Waterfox Classic
Version tested was 2020.10.
Waterfox is a web browser that is a fork of Firefox. + Note: This article has a few issues. See this for more details.
-Spyware Level: High
+Spyware Level: Medium
Waterfox is a fork of Firefox that claims to be more private and secure than Firefox. However, Waterfox contains telemetry and shares @@ -34,18 +35,6 @@ well as Waterfox's own update service. You can look at a list of these requests here.
-
Waterfox offers spyware search engines to its users and uses Bing as its default search engine
-- By default Waterfox is using the spyware search engine Bing. - Why would a privacy-based Web Browser offer this search engine by default? The other offered search engines are not much better- we have the option of searching with Google, - which also logs your internet searches, and Ecosia, which also logs your internet searches (but it gives them to Bing). The developers attitude towards these search engines is concerning: -
-- "Bing is actually quite good for privacy as well (let's not forget Mozilla even suggested them as a more privacy focused search back in 2009)."[2] -
-- It's very clear that while the browser advertises itself as very privacy focused, the actual words and actions of the developers aren't consistent with this claim. -
Waterfox is integrated into the "Firefox Accounts" spyware platform
The "Firefox Accounts" platform allows you to sync a lot of sensitive @@ -62,6 +51,19 @@ where the user can understand what they are giving up when they download the update.
Other known spywares, like Chromium, make use of this method
+Not spyware related, but worth noting
+Anti-privacy search engine by default
++ By default Waterfox uses the search engine Bing. + Why would a privacy-based Web Browser offer this search engine by default? The other offered search engines are not much better- we have the option of searching with Google, + which also logs your internet searches, and Ecosia, which also logs your internet searches (but it gives them to Bing). The developers attitude towards these search engines is concerning: +
++ "Bing is actually quite good for privacy as well (let's not forget Mozilla even suggested them as a more privacy focused search back in 2009)."[2] +
++ It's very clear that while the browser advertises itself as very privacy focused, the actual words and actions of the developers aren't consistent with this claim. +