More on Browser Privacy/Security

binkyd · 04-11-2020, 05:29 PM

Opera browser was always my favourite in "the old days."
And then in the "not-so-old-days" I got used to the "chromium" version of Opera. Still my favourite.

And then they sold out, and interestingly, to "running dog capitalist pigs."
(The new owners are apparently Chinese, and that's a quote from "Red" Chinese propaganda we're all familiar with. Nothing personal - just pointing out how things change.)

So I wasn't really surprised to find this on https://restoreprivacy.com/secure-browser/
and have posted it an OCR-to-text version here:

Quote:

Anonymous usage statistics
When you install an Opera application, a random installation ID is generated. We may collect this identifier, as well as your device ID and hardware specification operating system and environment configuration, and feature usage data.
We use this information for certain legitimate business purposes, namely:
• To understand better how people interact with our applications and services;
• To enhance, modify, personalize or otherwise improve our applications and services;
• To determine the effectiveness of promotional campaigns and advertising;
• To detect, debug and fix crashes in our applications and services;
• To prevent security breaches and abuse.

Thought it worth noting, as I finally give up on a once great browser.
And I also saw something in passing somewhere about Waterfox being bought up by some corp.??

ferrari · 04-11-2020, 07:03 PM

The Brave browser might be worth considering.

JWJones · 04-11-2020, 07:59 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by binkyd

So I wasn't really surprised to find this on https://restoreprivacy.com/secure-browser/
and have posted it an OCR-to-text version here:

Thought it worth noting, as I finally give up on a once great browser.
And I also saw something in passing somewhere about Waterfox being bought up by some corp.??

So, why not just go with #1?

Regarding Waterfox, on the same page (that you linked to):

Quote:

7. Waterfox

Waterfox is a fork of Firefox that was maintained by just one person for many years. In February 2020, news blew up on reddit that it had sold out to a pay-per-click ad company, System1. The news was also picked up by others, which resulted in Waterfox and System1 formerly announcing the acquisition (but only after the news broke on reddit).

The problem here is that System1 is the apparent contradiction of an ad company owning a privacy-focused browser. As I previously reported, System1 also acquired a stake in Startpage, the private search engine based in The Netherlands. In researching the company’s background, it appears that System1 is fundamentally in the business of data collection:

“In our business,” Blend adds, “if we can gather as much data as possible, give it off to our engineers and data scientists, and then manage the two effectively, the business can quickly scale.”

So can Waterfox still be trusted now that it’s owned by an ad-tech company that collects lots of data? I’m no longer recommending it.

binkyd · 04-12-2020, 08:21 PM

I find that Internet things work best with a combination of Brave and Firefox.
Both have issues, but those issues don't overlap, so I'm good.
I just like to experiment with, and keep track of all the other browsers, just for fun. And just in case I find a gem.

JWJones · 04-12-2020, 08:40 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by binkyd

I just like to experiment with, and keep track of all the other browsers, just for fun. And just in case I find a gem.

Yeah, I get that. I'm somewhat of a browser junkie myself. Although ultimately, I always end up sticking with Firefox. Currently testing Min browser on my Mac; it's pretty nice.

It has been said about web browsers that you find the one that you hate the least, haha.

FlinchX · 04-13-2020, 07:16 AM

Claiming "Anonymous usage statistics", yet collecting hardware IDs, which are unique - of course anybody who has the slightest clue about it understands it's complete bs.

business_kid · 04-13-2020, 12:09 PM

I came across Qute today, that I've been meaning to try.My personal favourite is Palemoon, but I'm less of a messer these days than I was, so haven't been through them all.

FlinchX · 04-13-2020, 12:51 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by business_kid

I came across Qute today

Hopefully you know about https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/new...heir-services/

This is how far Google went with their "don't be evil". Nowadays they are resorting to terrorist tactics to achieve a monopoly, now that Microsoft bent over to them and is going to use the Chrome codebase for their new browser.

business_kid · 04-14-2020, 03:40 AM

Banning Linux Browsers? They're insecure? That's rich

Why didn't they ban IE & Edge if they're worried about security

ferrari · 04-14-2020, 03:43 AM

That's how they began to learn some security concepts.

business_kid · 04-14-2020, 06:51 AM

Had a look at Qute. It runs on Python and Qt5. I won't even bother opening the archive, to discover I need 56,000 dependencies, some of which haven't been released yet :P.

elcore · 04-14-2020, 12:46 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by business_kid

Why didn't they ban IE & Edge if they're worried about security

What do you think they're worrried about, end user security or job security?
Anyhow, this is not a new story, a large portion of web is already locked out to anyone not using "chromium embedded framework" I skimmed through the list of software using it and it's impressive.

business_kid · 04-15-2020, 04:38 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by elcore

What do you think they're worrried about, end user security or job security?
Anyhow, this is not a new story, a large portion of web is already locked out to anyone not using "chromium embedded framework" I skimmed through the list of software using it and it's impressive.

Job security, of course. I never knew this stuff. Never bothered, I suppose.

That seems to leave you with duckduckgo browser, palemoon, & Chromium. I haven't tried ddg, Palemoon has an odd javascript interpreter (very poor on mail.com accounts, for instance). Chromium won't behave on web.whatsapp,com on my RazPi - it says I need Chrome

Palemoon is fine there.

jjmoore · 04-19-2020, 09:36 AM

Vivaldi?
It is chromium based, but say they are concerned about user privacy.