Sidekick Private Browser is a free web browser sidekick that offers greatly enhanced security, both internally and externally. It works alongside your web browser, collects no information about you, and provides a large host of potentially useful privacy features. It is not a toolbar or a plug-in, leaving your browser in its normal state while quietly doing its work.

Knowing what exactly it does

Sidekick Private Browser isn't exactly a browser of its own, but acts like one. It fits like a screen on top of your existing browser and provides its features without damaging the ones you already have. Some of these features, like private browsing with no recorded history, are already available in certain browsers (for example, Firefox's Incognito browsing does not record search history either). However, Sidekick also touts ad removal (which requires an extension in most browsers and is more difficult in others), one-click closure (for when people are looking over your shoulder), and other niceties. It also doesn't record any of your data and send it back to SaferWeb, its developers. However, it's not clear if Sidekick does certain things you'd want it to: most browsers today send back data to their developers unlike Sidekick, for example, but Sidekick may or may not prevent its "host" browser from doing so (which would be a great boost to privacy).

A sidekick that fits right in

On the interface side, Sidekick does reasonably well. Because it's an overlay on top of your existing browser, using it should feel comfortable to anyone who has a little experience browsing the Internet. However, for best use, you may want to change Sidekick's settings when you start using it, and this can be difficult, particularly on mobile devices which the app was not designed for, or if you want to maximize your usage of all the app's features, instead of avoiding ads or keeping your history clean. In other words, Sidekick generally needs to be used to be effective, but it can do most of its work quietly after the initial investment of time. Altogether, this means it may not be the best way to protect your grandparents or children from the web's ads, but if it's set up correctly ahead of time, it should still work for that and just about anything else.

An effective boost to your privacy

Overall, although Sidekick Private Browser has a few flaws, most of them won't impact the bottom-line usefulness of the app, and for the most part it is an app that does no less and no more than it sets out to do. And where your privacy is concerned, not doing too much is for the best. Although many of its features can be obtained individually elsewhere, Sidekick offers them as part of a suite, and may offer some features you wouldn't find elsewhere besides. Anyone who's conscientious about their browsing history or the data others record about them might be well served by Sidekick. It's very easy to try, so consider doing so.