bjoernvold.com

We do have the Google browsers Chrome and Chromium. A common misconception has been that Chrome phones home and Chromium does not...

Well that is wrong! Chromium phones home too.

At this point everybody will discuss why this is/is not a problem - but the fact remains Chromium does phone home.

These data will be gathered (must everything be gathered?) and they can be hacked and nobody is going to cover your expenses when you try to rectify that wrongful credit report.....



So the question is not if the gathering of your data should not matter but why Google would need it in the first place.
If you want it you should actively choose it and be warned about the risk.

This is what the Iridium browser is all about. It is the Chrome base with focus on removing the spying stuff.

Since Chromium does not meet my expectations in this area (I thought it did before) I will change to Iridium.

The Google browsers are good so if we could get them without the spying it would be optimal.

Iridium feels just like Chrome/Chromium so my habits will not suffer from the change. Hopefully Google will suffer from not being able to collect my data behind my back.

Of course there is still the Google search engine so Iridium offers to install the privacy minded European search engine Qwant.

As a principle, Qwant does not collect data about its users when they search. Plain and simple.

That does not mean that they cannot gather your data - they are simply stating that they won't.

This is worth more in Europe than in the US though since the privacy regulations are stricter.

Iridium does not pass our Spectre vulnerability testing with the recommended setting and in Firejail!

That only means one thing:
Do not use Iridum at this point!

Gee... what Browser is the one to use?

Well Chromium passes the test and so does Vivaldi and Opera. Opera comes with a free VPN.

I am using Vivaldi now but good old Firefox is also very good these days so I am using that one too since Mozilla does not have the spying tradition.

The Brave browser seems very secure but I cannot get any password manager to work with it. If that were the case then that would be the one to use.

..also Iridium passes the tests now but it seems moody and can fail again on the next attempt.,,(in fact it did )

Seems like the intentions are better than the abilities in the Iridium camp...in any case I cannot trust that browser now...
EDIT:
I just found out the if I disable site isolation in Brave then the password managers will work...and it still passes the Spectre vunlerability test.
So if you want a Google based browser without the spying then Brave is an alternative.
Do put it in a Firejali though just to be on the safe side.

https://brave.com

What about Konqueror?

I have not tested it I'll check it out.....
....
It looks like Konqueror is not maintained anymore and will be replaced with Qupzilla.
In general if you can block Javascript; your browser will be pretty safe. You could do that on konqureor and probably in Qupzilla too.

If you do that and only white-list sites that you trust then a Spectre attack will not happen.

One feature that I like on Konqueror is the ability to change how is presented on the web. Sometimes I get the Unsuported Browser crap. Change the settings to some like Win Xp with IE and works like a champ

You can have that in Chrome based browsers too:

https://chrome.google.com/webstore/deta ... pkjnoahfmg

And in Firefox:

https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefo ... -switcher/

The "catches":
In Chrome based browsers you need to accept the Google Privacy Policy (which is crap)
In FF it is not ready for version >57 yet.

Used Agent Switcher years ago. I was wondering about one that comes with it as part of the application. Always have certain mistrust about addons. They are baked by someone else

The Opera browser with its free unlimited VPN is a tempting option too...