Soren Stoutner @privacybrowser@fosstodon.org

You don’t want your “private” search engine to have a paid relationship with an upstream non-private search engine for the same reason you don’t want your browser to have a paid relationship with your search engine: Because, sooner or later, that paid relationship will result in tracking.

https://www.reviewgeek.com/118915/duckduckgo-isnt-as-private-as-you-thought/

https://www.stoutner.com/privacy-browser-will-never-monetize-the-default-search-engine/

I updated the WordPress theme of my website to the newly released Twenty Twenty-Two, which allowed me to get rid of JavaScript for the navigation menu.

https://www.stoutner.com/wordpress-twenty-twenty-two-theme/

Google is funny.

Privacy Cell 1.7 has been released.

https://www.stoutner.com/privacy-cell-1-7/

Privacy Browser 3.10.1 has been released.

https://www.stoutner.com/privacy-browser-3-10-1/

Privacy Browser 3.10 has been released.

https://www.stoutner.com/privacy-browser-3-10/

https://blog.mozilla.org/en/mozilla/privacy-preserving-attribution-for-advertising/

This is trying to solve a problem that doesn’t exist. The only attribution that advertisers need is to track the number of hits their server sees on the URLs in their ads. If they see a lot of hits, then the ad campaign is working. I can’t imagine any world where it would be a good idea for advertisers to get any more information than that.

With the publication of the Privacy Browser PC Git repository, the URLs for Privacy Browser Android have been updated to reflect the difference between the two.

https://www.stoutner.com/updated-git-url-for-privacy-browser-android/

The codebase for Privacy Browser PC has been posted online. Currently it doesn’t do much, but I would expect development to progress quickly.

https://www.stoutner.com/privacy-browser-pc-codebase/

Among other things, it increases the attack surface of the browser, making bugs in other things (like Safari’s buggy IndexedDB implementation) exploitable.

When will we learn that JavaScript just isn’t your privacy friend?

https://9to5mac.com/2022/01/16/safari-bug-leak-browsing-history-info/

And the core reason why the browser market is ripe for disruption is because all the major browsers currently make their money by monetizing the search engine. Which means that they don’t make decisions in the best interests of users.

https://www.stoutner.com/privacy-browser-will-never-monetize-the-default-search-engine/

The browser market is ripe for disruption.

https://betanews.com/2022/01/10/linux-mint-mozilla-google-firefox/

The 2021 Financial Report has been published.

https://www.stoutner.com/2021-financial-report/

The 2021 Security and Privacy Canary has been published.

https://www.stoutner.com/2021-security-and-privacy-canary/

Privacy Cell 1.6 has been released.

https://www.stoutner.com/privacy-cell-1-6/

This is why I don’t bundle a PDF library with Privacy Browser.

https://www.securityweek.com/google-says-nso-pegasus-zero-click-most-technically-sophisticated-exploit-ever-seen

https://www.stoutner.com/minimizing-privacy-browsers-attack-surface/

I have decided to discontinue the free (ad supported) flavor of Privacy Browser. Going forward, I will only distribute the the standard flavor (the flavor that has always been available of F-Droid).

https://www.stoutner.com/discontinuation-of-privacy-browser-free/

I often tell people that Tor or other VPN services do not provide as much protection as people often think they do. That is because the big internet tracking companies have built massive tracking operations that use JavaScript to follow you across IP addresses. But another reason why is that the Tor network and many VPNs themselves are compromised.

https://therecord.media/a-mysterious-threat-actor-is-running-hundreds-of-malicious-tor-relays/

As more people become aware of the dangers of Stingrays (IMSI catchers) interest in things like Privacy Cell will grow.

https://www.androidpolice.com/qualcomm-has-a-solution-for-stingray-devices-hijacking-your-cell-connection-and-apps-will-be-able-to-use-it-too/

https://www.stoutner.com/privacy-cell/