Samsung Internet Browser: Privacy Settings That Matter

If you have a Samsung Galaxy, you might have noticed the "other" browser pre-installed. For a long time, I just threw it into a "junk" folder and forgot about it. But here is the thing: Samsung Internet is actually one of the best-engineered browsers for privacy on Android—often much better than Chrome. It’s built on the same engine (Chromium) so it's fast, but it doesn't have the same "make money from ads" incentives that Google does. After switching to it for a month on my S23, I was surprised by how much cleaner the web felt.

Built-in tracker blocker

The first thing I love about Samsung Internet is that it has a dedicated "Privacy Dashboard." If you tap the three-line menu in the bottom right and look for "Privacy," it gives you a clear graph of how many trackers it has blocked over the last week. In my case, it once blocked over 1,200 trackers in a single weekend of heavy browsing.

Unlike Chrome, which is still figuring out how to balance its ad business with privacy, Samsung just cuts off most known cross-site trackers by default. You don't have to do anything to enable the basic version, but I suggest going into Settings > Browsing privacy > Smart anti-tracking and setting it to "On." This prevents sites from using tricks to see where you go after you leave their page. It’s a very "no-nonsense" approach that just works.

Content blocker extensions

This is the real "killer feature." While Google is making it harder to block ads on Chrome, Samsung has an official menu specifically for an ad-blocker. If you go to the browser menu and tap **Ad-blockers**, it gives you a list of trusted plugins you can download directly from the Galaxy Store or Play Store.

I personally recommend AdGuard or Disconnect. Once you install one, the mobile web goes from being an obstacle course of "Close" buttons to a readable experience. One specific example: a local news site I visit usually takes 12 seconds to fully load with all its video ads and pop-ups. With the AdGuard extension enabled in Samsung Internet, it loads in under 3 seconds. It’s not just about privacy; it’s about not wanting to pull your hair out while reading the weather. The limitation here is that these extensions only work inside the Samsung browser, not in your other apps.

Smart Anti-Tracking

I mentioned this briefly, but it deserves its own deep dive. "Smart Anti-Tracking" is Samsung's way of dealing with the fact that advertisers are getting smarter. Instead of just blocking a list of names, the browser uses on-device machine learning to identify cookies that behave like trackers.

I keep mine set to **"Always"** rather than "Only in Secret Mode." To change this, go to Settings > Browsing privacy > Smart anti-tracking. This is particularly good at stopping "tracking pixels"—those tiny, invisible images that tell a company you opened an email or visited a specific product page. One thing I've noticed is that this can occasionally log you out of a site if that site uses a weird third-party service for logins. If that happens, just toggle it back to "Secret Mode only," but try "Always" first. It's much more effective.

Secret Mode reality

Samsung calls its private browsing "Secret Mode," and it has one feature I wish every browser had: you can lock it with your fingerprint. If you're someone who might have sensitive tabs open (like medical info or gift shopping) and you occasionally hand your phone to your kids, this is a lifesaver.

To set this up, go to Settings > Browsing privacy > Secret mode settings and turn on "Use password" or "Use biometrics." However, don't let the name "Secret" fool you into thinking you're invisible. Much like Chrome's Incognito, it doesn't hide your activity from your ISP or the websites themselves. It just ensures that when you close those tabs, they are truly gone from your phone. I also recommend toggling "Block screenshots in Secret mode" to off, because sometimes you actually want to save a snippet of info without it being saved in your main gallery.

Samsung Cloud sync

By default, Samsung Internet wants to sync your bookmarks and tabs with your Samsung Account. This is handy if you have a Galaxy tablet or a Samsung laptop, but if you're trying to minimize your cloud footprint, you might want to turn it off.

I found this setting buried under Settings > Sync with Samsung Cloud. If you turn it off, all your browsing data stays strictly on your phone. If you're a heavy Chrome user on your desktop, you can also install the "Samsung Internet" extension on your PC's Chrome browser. This actually lets you sync your bookmarks between the two without Google seeing everything. It’s a bit of a "best of both worlds" setup that I’ve found surprisingly stable over the last year.

Samsung Internet vs Chrome

If you're on the fence about switching, here’s how I think about it. Chrome is great if you live entirely in the Google ecosystem and don't mind the data trade-off for the extreme convenience. But if you're on a Samsung phone, you're already paying the "Samsung tax," so you might as well use their tools which are quite literally designed to make their hardware feel better.

The "annoying" part of switching is moving your passwords. Samsung has its own "Samsung Pass" system, which is great, but it doesn't play well with Google Password Manager. If you're like me, you'll probably end up using a third-party password manager (like Bitwarden) so you can switch browsers whenever you want. But in terms of pure browsing experience, Samsung Internet feels less like a billboard and more like a tool. It's faster, it's more customizable with its bottom-bar menu (which is way easier for one-handed use), and it doesn't feel the need to report every single click back to "the mothership."