Browsing the internet safely requires protecting your system and privacy from standard browser threats like XSS attacks, spyware, and viruses which can now compromise your entire system through a single webpage. Using a protected browser with features like JavaScript blocking, flash blocking, and ad blocking spells the difference between safe browsing and system compromise, while a non-protected browser runs slowly, accepts anything, tracks usage data, and is hard for the average user to detect threats. Staying safe requires allowing only trusted sites, disabling ads, using firewall software, and knowing when performance slows to potential infection. No protection is full-proof so backups and awareness of changing internet threats are also important.