compared to other browsers such as Safari which has a rating of 2.9, Google Chrome 4.0, and UC Browser (4.4).
