The simplest privacy habit with the biggest effect is to stop doing everything in one browser. When your work accounts, your personal life and your research share one set of cookies, one fingerprint and one network address, every site and every tracker on those sites can tie them together. A separate browser profile for each role keeps those parts of your life in separate compartments, so what you do in one does not follow you into the others.
This guide explains what links your browsing across sites, how far private windows and ordinary profiles go, and a step-by-step plan for setting up one profile per role, with the settings that make each compartment hold.
What ties your browsing together
Four kinds of signal let a site, or a tracker embedded on many sites, connect one visit to another.
| Signal | How it links you | Cleared by a new window? |
|---|---|---|
| Cookies and site storage | A stored identifier is sent back on the next visit | Only if the window starts empty |
| Sign-ins | You tell the site who you are; embedded logins and "share" buttons can see it too | No, once you sign in |
| Browser fingerprint | Screen, fonts, graphics, timezone and languages recognise the device without storing anything | No |
| Network address | Your IP address, and the DNS lookups your network sees | No |
Two quieter channels matter too. Extensions that can read every page see everything in the browser they are installed in, whichever account you are using. And history and downloads in one shared browser mean anyone, or any app, that can read your browser data sees all your roles at once.
Private windows and ordinary profiles go part way
A private window starts without cookies and forgets them when it closes. That is useful for a one-off look, but it does nothing about the fingerprint or the network address, and every private window you have open at once usually shares one temporary cookie jar. It is also built to forget, so it suits nothing you come back to.
Ordinary browser profiles (the "add person" feature in most browsers) keep cookies, history and extensions apart, which is a real improvement. But every profile still runs on the same browser on the same computer: the same screen, fonts, graphics card, timezone and languages, and the same IP address. A site that sees two profiles sign in from the same fingerprint and the same address can reasonably conclude they are the same person.
A VPN changes the address for the whole computer at once. All your roles still leave from one place, so it moves the problem rather than dividing it.
Full separation needs all four signals to differ between compartments: storage, sign-ins, fingerprint and, where it matters to you, network exit.
Step by step: one profile per role
1. List your roles
Write down the parts of your browsing that should not meet. A typical list is three to five roles: work, personal, banking and admin, research or reading, and perhaps a side project or a volunteer role. Each one becomes a profile.
2. Decide what each role needs
| Role | Sign-ins | Extensions | Network exit | Extra protection |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Work | Work accounts only | Only what your job needs | Your normal connection or the office's | Lock the profile with a password |
| Personal | Personal email, social, shopping | A password manager | Your normal connection | Keep work accounts out |
| Banking and admin | Bank, tax, utilities | None | Your normal connection | Lock it; block everything unrelated |
| Research | Ideally none | None | A proxy in the region you research | A fresh fingerprint, separate from the rest |
3. Keep sign-ins inside their role
The fingerprint and network address only help if you do not undo them by signing in to the same account in two profiles. Sign in to each account in exactly one profile. If a service links accounts for you (one email for everything), consider a separate email address for the roles you most want kept apart.
4. Install extensions per profile, not everywhere
An extension sees every page in the profile it runs in. Install each one only where it is needed, and keep the banking profile bare.
5. Give the research profile its own exit
If you read about competitors, look up sensitive topics or check how a site looks from another country, give that profile its own proxy so its traffic does not leave from your home or office address. Match its timezone and languages to the exit, so the profile does not contradict its own address.
6. Lock and limit
Put a password on profiles that hold money or work data, so they cannot be opened by someone at your desk, or by you by mistake. Add a website blocklist to profiles that should never visit certain sites, so a stray link in the wrong compartment goes nowhere.
7. Test the separation
Open our free browser fingerprint test in each profile, download the JSON from one and paste it into the test's Compare section in another. Separate profiles should have different fingerprint IDs, and each profile should keep its own ID after a restart. The test runs in your browser and sends nothing anywhere.
How Browz keeps each compartment closed
Browz is built around this idea: each profile is a complete browser of its own, and every one of the four signals is kept apart.
- Storage, extensions and downloads per profile. Cookies, local storage and IndexedDB are kept per profile, along with its own extensions, bookmarks and a downloads folder inside the profile, and each profile opens as you left it (browser profiles).
- Its own fingerprint, set in the engine. Each profile presents one consistent device, stable between sessions, with values changed inside the browser engine rather than by a script added to pages (anti-detect). On 13 November 2026, Browz 0.1.9 on macOS passed 15 of 15 consistency checks in our fingerprint test (our own result).
- Its own exit. One proxy per profile, with the exit measured over HTTPS and the timezone and WebRTC set from it. DNS resolves at the proxy by default, so your local network does not see which sites a profile visits (proxies).
- Locks and blocklists. Any profile can sit behind its own password, and per-profile website blocklists refuse chosen sites before a connection is made.
- Port-scan protection. Pages cannot probe the services running on your own computer, a check some sites use to recognise one machine behind different identities.
- Your data stays yours. Your browsing history never syncs and stays on your computer. Profiles, cookies, proxies and settings sync end-to-end encrypted with a key from your password, so the server stores only ciphertext it cannot open. The local API that scripts use listens on your own computer only, behind a token you can rotate, and the app sends no analytics, usage data or crash reports. The details are on the security page and in our Privacy Policy.
The Free plan includes 5 profiles, enough for the roles above; paid plans start from $4.99 a month for more.
Frequently asked questions
Are separate browser profiles enough for privacy?
They are the foundation. Separate cookies and storage stop the most common kind of tracking. For full separation, each profile also needs its own fingerprint and, for the roles that matter, its own network exit. What you do inside a profile counts too: signing in to the same account in two profiles links them again.
Does incognito mode keep my work and personal browsing apart?
Not really. A private window shares your fingerprint and IP address with every other window, and it forgets everything when it closes, so you cannot keep accounts in it. It suits a quick, one-off visit rather than a role you return to.
Do I need a VPN or a proxy for each profile?
Not for every role. Work, personal and banking profiles can use your normal connection, because sites expect you there. A research profile, or any role you want kept away from your home address, benefits from its own proxy, with its timezone and languages matched to the exit.
Can Browz see what I browse?
Your browsing history and the pages you visit stay on your computer. What syncs, including profiles, cookies and proxy details, is encrypted on your device first, and the server keeps only ciphertext. The Privacy Policy lists everything the server can and cannot read, including the action log kept for AI agents you connect through the hosted MCP server.
How many profiles do I need?
One per role you want kept apart, which for most people is three to five. Start small: split work from personal first, then add a research or banking profile when you find yourself wishing it was separate.