privacytools.io VS ungoogled-chromium

FYI, Privacy Guides is a shitshow. It was formerly privacytools.io[1], and in 2019, the creator[2] of privacytools.io stopped contributing[3] and a new contributor[4] immediately focused on donations[5], became the admin[6] and took control[7] of most assets, including donations but excluding the domain and Twitter account[8]. In 2021, the creator of privacytools.io launched a new privacytools.io[9] and added affiliate links[10], and the Privacy Guides team shut down r/privacytoolsIO rather than return it[11] to the creator. Like I said, a shitshow.

[1] https://github.com/privacytools/privacytools.io

[2] https://www.reddit.com/user/BurungHantu

[3] https://github.com/privacytools/privacytools.io/commits?auth...

[4] https://github.com/jonaharagon

[5] https://github.com/privacytools/privacytools.io/commits?afte...

[6] https://github.com/privacytools/privacytools.io/commit/4b60a...

[7] https://redd.it/tuo7mm

[8] https://twitter.com/privacytoolsIO

[9] https://redd.it/pxtw2y

[10] https://www.reddit.com/r/VPNTorrents/comments/raftz6/i_made_...

[11] https://redd.it/qk7vn0

Yes, we know you're still mad we won't add Threema. It was thoroughly discussed in our old organization.

en 2019: Signal has copious privacy issues making it unfit for privacytools.io endorsement.

Signal is just another walled garden and has a lot of other problems too: https://github.com/privacytools/privacytools.io/issues/779

Or the fork which is much more active these days https://docs.searxng.org/

In the past it Lukol served Google Ads: https://github.com/privacytools/privacytools.io/issues/1557#...

Never heard of it. Fastmail apparently never made it on to the privacytools.io list for its geographical location. See here for some other recommendations. There are also malifence and posteo. I use posteo and mailbox.org. The main two weird things about posteo is that there is no spam folder (detected spam is rejected with no option to change this), and you can't use a custom domain (because they don't want to have any information on you/your name). Mailbox.org can optionally reject spam and lets you use your custom domain. I like it a lot so far.

The correct link is https://github.com/privacytools/privacytools.io/pull/657

Worth noting the "admins" of that site wrote the content for it, check for yourself https://github.com/privacytools/privacytools.io/commits/master BurungHantu hadn't written anything really since 2016.

PT - https://github.com/privacytools/privacytools.io

Cromite[0] is the best on Android, it's a privacy-oriented open source patchset on top of Chromium.

Cromite has a desktop build, but it's a bit more experimental than the mobile build, so you can use Ungoogled Chromium[1] instead. Ungoogled is also a privacy-oriented open source patchset on top of Chromium. Check the beta flags to enable some more interesting features like getClientRect anti-fingerprinting measures (unfortunately breaks some React-based sites that go into infinite re-render loop).

Both of these browsers selectively include patches from Brave, but they are community-oriented builds so imo more trustworthy than Brave, which continues to package various shady anti-features and always will because it's backed by a for-profit company.

LibreWolf[2] is the nicest Firefox-based one for desktop, I think. It's pretty hardcore, though, I most only use it to visit mainstream social media sites.

I tried a bunch of the Firefox-based ones on mobile and none of them clicked for me. Cromite is just too slick on Android. Put the address bar at the bottom and off you go. Only downside is no online syncing of tabs and bookmarks, but meh. You can save all open tabs to bookmark bar in one hit then export your bookmarks, send the file through whatever E2EE channel you want to your other device and import then reopen them again.

[0] https://github.com/uazo/cromite

[1] https://github.com/ungoogled-software/ungoogled-chromium

[2] https://librewolf.net/

For those that like Chromium but want to remove any integration with Google, there's Ungoogled Chromium

https://github.com/ungoogled-software/ungoogled-chromium

If you're entirely partial to Chromium browsers, use Ungoogled Chrome https://github.com/ungoogled-software/ungoogled-chromium

Firefox or Ungoogled Chromium (needs to update uBlock manually) in Incognito window with unchanged vanilla uBlock Origin with lists updated and no other plugins and without YouTube account. Works perfectly. Also FreeTube.

Ungoogled Chromium is a Chromium-based browser with Google services stripped out.

- Project and source: https://github.com/ungoogled-software/ungoogled-chromium

- Binaries: https://ungoogled-software.github.io/ungoogled-chromium-bina...

Using these sort of downstream patch set browsers is rarely a good idea. If it has multiple full-time developers from a respected org dedicated to it, then it can be justifiable (Tor Browser, Brave), but take a look at the gaps in time for these two pages:

https://github.com/ungoogled-software/ungoogled-chromium/rel...

https://metadata.ftp-master.debian.org/changelogs//main/c/ch...

There's often days you're going without security patches. If you want a browser without Google tracking, Firefox is a much better choice.

I would highly recommend the Ungoogled Chromium fork instead: https://github.com/ungoogled-software/ungoogled-chromium

Entirely volunteer maintained, there is no for-profit entity behind it looking to do crypto referrals or ad swapping or anything like that.

If you're looking for a Bromite successor, right now best way is to download the uazo builds direct from GitHub: https://github.com/uazo/bromite-buildtools There are some third party tools that will download the releases for you, but I'm fine to just manually pop by the repo whenever ungoogled-chromium[0] updates on my desktop.

[0] https://github.com/ungoogled-software/ungoogled-chromium

Chromium (Chrome's FOSS base): Ungoogled Chromium