"Chrome thrilled with an extremely fast site rendering, a sleek design and innovative features. But it also gets critic from data protection specialists, for reasons such as creating a unique user ID or the submission of entries to Google to generate suggestions. SRWare Iron is a real alternative. The browser is based on the Chromium-source and offers the same features as Chrome, but without the critical points that the privacy concern."
The most audacious thing about it is this incredible quote on the FAQ section for the Iron browser:
</p>
<p><i>
"Can i really check that Iron doesn't submit any private data, how you say? Yes, you can. There are tools like Wireshark, which scan the whole network-traffic. We could not recognize any obvious activity. But you can proof this by yourself."
</i><sup><ahref="#s2">[2]</a></sup></p>
<p>
Which is just an amazing gem in the context of what is actually found when running tests on the software.
</p>
<h3>Massive amount of connections on first startup</h3>
<p>
When you first start SRWare Iron, it will immediately open the following two pages: <code>https://iron.start.me/us</code> and
<code>https://www.srware.net/en/software_srware_iron.php</code>. The most offensive page is the <code>start.me</code> domain
which begins loading in an enormous amount of spyware from all over the internet. I did not count the specific amount of requests
but it was somewhere in the 400-500 range (my software doesn't provide a great amount of automation... or maybe i'm not using it
as well as I could). This <ahref../images/iron_spyware.png">image</a> (at 1.06 MB- almost 1/4 of the size of the entire site as of writing!)
should give you an idea of the amount of requests I was swamped by. It took a while for it to die down. On subsequent runs the
amount of requests it sent was far less. It connected to spyware platforms like Google Analytics and Piwik, and executed their JavaScript payloads.
There were a lot of redundant connections to Google Analytics so it's probable that multiple companies are able to send their own
all of the IP addresses that it connected, but should give you an idea.
</p>
<p>
And just so that there is no ambiguity, this notice is shown when you load this homepage:
</p>
<p><i>
"We use cookies to personalise content and ads, to provide social media features
and to analyse our traffic. We also share information about your use of our site
with our social media, advertising and analytics partners who may combine it
with other information you’ve provided to them or they’ve collected from your
use of their services."
</i></p>
<p>
Just so that there is no doubt- you are being served tracking cookies by advertising companies.
</p>
<h3>Redirecting of internet searches through developer's domain</h3>
<p>
After you've finished identifying your web browser to just about every single spyware company on the internet, you can begin
making internet searches with your new SRWare Iron browser. The default search engine is the spyware search engine <ahref="../articles/bing.html">Bing</a>.
<p>If you want to edit this article, or contribute your own article(s), contact us on XMPP over in spyware@conference.nuegia.net, or visit us at the git repo on <ahref="https://codeberg.org/shadow/SpywareWatchdog">Codeberg</a>.</p>
