I have two tabs on the Brave Browser that are open to two Norton pages that seem visually identical except for the name of the browser being offered by Norton.
On one tab, I am offered the Norton Secure Browser and the link on the page is for downloading the file norton_secure_browser_setup.exe. On the other tab, I am offered the Norton Private Browser and the link on that page is for downloading the file norton_private_browser_setup.exe. At the end of the two pages' respective URLs, I notice that the former says "oct23_46-23," while the latter says "feb24_09-24".
Except for the name of the browser, all the images, text, and graphical elements appear to be identical on these two pages.
I have Brave set to reopen the previous session with all its tabs each time I launch that browser. I'm guessing that the Norton Secure Browser has simply been renamed Norton Private Browser since October and that they are not two different products. The Secure Browser tab has for months been reopening whenever I launch Brave and I must have recently clicked on a Norton popup or e-mail offer for the Private Browser, so now that one is showing up too, next to the other one.
Is that correct -- can anybody confirm that the Secure Browser and the Private Browser are the same product?
Yup, when setting up a new program I always look for and select "options" or "custom installation."
The browsers installed on this PC (in addition to Norton) are Edge, Pale Moon, Brave, Vivaldi, Waterfox, and Chromium. (I guess the shadow of IE still lurks around somewhere, even though I can no longer call it up.) Some of these are Firefox derivatives and others are related to Chrome. I speculate that the Norton Browser only recognizes browsers that are actually named "Firefox" or "Chrome." This would be different from the way websites handle them, which is to see (for example) Waterfox as Firefox.
All I can tell you is that, during the installation of Norton's browser, I was not offered to import bookmarks from any browser other than Edge or IE.
Now that the program is installed (version 121.0.23992.186), here's a screenshot of what I see when reaching the "Import Bookmarks and Settings" setting:
The Norton Private Browser installation offered to import bookmarks, but remarkably it only offered to import them from Edge or from... Internet Explorer! Nothing about importing bookmarks from Chrome, Firefox, or any non-Microsoft browser.
Is Norton Private Browser compatible with other browsers? ›
Yes. Norton Private Browser is designed to function alongside your other browsers. You can import bookmarks and data from Microsoft Edge, Google Chrome, Opera, Mozilla Firefox, and Safari (on Mac only).
For detailed instructions on importing bookmarks and data to Norton Private Browser, read Import bookmarks to Norton Private Browser.
To see what happened, I just installed the Norton browser using the setup file with "secure" in its name, instead of "private." When the installation splash screen came up, it did say Norton Private Browser. So while the older setup file was still available, it led ultimately to the same outcome.
And yes, manually refreshing the Secure Browser page in Brave resulted in a page that's now completely identical to the Private Browser page.
The Norton Private Browser installation offered to import bookmarks, but remarkably it only offered to import them from Edge or from... Internet Explorer! Nothing about importing bookmarks from Chrome, Firefox, or any non-Microsoft browser.
I have been using the Brave browser for some time now and I have always had to refresh each tab. In fact I use a browser extension to refresh all open tabs called Reload all Tabs.
If you still have the old tab for Secure Browser that has not been refreshed, it is not surprising the downloaded file would have Secure in the file name, and the newer Private Browser tab download would give the newer name and the newer version number.
That's interesting. I also use the Pale Moon browser, and when it's reopened that one does refresh the tab contents as you click on each tab. Maybe there are settings somewhere to control what happens with these tabs from the previous browser session?
Out of curiosity, I clicked on the link to download from the older, "Secure Browser" page, and the downloaded file has "secure" in its name (norton_secure_browser_setup.exe). And clicking on the download link at the newer "Private Browser" page gave me a differently-named file (norton_private_browser_setup.exe). They're both 5.46MB in size, but the "Secure" setup file version number is 8.11.6.7316, while the version number for the downloaded "Private" setup file is 8.11.7.7335.
I may copy one of these files to a different PC and then install them both to see what happens. I have to think that updating will sooner or later bring them to the same browser name and version. It's all very curious, though.
I have Brave set to reopen the previous session with all its tabs each time I launch that browser. I'm guessing that the Norton Secure Browser has simply been renamed Norton Private Browser since October and that they are not two different products. The Secure Browser tab has for months been reopening whenever I launch Brave and I must have recently clicked on a Norton popup or e-mail offer for the Private Browser, so now that one is showing up too, next to the other one.
The tabs opening when you open the browser does not refresh the content for the tabs. You have to manually refresh each tab if you want the latest information from that website. If you still have that older tab open you can test this by refreshing that tab. It should then redirect you to the Newer Norton Private Browser web page.
[...] -- can anybody confirm that the Secure Browser and the Private Browser are the same product?
FAQ: Norton Private Browser
Introducing Norton Private Browser – the same features you love, but with a new name!
Why is Norton Secure Browser changing its name to Norton Private Browser? ›
In response to users' increasing interest in maintaining control over the information they share with advertisers, we've rebranded our trusted browser as Norton Private Browser.
The functionality and features of the browser will remain the same. The only change is the name itself. Norton Private Browser will continue to provide the same level of security, privacy, and protection from Norton.
The name change will not affect your existing Norton Secure Browser installation. The browser will automatically update to the new Norton Private Browser on Windows through regular software updates. All your existing settings, bookmarks, and preferences will be retained during the transition to Norton Private Browser.
[...]
