Badwolf is a minimalist and privacy-oriented web browser based on WebKitGTK.
-
Spyware Level: Not Spyware
-
BadWolf makes no unsolicited requests at all.
-
BadWolf is a pretty decent browser worth looking into. A couple of neat features worth noting is that BadWolf has a JavaScript switch and an image viewer switch, which is useful for daily tasks.
Badwolf is a minimalist and privacy-oriented web browser based on WebKitGTK.
+
Spyware Level: Not Spyware
+
BadWolf makes no unsolicited requests at all.
+
BadWolf is a pretty decent browser worth looking into. A couple of neat features worth noting is that BadWolf has a JavaScript switch and an image viewer switch, which is useful for daily tasks.
Badwolf ist ein minimalistischer und auf Privatsphäre ausgelegter Webbrowser, basierend auf WebKitGTK.
-
Spyware-Level: Keine Spyware
-
BadWolf stellt nicht ungefragt Verbindungen her.
-
BadWolf ist ein guter Browser und definitiv einen Blick wert. Die nützlichsten Funktionen sind der integrierte JavaScript-Schalter und die Option, Bilder standardmässig nicht anzuzeigen.
Badwolf ist ein minimalistischer und auf Privatsphäre ausgelegter Webbrowser, basierend auf WebKitGTK.
+
Spyware-Level: Keine Spyware
+
BadWolf stellt nicht ungefragt Verbindungen her.
+
BadWolf ist ein guter Browser und definitiv einen Blick wert. Die nützlichsten Funktionen sind der integrierte JavaScript-Schalter und die Option, Bilder standardmässig nicht anzuzeigen.
- Bing is yet another spyware search engine that collects your
- information and sells it to advertisers. It's strongly recommended
- that you do not use Bing.
-
-
- At some point Bing had a privacy policy, but Microsoft doesn't seem to
- be hosting it anymore. So, this article will look at the Microsoft
- Privacy Statement[1] to help us
- understand what information Bing collects. Similarly to the privacy
- policies of Google and Apple, the Microsoft privacy statement eclipses
- the entire spyware platform and does not help you understand in great
- detail what kind of information one single program could be
- collecting. (although this policy is more specific)
-
-
- "Microsoft collects data from you, through our interactions with you
- and through our products for a variety of purposes described
- below. [...] You provide some of this data directly, such as when
- you [...] submit a search query to Bing"
-
-
-
-
- Later in the Interactions -> Device and usage data section of this
- statement, it is clarified again that Microsoft collects your:
- "Browse History. Data about the web pages you visit.", as well
- as your:
- "Images. Images and related information, such as picture metadata.
- For example, we collect the image you provide when you use a Bing
- image-enabled service."
-
-
-
- Microsoft claims to store this information for an unlimited amount of
- time, but it claims that it will eventually anonymize this information
- in a process that takes 18 months to complete.
-
-
-
-
-
- "Has Microsoft adopted and announced a specific retention period for
- a certain data type? For example, for Bing search queries, we
- de-identify stored queries by removing the entirety of the IP
- address after 6 months, and cookie IDs and other cross-session
- identifiers after 18 months. "
-
-
-
-
Bing uses your search history to profile you for advertising
-
- "Microsoft may use data we collect to select and deliver some of the
- ads you see on Microsoft web properties, such as Microsoft.com, MSN
- and Bing."
-
-
-
- So since your search history is part of the "data we collect", the
- natural conclusion is that, your search queries are being used to
- profile you for advertising. And of course, this is confirmed in this
- section:
-
-
-
-
- "The ads that you see may be selected based on data we process about
- you, such as your interests and favorites, your location, your
- transactions, how you use our products,
-
- your search queries
-
- , or the content you view. For example, if you view content on MSN
- about automobiles, we may show advertisements about cars; if you
- search “pizza places in Seattle” on Bing, you may see advertisements
- in your search results for restaurants in Seattle."
-
-
-
-
Bing sells your search history to other spyware platforms
-
- "We may share data we collect with third parties, such as Oath,
- AppNexus, or Facebook (see below), so that the ads you see in our
- products, their products, or other sites and apps serviced by these
- partners are more relevant and valuable to you. "
-
-
Bing is yet another spyware search engine that collects your information and sells it to advertisers. It's strongly recommended that you do not use Bing.
+
At some point Bing had a privacy policy, but Microsoft doesn't seem to be hosting it anymore. So, this article will look at the Microsoft Privacy Statement[1] to help us understand what information Bing collects. Similarly to the privacy policies of Google and Apple, the Microsoft privacy statement eclipses the entire spyware platform and does not help you understand in great detail what kind of information one single program could be collecting. (although this policy is more specific)
"Microsoft collects data from you, through our interactions with you and through our products for a variety of purposes described below. [...] You provide some of this data directly, such as when you [...] submit a search query to Bing"
+
Later in the Interactions -> Device and usage data section of this statement, it is clarified again that Microsoft collects your: "Browse History. Data about the web pages you visit.", as well as your: "Images. Images and related information, such as picture metadata. For example, we collect the image you provide when you use a Bing image-enabled service."
+
Microsoft claims to store this information for an unlimited amount of time, but it claims that it will eventually anonymize this information in a process that takes 18 months to complete.
+
"Has Microsoft adopted and announced a specific retention period for a certain data type? For example, for Bing search queries, we de-identify stored queries by removing the entirety of the IP address after 6 months, and cookie IDs and other cross-session identifiers after 18 months."
+
Bing uses your search history to profile you for advertising
"Microsoft may use data we collect to select and deliver some of the ads you see on Microsoft web properties, such as Microsoft.com, MSN and Bing."
+
So since your search history is part of the "data we collect", the natural conclusion is that, your search queries are being used to profile you for advertising. And of course, this is confirmed in this section:
+
"The ads that you see may be selected based on data we process about you, such as your interests and favorites, your location, your transactions, how you use our products, your search queries, or the content you view. For example, if you view content on MSN about automobiles, we may show advertisements about cars; if you search “pizza places in Seattle” on Bing, you may see advertisements in your search results for restaurants in Seattle."
+
Bing sells your search history to other spyware platforms
"We may share data we collect with third parties, such as Oath, AppNexus, or Facebook (see below), so that the ads you see in our products, their products, or other sites and apps serviced by these partners are more relevant and valuable to you."
Brave Browser is a Chromium fork with many interesting features not found elsewhere, such as built-in Adblock and other extensions, fingerprinting protection, a cleaner Preferences menu compared to other Chrome forks, and the (opt-in) ability to automatically support (pay) the websites you visit. The developers describe it as "A browser with your interests at heart."[1] with the built-in privacy protections.
-
Spyware Level: High
-
Brave is self updating software, uses Google as the default search engine, has built-in telemetry, and even has an opt-out rss-like news feed similar to Firefox Pocket. These shouldn't be the things that come to mind if someone were to imagine a privacy oriented browser.
-
Auto-updates
-
Brave will check for updates every time you run it, and you can't turn it off from the browser. Athough, it's on Brave's low priority list to add an option to do so.[2] The reason why it's low priority would be because it's been over a year and there hasn't been an implementation of it yet.
-
Brave has built-in telemetry
-
While running, Brave will make lots of requests to the domain p3a.brave.com as telemetry. They claim they store the collected data for several days.[8] This feature is an opt-out that can be disabled. This opt-out can be disabled here.
-
Brave Today
-
Brave now has new feature similar to Firefox Pocket called Brave Today. If you don't know what Firefox Pocket is, it's basically an rss-like news feed that's shown in every blank tab. This feature Brave has is sadly an opt-out rather than an opt-in and sends lots of requests to Brave's servers. It can't seem to be disabled it in and of itself, but setting the tabs to blank seems to stop the requests.
-
SafeBrowsing
-
Brave uses SafeBrowsing. It's a feature that tries to "protect" the user from potentially unsafe websites and extensions. However, it sends requests to fetch the information required. Brave's SafeBrowsing is powered by google.[10] This opt-out can be disabled here.
-
Brave Rewards
-
Brave has a rewards program. You can find more information about it here.[3] At first glance it looks like the rewards program is an opt-in, but the browser makes requests to these domains regardless if you sign up or not:
-
-
rewards.brave.com
-
api.rewards.brave.com
-
grant.rewards.brave.com
-
-
A quick update: These requests have been reported as a bug and for the most part have been fixed (with a couple exceptions). I'll remove this section once the bug has been completely fixed.[12]
-
Miscellaneous requests worth noting
-
Brave on first run sends a request to fetch the library used for checking spelling errors:
-
-
Brave on startup sends a request to variations.brave.com. Brave uses this to turn on and off features. There isn't a way to disable this as of yet.[11]
-
-
Brave fetches the list of affiliates through laptop-updates.brave.com:
-
-
Brave makes a request to static1.brave.com every once and a while, which looks like it's used to fetch plugin information?[4] When the url was placed into the browser, it was directed to Google's error 404 page.[9]
-
-
-
A quick curl --head static1.brave.com shows that Brave uses Google's gstatic, which uses Cloudflare as well:
-
-
On the first run, Brave fetches five extensions from brave-core-ext.s3.brave.com and tries to install them:
-
-
Not spyware related, but worth noting
-
Anti-privacy search engine by default
-
Google is the default search engine of Brave. For a browser that claims to be privacy oriented, this is a red flag. They at least make it easy for you to change the default search engine on the first run.
Brave Browser is a Chromium fork with many interesting features not found elsewhere, such as built-in Adblock and other extensions, fingerprinting protection, a cleaner Preferences menu compared to other Chrome forks, and the (opt-in) ability to automatically support (pay) the websites you visit. The developers describe it as "A browser with your interests at heart."[1] with the built-in privacy protections.
+
Spyware Level: High
+
Brave is self updating software, uses Google as the default search engine, has built-in telemetry, and even has an opt-out rss-like news feed similar to Firefox Pocket. These shouldn't be the things that come to mind if someone were to imagine a privacy oriented browser.
+
Auto-updates
+
Brave will check for updates every time you run it, and you can't turn it off from the browser. Athough, it's on Brave's low priority list to add an option to do so.[2] The reason why it's low priority would be because it's been over a year and there hasn't been an implementation of it yet.
+
Brave has built-in telemetry
+
While running, Brave will make lots of requests to the domain p3a.brave.com as telemetry. They claim they store the collected data for several days.[8] This feature is an opt-out that can be disabled. This opt-out can be disabled here.
+
Brave Today
+
Brave now has new feature similar to Firefox Pocket called Brave Today. If you don't know what Firefox Pocket is, it's basically an rss-like news feed that's shown in every blank tab. This feature Brave has is sadly an opt-out rather than an opt-in and sends lots of requests to Brave's servers. It can't seem to be disabled it in and of itself, but setting the tabs to blank seems to stop the requests.
+
SafeBrowsing
+
Brave uses SafeBrowsing. It's a feature that tries to "protect" the user from potentially unsafe websites and extensions. However, it sends requests to fetch the information required. Brave's SafeBrowsing is powered by google.[10] This opt-out can be disabled here.
+
Brave Rewards
+
Brave has a rewards program. You can find more information about it here.[3] At first glance it looks like the rewards program is an opt-in, but the browser makes requests to these domains regardless if you sign up or not:
+
+
rewards.brave.com
+
api.rewards.brave.com
+
grant.rewards.brave.com
+
+
A quick update: These requests have been reported as a bug and for the most part have been fixed (with a couple exceptions). I'll remove this section once the bug has been completely fixed.[12]
+
Miscellaneous requests worth noting
+
Brave on first run sends a request to fetch the library used for checking spelling errors:
+
+
Brave on startup sends a request to variations.brave.com. Brave uses this to turn on and off features. There isn't a way to disable this as of yet.[11]
+
+
Brave fetches the list of affiliates through laptop-updates.brave.com:
+
+
Brave makes a request to static1.brave.com every once and a while, which looks like it's used to fetch plugin information?[4] When the url was placed into the browser, it was directed to Google's error 404 page.[9]
+
+
+
A quick curl --head static1.brave.com shows that Brave uses Google's gstatic, which uses Cloudflare as well:
+
+
On the first run, Brave fetches five extensions from brave-core-ext.s3.brave.com and tries to install them:
+
+
Not spyware related, but worth noting
+
Anti-privacy search engine by default
+
Google is the default search engine of Brave. For a browser that claims to be privacy oriented, this is a red flag. They at least make it easy for you to change the default search engine on the first run.
Brave Browser - форк Chromium'а со множеством интересных возможностей, которых нет где-либо еще, такие как встроенный блокировщик рекламы и другие расширения, защита от отпечатков браузера, менее загруженное меню по сравнению с другими форками Chrome и встроенная возможность для автоматического пожертвования сайтам, которые вы посещаете. Разработчики описывают его как "Браузер, защищающий ваши интересы"[1] со встроенной защитой конфиденциальности пользователя.
-
Уровень слежки: Высокий
-
Brave обновляется автоматически, использует Google в качестве поисковика по умолчанию, имеет встроенную телеметрию и даже имеет ленту новостей, похожую на Firefox Pocket. Этого не должно быть в браузере, который ориентирован на конфиденциальность пользователя.
-
Автоматические обновления
-
Brave будет проверять обновления каждый раз, когда вы его запускаете, и вы не можете это отключить. Добавление данной опции обладает низким приоритетом в разработке Brave[2], так как прошло уже больше года и её всё еще нет.
-
Brave has built-in telemetry
-
Во время работы Brave будет делать много запросов к домену p3a.brave.com в качестве телеметрии. Они утверждают, что хранят данные только несколько дней[8]. Эта опция может быть отключена здесь.
-
Brave Today
-
Brave содержит сервис похожий на Firefox Pocket - Brave Today. Это новостная лента, которая показывается на каждой пустой новой вкладке. Эта возможность к сожалению включена по умолчанию и посылает множество запросов к серверам Brave. Кажется, что нельзя отключить эту опцию, но если установить новые вкладки как пустые, то похоже, что это останавливает запросы.
-
SafeBrowsing
-
Brave использует SafeBrowsing. Это функция, которая пытается "защитить" пользователя от возможных небезопасных веб-сайтов и расширений. Однако, она посылает запросы, чтобы получить требуемую информацию. Brave SafeBrowsing поддерживается Google[10]. Данная функция может быть отключена здесь.
-
Brave Rewards
-
У Brave есть программа вознаграждений[3]. На первый взгляд кажется, что она необязательна, но браузер делает запросы к доменам ниже независимо от регистрации в программе:
-
-
rewards.brave.com
-
api.rewards.brave.com
-
grant.rewards.brave.com
-
-
Небольшое дополнение: об этих запросах сообщалось как об ошибках, и по большей части они исправлены (за несколькими исключениями). Этот раздел будет удалён, как только ошибки будут полностью исправлены[12].
-
Другие запросы которые стоит отметить
-
При первом запуске Brave отправляет запрос, чтобы получить библиотеку для проверки орфографии.
-
-
При старте Brave посылает запросы к variations.brave.com. Brave использует это для включения и выключения функций. Пока нет никакого способа отключить это[11].
-
-
Brave получает список партнёров через запросы к laptop-updates.brave.com:
-
-
Время от времени Brave делает запрос к static1.brave.com, что выглядит как будто он пытается получить информацию о плагинах[4]. В браузере эта ссылка ведёт на страницу Google с ошибкой 404[9].
-
-
-
Команда curl --head static1.brave.com показывает, что Brave использует Google gstatic, который также использует Cloudflare:
-
-
При первом запуске Brave скачивает пять расширений из brave-core-ext.s3.brave.com и пытается установить их:
-
-
Не связано со слежением, но стоит отметить
-
Неконфиденциальный поисковик по умолчанию
-
Google - стандартная поисковая система в Brave. Это очень странно для браузера, позиционирующего себя приватным. По крайней мере, при первом запуске Brave даёт выбор поисковой системы по умолчанию.
Brave Browser - форк Chromium'а со множеством интересных возможностей, которых нет где-либо еще, такие как встроенный блокировщик рекламы и другие расширения, защита от отпечатков браузера, менее загруженное меню по сравнению с другими форками Chrome и встроенная возможность для автоматического пожертвования сайтам, которые вы посещаете. Разработчики описывают его как "Браузер, защищающий ваши интересы"[1] со встроенной защитой конфиденциальности пользователя.
+
Уровень слежки: Высокий
+
Brave обновляется автоматически, использует Google в качестве поисковика по умолчанию, имеет встроенную телеметрию и даже имеет ленту новостей, похожую на Firefox Pocket. Этого не должно быть в браузере, который ориентирован на конфиденциальность пользователя.
+
Автоматические обновления
+
Brave будет проверять обновления каждый раз, когда вы его запускаете, и вы не можете это отключить. Добавление данной опции обладает низким приоритетом в разработке Brave[2], так как прошло уже больше года и её всё еще нет.
+
Brave has built-in telemetry
+
Во время работы Brave будет делать много запросов к домену p3a.brave.com в качестве телеметрии. Они утверждают, что хранят данные только несколько дней[8]. Эта опция может быть отключена здесь.
+
Brave Today
+
Brave содержит сервис похожий на Firefox Pocket - Brave Today. Это новостная лента, которая показывается на каждой пустой новой вкладке. Эта возможность к сожалению включена по умолчанию и посылает множество запросов к серверам Brave. Кажется, что нельзя отключить эту опцию, но если установить новые вкладки как пустые, то похоже, что это останавливает запросы.
+
SafeBrowsing
+
Brave использует SafeBrowsing. Это функция, которая пытается "защитить" пользователя от возможных небезопасных веб-сайтов и расширений. Однако, она посылает запросы, чтобы получить требуемую информацию. Brave SafeBrowsing поддерживается Google[10]. Данная функция может быть отключена здесь.
+
Brave Rewards
+
У Brave есть программа вознаграждений[3]. На первый взгляд кажется, что она необязательна, но браузер делает запросы к доменам ниже независимо от регистрации в программе:
+
+
rewards.brave.com
+
api.rewards.brave.com
+
grant.rewards.brave.com
+
+
Небольшое дополнение: об этих запросах сообщалось как об ошибках, и по большей части они исправлены (за несколькими исключениями). Этот раздел будет удалён, как только ошибки будут полностью исправлены[12].
+
Другие запросы которые стоит отметить
+
При первом запуске Brave отправляет запрос, чтобы получить библиотеку для проверки орфографии.
+
+
При старте Brave посылает запросы к variations.brave.com. Brave использует это для включения и выключения функций. Пока нет никакого способа отключить это[11].
+
+
Brave получает список партнёров через запросы к laptop-updates.brave.com:
+
+
Время от времени Brave делает запрос к static1.brave.com, что выглядит как будто он пытается получить информацию о плагинах[4]. В браузере эта ссылка ведёт на страницу Google с ошибкой 404[9].
+
+
+
Команда curl --head static1.brave.com показывает, что Brave использует Google gstatic, который также использует Cloudflare:
+
+
При первом запуске Brave скачивает пять расширений из brave-core-ext.s3.brave.com и пытается установить их:
+
+
Не связано со слежением, но стоит отметить
+
Неконфиденциальный поисковик по умолчанию
+
Google - стандартная поисковая система в Brave. Это очень странно для браузера, позиционирующего себя приватным. По крайней мере, при первом запуске Brave даёт выбор поисковой системы по умолчанию.
- CCleaner, developed by Piriform, is a utility program used to clean
- potentially unwanted files and invalid Windows Registry entries from a
- computer.
-
-
Spyware Level: EXTREMELY HIGH
-
- CCleaner is spyware that collects your personal information to
- advertise to you. It also sells your information to third parties so
- that they can advertise to you. It collects a huge amount of very
- personal information, like your
- physical location. CCleaner uses the
- technique of privacy policy obfuscation where it provides one privacy
- policy for every single product its company offers, making it more
- difficult to know what parts of the privacy policy apply to which
- program.
-
-
CCleaner collects and sells user information to advertisers
-
- CCleaner clearly shows in its privacy settings that it is collecting
- information about your computer and selling that information to
- advertisers. Below is a screenshot on how to mitigate some of it.
-
CCleaner tracks a huge amount of personal information
-
- If we look at the privacy policy, we can see that CCleaner reports the
- following[3]:
-
-
-
IP Address
-
Unique User ID
-
Operating System
-
Other Avast Products installed
-
- physical location
-
-
-
-
- Beyond this, CCleaner is integrated with the following spyware
- platforms, which all collect their own sets of information:
-
-
-
Google Analytics
-
Logentries
-
-
-
- It would be very time-consuming to go through all of those privacy
- policies (especially because many of these are obfuscated), but it
- should be enough to understand that CCleaner is full of third party
- spyware, as well as first party spyware.
-
-
- "When we collect your email address, we may market our other
- products and services to you. You may choose to unsubscribe from
- future email marketing by following the instructions in the email."
-
-
-
CCleaner tracks your physical location
-
- According to the privacy policy, the CCleaner website tries to track
- your physical location.[3]
-
-
-
- "Our websites use cookies to acquire data that may be used to
- determine your physical location via your Internet Protocol address
- (“IP Address”) and automated geolocation techniques, or to acquire
- basic information about the computer, tablet, or mobile phone that
- you use to visit us."
-
-
-
- "location data" is also mentioned when talking about the
- information that CCleaner itself collects about its users.
-
-
Past Security Flaws
-
- In the past, CCleaner has been compromised and backdoors have been
- added to it.[1]
-
CCleaner, developed by Piriform, is a utility program used to clean potentially unwanted files and invalid Windows Registry entries from a computer.
+
Spyware Level: EXTREMELY HIGH
+
CCleaner is spyware that collects your personal information to advertise to you. It also sells your information to third parties so that they can advertise to you. It collects a huge amount of very personal information, like your physical location. CCleaner uses the technique of privacy policy obfuscation where it provides one privacy policy for every single product its company offers, making it more difficult to know what parts of the privacy policy apply to which program.
+
CCleaner collects and sells user information to advertisers
+
CCleaner clearly shows in its privacy settings that it is collecting information about your computer and selling that information to advertisers. Below is a screenshot on how to mitigate some of it.
CCleaner tracks a huge amount of personal information
+
If we look at the privacy policy, we can see that CCleaner reports the following[3]:
+
+
IP Address
+
Unique User ID
+
Operating System
+
Other Avast Products installed
+
physical location
+
+
Beyond this, CCleaner is integrated with the following spyware platforms, which all collect their own sets of information:
+
+
Google Analytics
+
Logentries
+
+
It would be very time-consuming to go through all of those privacy policies (especially because many of these are obfuscated), but it should be enough to understand that CCleaner is full of third party spyware, as well as first party spyware.
"When we collect your email address, we may market our other products and services to you. You may choose to unsubscribe from future email marketing by following the instructions in the email."
+
CCleaner tracks your physical location
+
According to the privacy policy, the CCleaner website tries to track your physical location.[3]
+
"Our websites use cookies to acquire data that may be used to determine your physical location via your Internet Protocol address (“IP Address”) and automated geolocation techniques, or to acquire basic information about the computer, tablet, or mobile phone that you use to visit us."
+
"location data" is also mentioned when talking about the information that CCleaner itself collects about its users.
+
Past Security Flaws
+
In the past, CCleaner has been compromised and backdoors have been added to it.[1]
- CDex is an Open Source Digital Audio CD Extractor.
-
+
CDex is an Open Source Digital Audio CD Extractor.
Spyware Level: Low
-
- CDex's installer bundles it with spyware, and it will randomly suggest
- a spyware program to the user, with a chance to opt-out. Usually it
- attempts to bundle itself with the WebDiscover browser and one time I
- got it to try and offer me an antivirus program, but I wasn't able to
- reproduce this. The program was tested on Windows 7 32-bit with
- Microsoft Network Monitor 3.4 and Wireshark 2.6.2. The version of the
- program tested was 2.06.
- It did not make any connections to the internet
- that my tests were able to find. To test the program I ripped the
- audio files out of a CD with both network monitoring programs open.
-
+
CDex's installer bundles it with spyware, and it will randomly suggest a spyware program to the user, with a chance to opt-out. Usually it attempts to bundle itself with the WebDiscover browser and one time I got it to try and offer me an antivirus program, but I wasn't able to reproduce this. The program was tested on Windows 7 32-bit with Microsoft Network Monitor 3.4 and Wireshark 2.6.2. The version of the program tested was 2.06. It did not make any connections to the internet that my tests were able to find. To test the program I ripped the audio files out of a CD with both network monitoring programs open.
Bundling with spyware
-
- CDex attempts to bundle itself with the
- WebDiscover web browser.
- This is an Opt-out and not an Opt-in like it should be. This program
- is spyware, because according to its privacy policy[1], it collects information about its users.
-
-
+
CDex attempts to bundle itself with the WebDiscover web browser. This is an Opt-out and not an Opt-in like it should be. This program is spyware, because according to its privacy policy[1], it collects information about its users.
- Google Chrome is a web browser developed and distributed by Google.
-
-
Spyware Level: EXTREMELY HIGH
-
Google Chrome is not fully open source
-
- Large parts of Google Chrome are open source, however not all of them are, and this prevents people from
- checking the entire software for potential spyware features that are not disclosed.
-
-
Google Chrome tracks the user's search history
-
- Google Chrome contains several spyware features that reply on the user's search history being uploaded to Google
- servers. This is confirmed by the language in the privacy policy[1], clarifying the
- spyware features that rely on this.
-
-
- The first spyware feature is Google Chrome's integration with the "Google Account" spyware platform. " If you
- are signed in to a Google site or signed in to Chrome and Google is your default search engine, searches you
- perform using the address bar in Chrome are stored in your Google account. "
-
-
- Google Chrome also contains a spyware feature called "Search prediction service". It is explained that: "When
- you search using the address bar in Chrome, the characters you type (even if you haven’t hit "enter" yet) are
- sent to your default search engine. If Google is your default search engine, predictions are based on your own
- search history, topics related to what you’re typing and what other people are searching for."
-
-
- There is also the spyware feature "Navigation Assistance" which states that: "When you can’t connect to a web
- page, you can get suggestions for alternative pages similar to the one you're trying to reach. In order to
- offer you suggestions, Chrome sends Google the URL of the page you're trying to reach. "
-
-
Google Chrome profiles your computer usage
-
- In the privacy policy[1], Google details the extreme spyware feature it labels
- "Usage Statistics and Crash Reports". What it does, is it sends very detailed information about your hardware
- and computer usage, which confirms that it definitely contains the following spyware features:
-
-
A tracker that records mouse input over time
-
A tracker that profiles memory usage
-
-
- But, it can also be extrapolated from the vague language that Chrome could and probably does monitor what other
- programs you have open. Either way, it is an extreme amount of information being collected, since it can be used
- to recreate what the user is doing on their desktop at all times. Chrome clarifies that this information is
- being sent whenever a website is being "slow" or whenever Google Chrome crashes.
-
-
Google Chrome is integrated with Google Payments
-
- Google Payments is a spyware service that records your banking information and sends it to Google.[2] This service is integrated into the Google Chrome browser, which makes it another
- opt-in spyware feature in the software.
-
-
Google Chrome contains a keylogger
-
- This was confirmed in multiple places[3][4]. Basically,
- whenever you type into the search bar, that information is sent to Google. You can apparently turn it off by
- opting out of the "suggestion service".
-
-
Google Chrome records your voice
-
- Google Chrome is confirmed to be constantly listening to any open microphones on your computer. This can be
- found in this statement[5] in a privacy publication. "Voice & audio
- information may be collected. For example, if your child uses audio activation commands (e.g., "OK, Google" or
- touching the microphone icon), a recording of the following speech/audio, plus a few seconds before,
- will be stored to their account…" This feature is opt-in if you are using the "Google Accounts" spyware
- platform and specifically tell Google to build a profile of your child. It's unverified whether or not Google
- uploads information it listens too to its servers outside of this feature.
-
-
Google Chrome saves user passwords on Google Servers
-
- Any password stored in Google Chrome's "password management" feature is uploaded to Google if you sign into the
- "Google Accounts" spyware platform.
-
-
Google Chrome profiles users in other various ways
-
- According to the privacy policy[1], Google Chrome profiles what kinds of web forms
- you fill out, as well as what kind of language the content you consume is primarily in. Google Chrome also
- creates a unique identifier for each install you do. This unique identifier is sent to Google whenever you start
- the browser, so that Google can create a consistent user identity for you, undermining anonymity. Google also
- stores all of your settings on it's official servers when using the "Google Accounts" feature.
-
-
Google Chrome is self-updating software
-
- Google Chrome has an updater which is constantly running in the background and syncing with Google servers to
- check for updates. The updater will download and run unverified binaries from Google when it updates Google
- Chrome. It is impossible for an automatic updater service such as this to verify that the updates are not
- spyware and/or do not contain additional spyware features.
-
- From their website: "NetSurf is a multi-platform web browser for RISC OS, UNIX-like platforms (including Linux), Mac OS X, and more" [1] Version Tested: Netsurf 3.9
-
-
Spyware Level: Low
-
Upon launch Netsurf makes a request to get the default search engine's icon, that default search engine is Google. This was tested with mitmproxy. Other than that, there are no unsolicited requests. After following the mitigation guide, this software is not spyware.
From their website: "NetSurf is a multi-platform web browser for RISC OS, UNIX-like platforms (including Linux), Mac OS X, and more".[1] Version Tested: Netsurf 3.9.
+
Spyware Level: Low
+
Upon launch Netsurf makes a request to get the default search engine's icon, that default search engine is Google. This was tested with mitmproxy. Other than that, there are no unsolicited requests. After following the mitigation guide, this software is not spyware.
- Z ich strony internetowej: "NetSurf jest wieloplatformową przeglądarką internetową dla RISC OS, platform podobnych do UNIX-owych (w tym Linux), Mac OS X i innych" [1] Wersja testowana: Netsurf 3.9
-
-
Poziom Oprogramowania Szpiegowskiego: Niski
-
Po uruchomieniu Netsurf zwraca się z prośbą o otrzymanie ikony domyślnej wyszukiwarki, którą jest Google. Zostało to przetestowane za pomocą mitmproxy. Poza tym, nie ma żadnych niepożądanych żądań. Po zastosowaniu się do poradnika mitygacji, to oprogramowanie nie jest oprogramowaniem szpiegowskim.
+ Z ich strony internetowej: "NetSurf jest wieloplatformową przeglądarką internetową dla RISC OS, platform podobnych do UNIX-owych (w tym Linux), Mac OS X i innych" [1] Wersja testowana: Netsurf 3.9
+
+
Poziom Oprogramowania Szpiegowskiego: Niski
+
Po uruchomieniu Netsurf zwraca się z prośbą o otrzymanie ikony domyślnej wyszukiwarki, którą jest Google. Zostało to przetestowane za pomocą mitmproxy. Poza tym, nie ma żadnych niepożądanych żądań. Po zastosowaniu się do poradnika mitygacji, to oprogramowanie nie jest oprogramowaniem szpiegowskim.
- A web browser made by Opera Software, using the Blink engine. Has some interesting features like mouse gestures, a built-in ad blocker and VPN. It is the sixth most popular browser. But how does it look like in terms of privacy?
+ A web browser made by Opera Software, using the Blink engine. Has some interesting features like mouse gestures, a built-in ad blocker and VPN. It is the sixth most popular browser. But how does it look like in terms of privacy?
Spyware Level: EXTREMELY HIGH
@@ -19,55 +19,55 @@
Geolocation
-
The first request Opera makes is the geolocation request: which includes your country and the precise timestamp.
+
The first request Opera makes is the geolocation request: which includes your country and the precise timestamp.
-
Homepage request
+
Homepage request
-
If this is the first time you run Opera, it makes this request: which will redirect you to their homepage. Then, that homepage will make a bunch of other requests, including to google analytics, facebook (if you're logged in, they now know who you are), and even yandex.ru. The yandex request will set a uniquely identifying cookie.
+
If this is the first time you run Opera, it makes this request: which will redirect you to their homepage. Then, that homepage will make a bunch of other requests, including to google analytics, facebook (if you're logged in, they now know who you are), and even yandex.ru. The yandex request will set a uniquely identifying cookie.
-
Cxense analytics
+
Cxense analytics
-
Later, it will make a few requests to cxense.com. What is Cxense?
+
Later, it will make a few requests to cxense.com. What is Cxense?
-
We are Cxense. We help hundreds of leading publishers and marketers across the globe transform their raw data into their most valuable resource. Built on the premise of 1:1 analytics and communication; allowing you to both gain unprecedented insight about your individual customers, and to action this insight real-time in all your marketing and sales channels.
+
We are Cxense. We help hundreds of leading publishers and marketers across the globe transform their raw data into their most valuable resource. Built on the premise of 1:1 analytics and communication; allowing you to both gain unprecedented insight about your individual customers, and to action this insight real-time in all your marketing and sales channels.
-
This request seems to include a unique ID
+
This request seems to include a unique ID
-
Search engines
+
Search engines
-
Opera will also download a list of search engines, which you cannot delete, only add new ones (at least from the GUI). Apparently, there are some convoluted methods of deleting the search engines, but I haven't confirmed them. Of course, the default search engine is the anti-privacy Google.
+
Opera will also download a list of search engines, which you cannot delete, only add new ones (at least from the GUI). Apparently, there are some convoluted methods of deleting the search engines, but I haven't confirmed them. Of course, the default search engine is the anti-privacy Google.
-
OCSP querying
+
OCSP querying
-
Opera will query OCSP servers (ocsp.comodoca.com) to check if SSL certificates expired.
+
Opera will query OCSP servers (ocsp.comodoca.com) to check if SSL certificates expired.
-
Malware / Phishing protection
-
Anytime you visit a website, Opera will make a request like this: to check if it is malicious. So it is literally spying on your whole browsing history. Fortunately, this can be turned off.
+
Malware / Phishing protection
+
Anytime you visit a website, Opera will make a request like this: to check if it is malicious. So it is literally spying on your whole browsing history. Fortunately, this can be turned off.
-
Other requests
+
Other requests
-
Other requests include ones to googletagmanager, google ads specific for your country, more requests to yandex (these include your screen size, encoding, and the page you came from), more geolocation, etc. Together, Opera made 55 unsolicited requests in my first run of it. Analyzing them all would probably take a book.
+
Other requests include ones to googletagmanager, google ads specific for your country, more requests to yandex (these include your screen size, encoding, and the page you came from), more geolocation, etc. Together, Opera made 55 unsolicited requests in my first run of it. Analyzing them all would probably take a book.
-
Facebook integration
+
Facebook integration
-
Opera has a Facebook chat button on the sidebar, and Facebook is one of the most anti-privacy organizations out there.
+
Opera has a Facebook chat button on the sidebar, and Facebook is one of the most anti-privacy organizations out there.
-
Opera's "Partners"
-
Opera has a list of "partners" — those are the websites that are in the Speed Dial by default. If you click on one of them from there, they will know you visited from Opera's Speed Dial. Those requests also include unique user IDs.
- What happens if you close Opera and run it again? The websites in the Speed Dial will change to the ones from your country! And the same rule about them knowing where you came from applies.
+
Opera's "Partners"
+
Opera has a list of "partners" — those are the websites that are in the Speed Dial by default. If you click on one of them from there, they will know you visited from Opera's Speed Dial. Those requests also include unique user IDs.
+ What happens if you close Opera and run it again? The websites in the Speed Dial will change to the ones from your country! And the same rule about them knowing where you came from applies.
-
Opera is closed source
-
And it will stay that way. From their FAQ (the message used to be there in 2017, they must have deleted it somewhere in 2018):
+
Opera is closed source
+
And it will stay that way. From their FAQ (the message used to be there in 2017, they must have deleted it somewhere in 2018):
-
Opera has not officialy open sourced its browser. However, leaks of the Presto web engine Opera used have appeared on the internet.
+
Opera has not officialy open sourced its browser. However, leaks of the Presto web engine Opera used have appeared on the internet.
-
Even with that however, there could still other spyware might be hiding in there.
-
-
-
Credits
-
- This article was written by digdeeper.neocities.org
- Formatting changes were done by the site maintainer.
+
Even with that however, there could still other spyware might be hiding in there.
+
+
+
Credits
+
+ This article was written by digdeeper.neocities.org
+ Formatting changes were done by the site maintainer.
From their website: "Otter Browser aims to recreate the best aspects of the classic Opera (12.x) UI using Qt5." Their motto is: "Controlled by the user, not vice versa". Version tested: 0.9.12 (SlackBuild from slackbuilds.org). Program used for testing requests: Mitmproxy.
-
Spyware Level: Not Spyware
-
Otter Browser makes no unsolicited requests at all. It is fully open source. The developers, also, don't plan to include any spyware "features" in the future. This seems like a true privacy-based web browser (at least for now).
-
-
This article was created on 11/25/2017
-
This article was lasted edited on 10/5/2020
-
-
If you want to contribute to this website, you can always make a pull request.
-
All contributions must be licensed under the CC0 license to be accepted.
From their website: "Otter Browser aims to recreate the best aspects of the classic Opera (12.x) UI using Qt5." Their motto is: "Controlled by the user, not vice versa". Version tested: 0.9.12 (SlackBuild from slackbuilds.org). Program used for testing requests: Mitmproxy.
+
Spyware Level: Not Spyware
+
Otter Browser makes no unsolicited requests at all. It is fully open source. The developers, also, don't plan to include any spyware "features" in the future. This seems like a true privacy-based web browser (at least for now).
+
+
This article was created on 11/25/2017
+
This article was lasted edited on 10/5/2020
+
+
If you want to contribute to this website, you can always make a pull request.
+
All contributions must be licensed under the CC0 license to be accepted.
+
+
+
+
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/articles/paint.net.html b/articles/paint.net.html
index 2b3ac1c..e080107 100644
--- a/articles/paint.net.html
+++ b/articles/paint.net.html
@@ -1,8 +1,8 @@
-
-
+
+
-
+
Paint.NET — Spyware Watchdog
diff --git a/articles/palemoon.html b/articles/palemoon.html
index d80b97c..31e749f 100644
--- a/articles/palemoon.html
+++ b/articles/palemoon.html
@@ -1,76 +1,49 @@
-
-
-
-
-
-
+
+
+
+
+
+
Pale Moon — Spyware Watchdog
+
-
-
Pale Moon
-
- Pale Moon is a fork of an old Firefox version, before the user interface change that put off many people. Version 28.4 was used to
- write this article.
-
-
-
Spyware Level: Medium
-
After following the mitigation guide, this software is Not Spyware.
-
-
- Connects to analytics services, and these requests can only be avoided on subsequent runs. Has block lists, search suggestions, and auto-updates.
- Sends SSL certificates from the sites you visit.
-
-
Google Analytics on Homepage
-
- By default, Pale Moon's home page is set to https://palemoon.start.me, and it will automatically make a connection to it upon its first run.
- This page connects to Google Analytics, which can fingerprint and track you across the internet.
-
-
-
Auto-updates
-
- Pale Moon will automatically update itself, addons and search engines, as well as its blocklist.xml file with the addons it considers "malicious". Some of these can be turned off from the GUI, and some only from about:config.
-
-
-
Search Suggestions
-
The default search engine is the privacy-respecting DuckDuckGo, however search suggestions are enabled by default, which could send a request for every letter you've typed, all while you think it stays in-browser until you press Enter. Can be turned off by right-clicking the search bar.
-
-
-
OCSP querying
-
Will automatically check every site's SSL certificate to see if it is valid, which necessitates sending it to a third party. Can be turned off from the GUI.
-
-
Not spyware related, but worth noting
-
-
Blocking privacy-enhancing addons
-
-Pale Moon by default won't allow you to install the privacy-enhancing addon NoScript, citing this rationale for
-blocking such an important addon: "NoScript is known to cause severe issues with a large (and growing) number of websites. Unless finely tuned for every website visited,
-NoScript will cause display issues and functional issues."[1]
-To disable this blocklist, set extensions.blocklist.enabled to false in about:config.
-
- If you want to edit this article, or contribute your own article(s), visit us at the git repo on Codeberg. All contributions must be licensed under the CC0 license to be accepted.
-
Pale Moon is a fork of an old Firefox version, before the user interface change that put off many people. Version 28.4 was used to write this article.
+
Spyware Level: Medium
+
After following the mitigation guide, this software is Not Spyware.
+
Connects to analytics services, and these requests can only be avoided on subsequent runs. Has block lists, search suggestions, and auto-updates. Sends SSL certificates from the sites you visit.
+
Google Analytics on Homepage
+
By default, Pale Moon's home page is set to https://palemoon.start.me, and it will automatically make a connection to it upon its first run. This page connects to Google Analytics, which can fingerprint and track you across the internet.
+
+
Auto-updates
+
Pale Moon will automatically update itself, addons and search engines, as well as its blocklist.xml file with the addons it considers "malicious". Some of these can be turned off from the GUI, and some only from about:config.
+
Search Suggestions
+
The default search engine is the privacy-respecting DuckDuckGo, however search suggestions are enabled by default, which could send a request for every letter you've typed, all while you think it stays in-browser until you press Enter. Can be turned off by right-clicking the search bar.
+
OCSP querying
+
Will automatically check every site's SSL certificate to see if it is valid, which necessitates sending it to a third party. Can be turned off from the GUI.
+
Not spyware related, but worth noting
+
Blocking privacy-enhancing addons
+
Pale Moon by default won't allow you to install the privacy-enhancing addon NoScript, citing this rationale for blocking such an important addon: "NoScript is known to cause severe issues with a large (and growing) number of websites. Unless finely tuned for every website visited, NoScript will cause display issues and functional issues."[1]To disable this blocklist, set extensions.blocklist.enabled to false in about:config.
Qutebrowser is a keyboard-focused browser with a minimal GUI. It's based on Python and PyQt5 and free software, licensed under the GPL. Program tested: v1.6.1 for Debian Buster. Mitmproxy was used to check for connections.
-
Spyware Level: Not Spyware
-
Qutebrowser makes no unsolicited requests at all. It is also libre software. This web browser is a great choice to use, and there is nothing to complain about from a privacy standpoint. (although I don't really know how to use the User Interface that well...) So far this browser looks like it can stand tall in the ranks of the other privacy-respecting web browsers out there.
-
-
This article was created on 5/10/2018
-
This article was lasted edited on 10/7/2020
-
-
If you want to contribute to this website, you can always make a pull request.
-
All contributions must be licensed under the CC0 license to be accepted.
Qutebrowser is a keyboard-focused browser with a minimal GUI. It's based on Python and PyQt5 and free software, licensed under the GPL. Program tested: v1.6.1 for Debian Buster. Mitmproxy was used to check for connections.
+
Spyware Level: Not Spyware
+
Qutebrowser makes no unsolicited requests at all. It is also libre software. This web browser is a great choice to use, and there is nothing to complain about from a privacy standpoint. (although I don't really know how to use the User Interface that well...) So far this browser looks like it can stand tall in the ranks of the other privacy-respecting web browsers out there.
Qutebrowser - веб-браузер, ориентированный на управление с клавиатуры, с минимальным графическим интерфейсом. Он основан на Python, PyQt5 и свободном ПО, лицензированном под GPL. Программа протестирована: v1.6.1 для Debian Buster. Mitmproxy было использовано для проверки соединений.
-
Spyware Level: Not Spyware
-
Qutebrowser никогда не делает нежелательных запросов. Это свободное программное обеспечение. Этот браузер - отличный выбор, и с точки зрения приватности жаловаться здесь не на что (хотя я не знаю как управляться с этим пользовательским интерфейсом...). Пока этот браузер выглядит достойным, чтобы стоять в одном ряду с другими браузерами, уважающими конфиденциальность пользователя.
-
-
Этот перевод был создан 9/7/2021
-
Этот перевод в последний раз изменялся 9/7/2021
-
-
If you want to contribute to this website, you can always make a pull request.
-
All contributions must be licensed under the CC0 license to be accepted.
Qutebrowser - веб-браузер, ориентированный на управление с клавиатуры, с минимальным графическим интерфейсом. Он основан на Python, PyQt5 и свободном ПО, лицензированном под GPL. Программа протестирована: v1.6.1 для Debian Buster. Mitmproxy было использовано для проверки соединений.
+
Spyware Level: Not Spyware
+
Qutebrowser никогда не делает нежелательных запросов. Это свободное программное обеспечение. Этот браузер - отличный выбор, и с точки зрения приватности жаловаться здесь не на что (хотя я не знаю как управляться с этим пользовательским интерфейсом...). Пока этот браузер выглядит достойным, чтобы стоять в одном ряду с другими браузерами, уважающими конфиденциальность пользователя.
+
+
Этот перевод был создан 9/7/2021
+
Этот перевод в последний раз изменялся 9/7/2021
+
+
If you want to contribute to this website, you can always make a pull request.
+
All contributions must be licensed under the CC0 license to be accepted.
Razer is a company that makes software and hardware for gamers.
-
-
Spyware level: EXTREMELY HIGH
-
-
Data collection
-
Razer confirms that they collect this data:
-
-
-
E-mail
-
Full name
-
Contact info
-
Info you send when you contact them (texts and such)
-
The time you use their services and products
-
Info you send via polls
-
IP, geolocation, OS and browser version
-
-
-
- Razer also admits[1][2] that they sell users' info. They also claim that the employees can see this data.
- Razer FORCES you to create an account to use YOUR products.
-
-
-
- Where is the option "Sign in later" at? Without an account, you CAN'T configure your keyboard,
- change your mouse DPI and RGB configuration and such, this means that the configurations you set to your (Razer) peripherals are in somebody
- else's PC, and Razer knows who has that (your) info.
-
- This article was translated on 3/10/2019
- This is a translation of the Spanish article. It may become outdated in the future. Check the dates on both articles.
-
-
-
- If you want to edit this article, or contribute your own article(s), visit us at the git repo on Codeberg. All contributions must be licensed under the CC0 license to be accepted.
-
Razer is a company that makes software and hardware for gamers.
+
Spyware level: EXTREMELY HIGH
+
Data collection
+
Razer confirms that they collect this data:
+
+
E-mail
+
Full name
+
Contact info
+
Info you send when you contact them (texts and such)
+
The time you use their services and products
+
Info you send via polls
+
IP, geolocation, OS and browser version
+
+
Razer also admits[1][2] that they sell users' info. They also claim that the employees can see this data. Razer FORCES you to create an account to use YOUR products.
+
+
Where is the option "Sign in later" at? Without an account, you CAN'T configure your keyboard, change your mouse DPI and RGB configuration and such, this means that the configurations you set to your (Razer) peripherals are in somebody else's PC, and Razer knows who has that (your) info.
-Redshell is a spyware platform that is integrated into many video games.
-
-
Spyware Level: EXTREMELY HIGH
-
-Redshell is a spyware platform. Its purpose is to collect huge amounts of information about its user's computers
-to try and connect marketing data (collected through other spyware platforms) to actual results. It fingerprints
-any computers it is attached too and phones home. It also collects information about how a player has been interacting
-with the video game that it is embedded in. It's strongly recommended that any programs that embed this spyware are
-avoided entirely.
-
-
Redshell collects a huge amount of information from its users machines
-
- Redshell has confirmed that it collects the following information[1]:
-
-
-
Operating System
-
Installed Browsers
-
Available Fonts
-
Screen Resolution
-
IP Address
-
Timezone
-
System Language
-
Game-Specific UUID
-
-
- This is obviously a very large amount of information being mined. The purpose of this is to fingerprint the user as well
- as possible, destroying any kind of anonymity. It goes beyond most spyware programs in the information it collects, by
- scanning your computer for installed programs and collecting various demographic information about the user. It's very clear
- that this is a huge amount of personal information to be collecting, despite all of the claims on the official website about how
- innocent this data is.
-
-
Phoning home
-
- Redshell is designed to phone home at its client's (the game developer) whim. Any program using Redshell will phone home with
- personal information in a way peculiar to that program.
-
-
Sharing Information with third parties
-
- Redshell clearly says that it shares any kind of marketing data with third parties[1]:
-
-
- "For example: Studio X wants to run ads through Google AdWords. When a potential customer clicks on an that ad, they are sent through our tracking link and redirected to the destination set by the studio (in the same way a bitly link works) — usually their game's Steam page. AdWords provides us with unique id for that user and if they end up playing the game, we tell AdWords so they know the ad was effective."
-
-
- Of course, the words "integrated partner" are used to describe these third parties. The bottom line is that other people are being
- given this information. There is also an important distinction to make when talking about this: as Redshell's spyware is a product,
- Redshell does not actually have control over what the buyers of that product can do. So, just because Redshell doesn't sell the
- information its spyware collects about it's users to third parties, that doesn't mean that the buyers of the product do not or
- will not sell the information that they collect through Redshell to third parties.
-
- If you want to edit this article, or contribute your own article(s), visit us at the git repo on Codeberg. All contributions must be licensed under the CC0 license to be accepted.
-
Redshell is a spyware platform that is integrated into many video games.
+
Spyware Level: EXTREMELY HIGH
+
Redshell is a spyware platform. Its purpose is to collect huge amounts of information about its user's computers to try and connect marketing data (collected through other spyware platforms) to actual results. It fingerprints any computers it is attached too and phones home. It also collects information about how a player has been interacting with the video game that it is embedded in. It's strongly recommended that any programs that embed this spyware are avoided entirely.
+
Redshell collects a huge amount of information from its users machines
+
Redshell has confirmed that it collects the following information[1]:
+
+
Operating System
+
Installed Browsers
+
Available Fonts
+
Screen Resolution
+
IP Address
+
Timezone
+
System Language
+
Game-Specific UUID
+
+
This is obviously a very large amount of information being mined. The purpose of this is to fingerprint the user as well as possible, destroying any kind of anonymity. It goes beyond most spyware programs in the information it collects, by scanning your computer for installed programs and collecting various demographic information about the user. It's very clear that this is a huge amount of personal information to be collecting, despite all of the claims on the official website about how innocent this data is.
+
Phoning home
+
Redshell is designed to phone home at its client's (the game developer) whim. Any program using Redshell will phone home with personal information in a way peculiar to that program.
+
Sharing Information with third parties
+
Redshell clearly says that it shares any kind of marketing data with third parties[1]:
+
"For example: Studio X wants to run ads through Google AdWords. When a potential customer clicks on an that ad, they are sent through our tracking link and redirected to the destination set by the studio (in the same way a bitly link works) — usually their game's Steam page. AdWords provides us with unique id for that user and if they end up playing the game, we tell AdWords so they know the ad was effective."
+
+
Of course, the words "integrated partner" are used to describe these third parties. The bottom line is that other people are being given this information. There is also an important distinction to make when talking about this: as Redshell's spyware is a product, Redshell does not actually have control over what the buyers of that product can do. So, just because Redshell doesn't sell the information its spyware collects about it's users to third parties, that doesn't mean that the buyers of the product do not or will not sell the information that they collect through Redshell to third parties.
SeaMonkey is a web browser, email client, news reader, HTML editor and an IRC client.[2]
-
Spyware Level: Medium
-
SeaMonkey makes about 35 requests on first start, with a connection to Google SafeBrowsing recurring about every 30 minutes, though it can be disabled.
SeaMonkey is a web browser, email client, news reader, HTML editor and an IRC client.[2]
+
Spyware Level: Medium
+
SeaMonkey makes about 35 requests on first start, with a connection to Google SafeBrowsing recurring about every 30 minutes, though it can be disabled.
+ Slimjet is a clone of the SlimBrowser web browser from FlashPeak that uses the Chromium as a base.
+
+
Spyware Level: EXTREMELY HIGH
+
Slimjet's website claims that it is very committed to user privacy, and that it blocks Google tracking, unlike Google Chrome[1]. However, this claim is not true. Slimjet is constantly sending information to google and connecting to google
services. Slimjet claims to be concerned about privacy but ultimately retains just about all of the spyware features found in Google Chrome, as well as additional spyware added on by FlashPoint. In this way, Slimjet manages to implement all of the spyware that is found in browsers like Google Chrome, except instead of one company having this information, it's split up among several companies...
@@ -74,18 +71,18 @@
Obviously you can tell that any kind of service to sync your search history "in the cloud" is a privacy nightmare. Now both Google and Slimjet have access to your search history...
-
-
-
+
+
+
+ This article was last edited on 8/4/2018
+
+
If you want to edit this article, or contribute your own article(s), visit us at the git repo on Codeberg.
+
All contributions must be licensed under the CC0 license to be accepted.
Slimjet jest klonem przeglądarki internetowej SlimBrowser od FlashPeak która wykorzystuje kod źródłowy Chromium.
-
-
Poziom Oprogramowania Szpiegowskiego: Ekstermalnie Wysoki
-
+
+
Poziom Oprogramowania Szpiegowskiego: Ekstermalnie Wysoki
+
Na swojej stronie internetowej Slimjet twierdzi że jest bardzo zaangażowana w dbanie o prywatność użytkownika i blokuje śledzenie Google, w przeciwieństwie do Google Chrome[1]. Jednak, to twierdzenie jest nieprawdziwe. Slimjet stale wysyła informacje do Google i łączy się z ich
usługami. Slimjet twierdzi że obawia się o prywatność ale ostatecznie zachowuje prawie wszystkie funkcje szpiegowskie znalezione w Google Chrome, jak również dodatkowe śledzenie dodane przez FlashPoint. W ten sposób, Slimjet udaje się zaimplementować całe oprogramowanie szpiegowskie które można znaleźć w przeglądarkach takich jak Google Chrome, z wyjątkiem tego że zamiast do jednej firmy która posiada te informacje, jest ono podzielone na kilka firm...
@@ -75,18 +72,18 @@
Oczywiście można powiedzieć że każdy rodzaj usługi synchronizującej historię wyszukiwania "w chmurze" to koszmar prywatności. Teraz zarówno Google jak i Slimjet mają dostęp do twojej historii przeglądania...
-
-
-
+
+
+
+ This article was last edited on 8/4/2018
+
+
If you want to edit this article, or contribute your own article(s), visit us at the git repo on Codeberg.
+
All contributions must be licensed under the CC0 license to be accepted.
-Steam is a video game launching service, digital content store, DRM platform, file sharing platform, and Social Network created by Valve.
-
-
Spyware Level: EXTREMELY HIGH
-
-This program is spyware because it collects huge amounts of user information, including but not limited to your Home Address, Telephone Number, Credit Card Number, and Internet Search History. Steam also profiles your hardware, communications through Steam's social networking features, and contains a mandatory self-updater. Steam will not work without an internet connection.
-
-
Steam's source code is unavailable
-
-Steam cannot be built from an available copy of the source code. This means that it is impossible to prove that Steam is not spyware or does not use certain spyware features that it potentially has.
-
-
Steam collects and shares huge amounts of sensitive user information
-
-In Steam's privacy policy[1], Steam details that it collects the following user information:
-
-
-
Name
-
Address
-
Credit Card Number(s)
-
e-mail
-
Age
-
IP Address
-
Device Unique ID
-
Chat logs
-
Forum posts
-
Voice Chat Recordings
-
Hardware Enumeration
-
-
-Steam also confirms that it shares this information with third parties. The implications of this are as follows: Steam knows your name, age, where you live, your banking information, and what your e-mail is. Steam shares this information with other companies (at least, to the extent allowed by law). Steam can use your IP Address to track where you are to the nearest county and can use your Device Unique ID provided by the fingerprinting spyware features inside Steam to track your usage habits across devices that you use. Steam also records all of your communications with others through its social networking and instant messaging services, such as all chat logs, voice conversations, and forum posts, and can share all of this information with third parties as well.
-
-
Steam has been and may still be recording your internet history
-
-It was proven that Steam's VAC system records your internet history and uploads it to an official Valve server[2]. Valve has subsequently denied[3] that they store user's internet history, but it is impossible for Valve to prove that they do not store internet history. What we do know is that Valve does have the ability to spy on a user's internet history, the spyware feature is programmed into Valve's software and the internet history is processed by Valve's servers. It is up to you to decide whether or not you trust Valve when they say that they have turned this feature off or not.
-
-
Steam records and publicly broadcasts your program usage habits
-
-Steam records your program usage habits for all programs launched through Steam's program launching service. This spyware feature is mandatory and has no opt-out. Steam also uses its social network features such as the user profile and friends list to broadcast a users program usage habits publicly. This spyware feature can be partially disabled by setting your profile to private, but it cannot be opted-out of if you are using the "friends" social networking feature.
-
-
Steam attempts to collect your telephone number
-
-Steam has the spyware feature which allows you to "opt-in" to certain features of the Steam service by providing Steam your telephone number. This is done through a pop-up that cannot be turned off. This spyware feature is currently not required, but is being encouraged by Steam. Steam in fact will lock out certain features and privileges to users who want to protect their privacy- for example, access to the "steam store" which is an online marketplace run by valve requires you to give you your phone number. So it is impossible to use all features of the software without giving up this kind of information.
-
-
Steam "phones home" and requires and internet connection
-
-Steam will "phone home" whenever the Steam client is opened or a program is launched through Steam. This spyware feature is mandatory and cannot be turned off. Steam provides an offline mode which is not an opt-out because users must still connect to Steam Servers every 30 days or so.
-
-
Steam is self-updating software
-
-Steam contains spyware features that allow it to update itself without user verification. This is not an opt-out feature because eventually Steam will stop working until it is updated. Self-updating software is a form of spyware because it can be used to install new spyware features or force users to agree to new agreements that force them to explicitly give up more information to continue using the spyware program.
-
- If you want to edit this article, or contribute your own article(s), visit us at the git repo on Codeberg. All contributions must be licensed under the CC0 license to be accepted.
-
Steam is a video game launching service, digital content store, DRM platform, file sharing platform, and Social Network created by Valve.
+
Spyware Level: EXTREMELY HIGH
+
This program is spyware because it collects huge amounts of user information, including but not limited to your Home Address, Telephone Number, Credit Card Number, and Internet Search History. Steam also profiles your hardware, communications through Steam's social networking features, and contains a mandatory self-updater. Steam will not work without an internet connection.
+
Steam's source code is unavailable
+
Steam cannot be built from an available copy of the source code. This means that it is impossible to prove that Steam is not spyware or does not use certain spyware features that it potentially has.
+
Steam collects and shares huge amounts of sensitive user information
+
In Steam's privacy policy[1], Steam details that it collects the following user information:
+
+
Name
+
Address
+
Credit Card Number(s)
+
e-mail
+
Age
+
IP Address
+
Device Unique ID
+
Chat logs
+
Forum posts
+
Voice Chat Recordings
+
Hardware Enumeration
+
+
Steam also confirms that it shares this information with third parties. The implications of this are as follows: Steam knows your name, age, where you live, your banking information, and what your e-mail is. Steam shares this information with other companies (at least, to the extent allowed by law). Steam can use your IP Address to track where you are to the nearest county and can use your Device Unique ID provided by the fingerprinting spyware features inside Steam to track your usage habits across devices that you use. Steam also records all of your communications with others through its social networking and instant messaging services, such as all chat logs, voice conversations, and forum posts, and can share all of this information with third parties as well.
+
Steam has been and may still be recording your internet history
+
It was proven that Steam's VAC system records your internet history and uploads it to an official Valve server[2]. Valve has subsequently denied[3] that they store user's internet history, but it is impossible for Valve to prove that they do not store internet history. What we do know is that Valve does have the ability to spy on a user's internet history, the spyware feature is programmed into Valve's software and the internet history is processed by Valve's servers. It is up to you to decide whether or not you trust Valve when they say that they have turned this feature off or not.
+
Steam records and publicly broadcasts your program usage habits
+
Steam records your program usage habits for all programs launched through Steam's program launching service. This spyware feature is mandatory and has no opt-out. Steam also uses its social network features such as the user profile and friends list to broadcast a users program usage habits publicly. This spyware feature can be partially disabled by setting your profile to private, but it cannot be opted-out of if you are using the "friends" social networking feature.
+
Steam attempts to collect your telephone number
+
Steam has the spyware feature which allows you to "opt-in" to certain features of the Steam service by providing Steam your telephone number. This is done through a pop-up that cannot be turned off. This spyware feature is currently not required, but is being encouraged by Steam. Steam in fact will lock out certain features and privileges to users who want to protect their privacy- for example, access to the "steam store" which is an online marketplace run by valve requires you to give you your phone number. So it is impossible to use all features of the software without giving up this kind of information.
+
Steam "phones home" and requires and internet connection
+
Steam will "phone home" whenever the Steam client is opened or a program is launched through Steam. This spyware feature is mandatory and cannot be turned off. Steam provides an offline mode which is not an opt-out because users must still connect to Steam Servers every 30 days or so.
+
Steam is self-updating software
+
Steam contains spyware features that allow it to update itself without user verification. This is not an opt-out feature because eventually Steam will stop working until it is updated. Self-updating software is a form of spyware because it can be used to install new spyware features or force users to agree to new agreements that force them to explicitly give up more information to continue using the spyware program.
- From their website: "surf is a simple web browser based on WebKit2/GTK+. It is able to display websites and follow links."[1] Program tested: v2.0 for Linux. Mitmproxy was used to check for connections.
-
-
Spyware Level: Not Spyware
-
- Surf makes no unsolicited requests at all.
- It is also fully libre software under the expat license. It was tested in conjunction with tabbed, another piece of software developed by the same people for use with surf, it adds support for tabs. From a privacy standpoint, this browser is an excellent choice.
-
-
Surf requires proxychains to connect to Tor, as it only supports HTTP proxies, not SOCKS (which is what Tor uses).
From their website: "surf is a simple web browser based on WebKit2/GTK+. It is able to display websites and follow links."[1] Program tested: v2.0 for Linux. Mitmproxy was used to check for connections.
+
Spyware Level: Not Spyware
+
Surf makes no unsolicited requests at all. It is also fully libre software under the expat license. It was tested in conjunction with tabbed, another piece of software developed by the same people for use with surf, it adds support for tabs. From a privacy standpoint, this browser is an excellent choice.
+
Surf requires proxychains to connect to Tor, as it only supports HTTP proxies, not SOCKS (which is what Tor uses).
- D'apres le site de Suckless: "surf est un navigateur simple basé sur WebKit2/GTK+. Il peut afficher des sites web et suivre des liens."[1] Testé: version 2.0 pour Linux. Mitmproxy a été utilisé pour vérifier les connections.
-
-
Niveau: Pas un Spyware
-
- Surf ne fait aucune requete non-solicitée.
- C'est aussi un logiciel libre sous la license Expat. Il a été testé en meme temps que tabbed, un logiciel développé pour les utilisateurs de surf qui ajoute le support pour des onglets0. D'un point de vue vie privée, Surf est un navigateur parfait.
-
-
Surf a besoin de Proxychains pour se connecter a Tor car il ne supporte que les proxys HTTP (au lieu de SOCKS pour Tor).
+ D'apres le site de Suckless: "surf est un navigateur simple basé sur WebKit2/GTK+. Il peut afficher des sites web et suivre des liens."[1] Testé: version 2.0 pour Linux. Mitmproxy a été utilisé pour vérifier les connections.
+
+
Niveau: Pas un Spyware
+
+ Surf ne fait aucune requete non-solicitée.
+ C'est aussi un logiciel libre sous la license Expat. Il a été testé en meme temps que tabbed, un logiciel développé pour les utilisateurs de surf qui ajoute le support pour des onglets0. D'un point de vue vie privée, Surf est un navigateur parfait.
+
+
Surf a besoin de Proxychains pour se connecter a Tor car il ne supporte que les proxys HTTP (au lieu de SOCKS pour Tor).
- Z ich strony internetowej: "surf" to prosta przeglądarka internetowa oparta na WebKit2/GTK+. Jest ona w stanie wyświetlać strony internetowe i podążać za linkami."[1] Program przetestowany: v2.0 dla Linuksa. Do sprawdzania połączeń użyto Mitmproxy.
-
-
Poziom Oprogramowania Szpiegowskiego: Brak Oprogramowania Szpiegowskiego
-
- Surf nie wysyła żadnych niepożądanych żądań.
- Jest to również w pełni wolne oprogramowanie na licencji expat. Zostało ono przetestowane w połączeniu z tabbed, kolejnym oprogramowaniem stworzonym przez tych samych ludzi do użytku z surf, dodaje wsparcie dla kart. Z punktu widzenia prywatności, ta przeglądarka jest doskonałym wyborem.
-
-
Surf wymaga serwerów proxychains, aby połączyć się z Tor, ponieważ obsługuje on tylko proxy HTTP, a nie SOCKS (czyli to, czego używa Tor).
+ Z ich strony internetowej: "surf" to prosta przeglądarka internetowa oparta na WebKit2/GTK+. Jest ona w stanie wyświetlać strony internetowe i podążać za linkami."[1] Program przetestowany: v2.0 dla Linuksa. Do sprawdzania połączeń użyto Mitmproxy.
+
+
Poziom Oprogramowania Szpiegowskiego: Brak Oprogramowania Szpiegowskiego
+
+ Surf nie wysyła żadnych niepożądanych żądań.
+ Jest to również w pełni wolne oprogramowanie na licencji expat. Zostało ono przetestowane w połączeniu z tabbed, kolejnym oprogramowaniem stworzonym przez tych samych ludzi do użytku z surf, dodaje wsparcie dla kart. Z punktu widzenia prywatności, ta przeglądarka jest doskonałym wyborem.
+
+
Surf wymaga serwerów proxychains, aby połączyć się z Tor, ponieważ obsługuje on tylko proxy HTTP, a nie SOCKS (czyli to, czego używa Tor).
- По их сайту: "surf - простой веб-браузер, основанный на WebKit2/GTK+. Он может показывать веб-сайты и переходить по ссылкам."[1] Программа протестирована: v2.0 для Linux. Mitmproxy было использовано для проверки соединений.
-
-
Уровень слежки: Нет
-
- Surf никогда не делает нежелательных запросов.
- Это полностью свободное программное обеспечение, лицензированное под MIT. Он был протестирован вместе с tabbed - другая программа, разрабатываемая теми же людьми для использования с surf, она добавляет поддержку вкладок. С точки зрения приватности, этот браузер - отличный выбор.
-
-
Surf требует proxychains для соединения с Tor, так как он поддерживает только HTPP прокси, не SOCKS (которое использует TOR).
+ По их сайту: "surf - простой веб-браузер, основанный на WebKit2/GTK+. Он может показывать веб-сайты и переходить по ссылкам."[1] Программа протестирована: v2.0 для Linux. Mitmproxy было использовано для проверки соединений.
+
+
Уровень слежки: Нет
+
+ Surf никогда не делает нежелательных запросов.
+ Это полностью свободное программное обеспечение, лицензированное под MIT. Он был протестирован вместе с tabbed - другая программа, разрабатываемая теми же людьми для использования с surf, она добавляет поддержку вкладок. С точки зрения приватности, этот браузер - отличный выбор.
+
+
Surf требует proxychains для соединения с Tor, так как он поддерживает только HTPP прокси, не SOCKS (которое использует TOR).
Tor is free software and an open network that helps you defend against traffic analysis, a form of network surveillance that threatens personal freedom and privacy, confidential business activities and relationships, and state security.[1] This article is about the desktop Tor Browser Bundle, which is based on Firefox. Tor itself can be used with any browser.
-
Spyware Level: Low
-
The Tor browser is a privacy focused web browser that is used to access the internet through the Tor Network. Connections through the Tor network are much more private than normal connections as you do not have an IP address that is associated with you. While spyware services can tell that you are connecting from the Tor network, their ability to identify and profile you is greatly reduced.
-
-
Tor Browser has automatic updates, and sends telemetry, albeit over Tor.
-
-
If you go to about:networking, you will see several addresses that are affiliated with Mozilla, even before Tor is connected. You can mitigate the spyware, but note that there is a chance that it will be overwritten by future updates.
Tor is free software and an open network that helps you defend against traffic analysis, a form of network surveillance that threatens personal freedom and privacy, confidential business activities and relationships, and state security.[1] This article is about the desktop Tor Browser Bundle, which is based on Firefox. Tor itself can be used with any browser.
+
Spyware Level: Low
+
The Tor browser is a privacy focused web browser that is used to access the internet through the Tor Network. Connections through the Tor network are much more private than normal connections as you do not have an IP address that is associated with you. While spyware services can tell that you are connecting from the Tor network, their ability to identify and profile you is greatly reduced.
+
+
Tor Browser has automatic updates, and sends telemetry, albeit over Tor.
+
+
If you go to about:networking, you will see several addresses that are affiliated with Mozilla, even before Tor is connected. You can mitigate the spyware, but note that there is a chance that it will be overwritten by future updates.
Telegram is an instant messaging program that allows you to send text, images, videos and also any other files to other Telegram users.
-
Spyware Level: Not Rated
-
Telegram has some privacy problems such as the telephone number verification, and routing communications through official Telegram servers in most cases. However, Telegram contains privacy features and claims to not collect any user information[1].
-
Telephone Number Required
-
Telegram features the more modern spyware feature that requires the user to associate their persistent user identity with a telephone number. This is obviously a breach of privacy, because Telegram requires the user to disclose this personal information.
-
Centralized communication routing
-
Telegram does not use peer-to-peer or private servers for the majority of its communications. This means that Telegram is capable of logging all of the communications you send through its service, unless you opt to only use the Peer-to-Peer features of Telegram. Centralized communication routing has a high potential to be spyware. Telegram attempts to use Peer-to-Peer communication for Voice Calls, but it may disclose IP address to the counterpart. Telegram claims in its privacy policy.[1] that it does not collect any information, but it is impossible to prove this.
-
Telegram's server software is closed source and Telegram does not distribute its server software. There is no way for other people to host their own Telegram services because of this, meaning that the servers that the developers operate are the only choice for using this messaging platform.
-
Telegram does not follow its GPLv2 Obligations
-
Telegram clients are advertised as free software, but in practice the source code is not immediately accessible.[2], the delay sometimes being up to 5 months. So, unknown spyware features could be in the official Telegram client binaries that you download, without you knowing. It's recommended that you build an outdated version of telegram from its source code, since it's not provable whether or not the binaries that are distributed have unknown spyware or not.
Telegram is an instant messaging program that allows you to send text, images, videos and also any other files to other Telegram users.
+
Spyware Level: Not Rated
+
Telegram has some privacy problems such as the telephone number verification, and routing communications through official Telegram servers in most cases. However, Telegram contains privacy features and claims to not collect any user information[1].
+
Telephone Number Required
+
Telegram features the more modern spyware feature that requires the user to associate their persistent user identity with a telephone number. This is obviously a breach of privacy, because Telegram requires the user to disclose this personal information.
+
Centralized communication routing
+
Telegram does not use peer-to-peer or private servers for the majority of its communications. This means that Telegram is capable of logging all of the communications you send through its service, unless you opt to only use the Peer-to-Peer features of Telegram. Centralized communication routing has a high potential to be spyware. Telegram attempts to use Peer-to-Peer communication for Voice Calls, but it may disclose IP address to the counterpart. Telegram claims in its privacy policy.[1] that it does not collect any information, but it is impossible to prove this.
+
Telegram's server software is closed source and Telegram does not distribute its server software. There is no way for other people to host their own Telegram services because of this, meaning that the servers that the developers operate are the only choice for using this messaging platform.
+
Telegram does not follow its GPLv2 Obligations
+
Telegram clients are advertised as free software, but in practice the source code is not immediately accessible.[2], the delay sometimes being up to 5 months. So, unknown spyware features could be in the official Telegram client binaries that you download, without you knowing. It's recommended that you build an outdated version of telegram from its source code, since it's not provable whether or not the binaries that are distributed have unknown spyware or not.
-Ungoogled-chromium is Google Chromium, sans integration with Google. It also features some tweaks to enhance privacy,
-control, and transparency (almost all of which require manual activation or enabling).[1]
-
-
Spyware Level: Not Spyware
-
-Ungoogled-chromium is a fork of Chrome that has all of Google's spyware removed. It was tested with MITMproxy and makes
-no unsolicited requests, and is therefore not spyware. Ungoogled-chromium is the highest-rated
-browser based on Google Chrome, and is probably one of the best choices if you can compile it.
-Otherwise, configuring Iridium to a sufficient privacy standard might be a good choice if you are
-looking for a Chrome-based browser to switch too without taking the time to compile any software.
-
- If you want to edit this article, or contribute your own article(s), visit us at the git repo on Codeberg. All contributions must be licensed under the CC0 license to be accepted.
-
Ungoogled-chromium is Google Chromium, sans integration with Google. It also features some tweaks to enhance privacy, control, and transparency (almost all of which require manual activation or enabling).[1]
+
Spyware Level: Not Spyware
+
Ungoogled-chromium is a fork of Chrome that has all of Google's spyware removed. It was tested with MITMproxy and makes no unsolicited requests, and is therefore not spyware. Ungoogled-chromium is the highest-rated browser based on Google Chrome, and is probably one of the best choices if you can compile it. Otherwise, configuring Iridium to a sufficient privacy standard might be a good choice if you are looking for a Chrome-based browser to switch too without taking the time to compile any software.
- Vivaldi is a feature-full, customizable web browser made by some of Opera's old developers (since they were dissatisfied with the direction Opera was heading). But how does it look in terms of privacy? Versions 1.15 and 2.0 were tested to make this article. Program used for testing requests: Mitmproxy.
-
-
Spyware Level: Medium
-
- Vivaldi makes a bunch of requests to Google upon startup and after (malware protection requests can be turned off, but extension updates don't appear to?). Phones home every 24 hours with a unique ID using Piwik, an analytics service. Anti-privacy Bing as the default search engine. Not fully open source. Connects to an analytics platform that spies on its users.
-
-
Vivaldi's developers do not respect your privacy
-
-Vivaldi connects to the analytics platform Piwik[1] that it uses to spy on its users, which is discussed in greater detail in other sections of this page.
-What is most notable about this is the attitude of Vivaldi's developer team: Developers that belittle privacy concerns, and insult their users further when they speak out about being spied on,
-are not developers you can trust. Below is an anti-privacy rant from a moderator on Vivaldi's forums:
-
-
-@dib_ Stop spreading FUD. Piwik as employed by Vivaldi is not "spyware." Piwik is not a "spyware company" (unless Google, Facebook, Yahoo, TVGuide, Microsoft, Apple, NYT, Huffpo, Ancestry.com, WaPo, CenturyLink and McAfee are "spyware companies" — in which case just disconnect your computer and go to bed). It is irresponsible and malicious of you to lie about Vivaldi in this fashion. If you want to know what a connection does, ask. But don't sling around reckless accusations.[2]
-
-
Addon updates
-
-
-
- These are the Chrome webstore requests, supposed to update your extensions. But with a new Vivaldi install, you don't have any, so they only accomplish spying. And the first request includes "x-googleupdate-appid" which is most likely uniquely identifying. Can't be disabled.
-
-
Google Safe Browsing
-
-
-
- Vivaldi is downloading the lists for Google's Malware and Phishing protection, which is enabled by default, but can be disabled from the Settings menu.
-
-
-
Phoning home
-
- From Vivaldi's privacy policy: "When you install Vivaldi browser ('Vivaldi'), each installation profile is assigned a unique user ID that is stored on your computer. Vivaldi will send a message using HTTPS directly to our servers located in Iceland every 24 hours containing this ID, version, CPU architecture, screen resolution and time since last message. We anonymize the IP address of Vivaldi users by removing the last octet of the IP address from your Vivaldi client then we store the resolved approximate location after using a local geoip lookup. The purpose of this collection is to determine the total number of active users and their geographical distribution.". So they (claim to) delete "the last octet" of your IP. How generous of them. This is the full request:
-
-
-
Anti-privacy search engine by default
-
The default search engine is Bing, whose privacy policy states: "Microsoft will collect the search or command terms you provide, along with your IP address, location, the unique identifiers contained in our cookies, the time and date of your search, and your browser configuration.". To make it worse, that data is shared with third parties: "We share some de-identified search query data, including voice queries, with selected third parties for research and development purposes." (you have no proof it has been "de-identified", by the way). Vivaldi has other engines preinstalled, and you can easily change it, but still, the default is all we can judge it by.
-
-
-
New tab sites
-
By default, Vivaldi contains some websites in its new tab page that have a lot of spyware in them, but does not automatically make any connection, and those sites can easily be deleted.
-
-
Cannot be built from source code
-
-"However, it is only our Chromium work that is found on https://vivaldi.com/source. If you were to build it and run it, nothing will display as the HTML/CSS/JS UI is missing. This UI is only available as part of our end user packages, which is covered by the EULA (in which we also bundle with a compiled version of our modified Chromium)."[3]
-
- If you want to edit this article, or contribute your own article(s), visit us at the git repo on Codeberg. All contributions must be licensed under the CC0 license to be accepted.
-
Vivaldi is a feature-full, customizable web browser made by some of Opera's old developers (since they were dissatisfied with the direction Opera was heading). But how does it look in terms of privacy? Versions 1.15 and 2.0 were tested to make this article. Program used for testing requests: Mitmproxy.
+
Spyware Level: Medium
+
Vivaldi makes a bunch of requests to Google upon startup and after (malware protection requests can be turned off, but extension updates don't appear to?). Phones home every 24 hours with a unique ID using Piwik, an analytics service. Anti-privacy Bing as the default search engine. Not fully open source. Connects to an analytics platform that spies on its users.
+
Vivaldi's developers do not respect your privacy
+
Vivaldi connects to the analytics platform Piwik[1] that it uses to spy on its users, which is discussed in greater detail in other sections of this page. What is most notable about this is the attitude of Vivaldi's developer team: Developers that belittle privacy concerns, and insult their users further when they speak out about being spied on, are not developers you can trust. Below is an anti-privacy rant from a moderator on Vivaldi's forums:
+
@dib_ Stop spreading FUD. Piwik as employed by Vivaldi is not "spyware." Piwik is not a "spyware company" (unless Google, Facebook, Yahoo, TVGuide, Microsoft, Apple, NYT, Huffpo, Ancestry.com, WaPo, CenturyLink and McAfee are "spyware companies" — in which case just disconnect your computer and go to bed). It is irresponsible and malicious of you to lie about Vivaldi in this fashion. If you want to know what a connection does, ask. But don't sling around reckless accusations.[2]
+
Addon updates
+
+
These are the Chrome webstore requests, supposed to update your extensions. But with a new Vivaldi install, you don't have any, so they only accomplish spying. And the first request includes "x-googleupdate-appid" which is most likely uniquely identifying. Can't be disabled.
+
Google Safe Browsing
+
+
+
Vivaldi is downloading the lists for Google's Malware and Phishing protection, which is enabled by default, but can be disabled from the Settings menu.
+
Phoning home
+
From Vivaldi's privacy policy: "When you install Vivaldi browser ('Vivaldi'), each installation profile is assigned a unique user ID that is stored on your computer. Vivaldi will send a message using HTTPS directly to our servers located in Iceland every 24 hours containing this ID, version, CPU architecture, screen resolution and time since last message. We anonymize the IP address of Vivaldi users by removing the last octet of the IP address from your Vivaldi client then we store the resolved approximate location after using a local geoip lookup. The purpose of this collection is to determine the total number of active users and their geographical distribution.". So they (claim to) delete "the last octet" of your IP. How generous of them. This is the full request:
+
+
Anti-privacy search engine by default
+
The default search engine is Bing, whose privacy policy states: "Microsoft will collect the search or command terms you provide, along with your IP address, location, the unique identifiers contained in our cookies, the time and date of your search, and your browser configuration.". To make it worse, that data is shared with third parties: "We share some de-identified search query data, including voice queries, with selected third parties for research and development purposes." (you have no proof it has been "de-identified", by the way). Vivaldi has other engines preinstalled, and you can easily change it, but still, the default is all we can judge it by.
+
New tab sites
+
By default, Vivaldi contains some websites in its new tab page that have a lot of spyware in them, but does not automatically make any connection, and those sites can easily be deleted.
+
Cannot be built from source code
+
"However, it is only our Chromium work that is found on https://vivaldi.com/source. If you were to build it and run it, nothing will display as the HTML/CSS/JS UI is missing. This UI is only available as part of our end user packages, which is covered by the EULA (in which we also bundle with a compiled version of our modified Chromium)."[3]
-VLC is a free and open source cross-platform multimedia player and framework that plays most multimedia files as well as DVDs, Audio CDs, VCDs, and various streaming protocols.
-
-
Spyware Level: Not Spyware
-
-VLC Media Player is not spyware, but it does have notable features in it that could be possible forms of spyware. However, all of these features are opt-in, and the software explicitly informs the user about the risks associated with these features. VLC is a model program that has convenience features in it that could compromise privacy, while still respecting user privacy.
-
-
VLC Media Player has been distributed with spyware programs by third parties
-
-While VLC's creators do not distribute their player with spyware, it has been distributed with spyware[1] by other parties. If you download VLC Media Player, make sure you download it from VideoLAN's website.
-
-
VLC Media Player contains some opt-in spyware features
-
-VLC Media player searches through online databases to find complete album covers / metadata for songs. This implicitly means that it sends requests to external servers, and those servers could log information about specific users' music libraries. VLC Media player also has a self-updater, however this does not update without the user's consent, and while there is no precedent for the developers to add spyware in its updates, it's still notable. This is the notice that users are presented with when first installing VLC, which adequately explains the implications of these features. The only improvement would be to not have them checked off by default.
-
- If you want to edit this article, or contribute your own article(s), visit us at the git repo on Codeberg. All contributions must be licensed under the CC0 license to be accepted.
-
VLC is a free and open source cross-platform multimedia player and framework that plays most multimedia files as well as DVDs, Audio CDs, VCDs, and various streaming protocols.
+
Spyware Level: Not Spyware
+
VLC Media Player is not spyware, but it does have notable features in it that could be possible forms of spyware. However, all of these features are opt-in, and the software explicitly informs the user about the risks associated with these features. VLC is a model program that has convenience features in it that could compromise privacy, while still respecting user privacy.
+
VLC Media Player has been distributed with spyware programs by third parties
+
While VLC's creators do not distribute their player with spyware, it has been distributed with spyware[1] by other parties. If you download VLC Media Player, make sure you download it from VideoLAN's website.
+
VLC Media Player contains some opt-in spyware features
+
VLC Media player searches through online databases to find complete album covers / metadata for songs. This implicitly means that it sends requests to external servers, and those servers could log information about specific users' music libraries. VLC Media player also has a self-updater, however this does not update without the user's consent, and while there is no precedent for the developers to add spyware in its updates, it's still notable. This is the notice that users are presented with when first installing VLC, which adequately explains the implications of these features. The only improvement would be to not have them checked off by default.
- 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: Medium
-
- Waterfox is a fork of Firefox that claims to be more private and secure
- than Firefox. However, Waterfox contains telemetry and shares
- information about you with Mozilla, and has other spyware features.
-
-
Waterfox connects to spyware services when it is first run
-
- If you start up Waterfox for the first time, it will make 55 requests[4] to several spyware platforms, notably
- Matomo, and Mozilla online services like its Geolocation service, and several other Mozilla services, as
- well as Waterfox's own update service. You can look at a list of these requests
- here.
-
-
Waterfox is integrated into the "Firefox Accounts" spyware platform
-
- The "Firefox Accounts" platform allows you to sync a lot of sensitive
- information, such as your internet history, across all of your devices.
- This is, of course, all being stored on Mozilla's servers.[3]
- This feature
- is opt-in spyware, but it should still be mentioned.
- If you don't want your internet history to be uploaded to Mozilla servers,
- don't use this feature.
-
-
Waterfox is self updating software
-
- Self updates are a spyware feature since they are usually ways for the developer of a program to put spyware into their software without presenting it in a prominent way
- 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.
-
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: Medium
+
Waterfox is a fork of Firefox that claims to be more private and secure than Firefox. However, Waterfox contains telemetry and shares information about you with Mozilla, and has other spyware features.
+
Waterfox connects to spyware services when it is first run
+
If you start up Waterfox for the first time, it will make 55 requests[4] to several spyware platforms, notably Matomo, and Mozilla online services like its Geolocation service, and several other Mozilla services, as well as Waterfox's own update service. You can look at a list of these requests here.
+
Waterfox is integrated into the "Firefox Accounts" spyware platform
+
The "Firefox Accounts" platform allows you to sync a lot of sensitive information, such as your internet history, across all of your devices. This is, of course, all being stored on Mozilla's servers.[3] This feature is opt-in spyware, but it should still be mentioned. If you don't want your internet history to be uploaded to Mozilla servers, don't use this feature.
+
Waterfox is self updating software
+
Self updates are a spyware feature since they are usually ways for the developer of a program to put spyware into their software without presenting it in a prominent way 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.
Web Browser is a browser originally based on Pale Moon.
-
Spyware Level: Not Spyware
-
Web Browser makes no unsolicited requests at all. It is also fully open source.[1] Due to it being based on Pale Moon, it has access to all of the XUL plugins available.
Web Browser is a browser originally based on Pale Moon.
+
Spyware Level: Not Spyware
+
Web Browser makes no unsolicited requests at all. It is also fully open source.[1] Due to it being based on Pale Moon, it has access to all of the XUL plugins available.
WebDiscover is a web browser made by WebDiscover Media.
-
Spyware Level: EXTREMELY HIGH
-
WebDiscover uses the spyware search engine Yahoo as it's default search engine, but on its website it says it uses the spyware search engine Bing as it's default search engine. It is hard to review since every time I run it, it messes up MITMproxy so I can't see what it's doing. The privacy policy explains that it collects a large amount of personal information from its users, so it is at least not a secret that this browser is spyware. This program acts in a very suspicious way and the privacy policy contains a lot of language in it about the use of the information it collects that elevates it to a uniquely bad stance on user privacy and use of user information, so I would recommend staying far away from it.
-
WebDiscover installs itself onto users computers through installer bundling
-
WebDiscover is mostly installed through other programs as an opt-out. This means that most users did not want to install this browser, and were tricked into doing it by other software's installer programs. For example[2]: [1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10]
-
WebDiscover collects a large amount of information about its users
-
According to its privacy policy[1], WebDiscover collects the following information about its users as its browser is downloaded and used:
-
-
Web Browser type
-
Operating System type and version
-
Domain Name
-
Browser version
-
Browser usage and statistics
-
-
Some of this information is typical of the kind of info that is collected by developers who write programs that phone home using the HTTP protocol. However, WebDiscover also collects the following information about its users which is more concerning:
-
"We may collect Personal Data and Anonymous Data when you download the Browser. We may also collect Personal Data when you send us information or communications directly. “Personal Data” means data that allows someone to identify or contact you including, without limitation, your name, physical address, electronic mail (email) address, phone number, and credit card information (collectively, your “Personal Data”) for the purposes of recording the transaction when you engage in activities on the Site or through use of the Browser."[1]
-
So, WebDiscover will profile your computer, and WebDiscover Media will use every opportunity they get to collect information about you.
-
WebDiscover sells information about its users
-
In this quote from the privacy policy:
-
"We may share Anonymous Data with selected third parties and business partners..."
-
Confirming that the information that WebDiscover collects about you will be sold to advertisers.
-
WebDiscover uses your personal information in a malicious way
-
WebDiscover sells your information to advertising companies that will send you junk mail separately from WebDiscover's discretion- it also DOES NOT comply with requests to stop contact, and requires you to separately request each company that it has sold your information to, to stop contacting you. I didn't check if they would comply with those requests or not. The following quotes from the privacy policy should explain this:
-
"To opt-out of having future third-party marketing communications sent to you, you will be required to unsubscribe with the applicable third party providers. Despite your request to no longer receive future newsletters or promotional and marketing communications from us, we reserve the right to continue to send you notices of any updates to the Browser, our Software End User License Agreement, and our Privacy Policy."[1]
-
WebDiscover also claims that anyone who acts in a way that "damages the reputation" of their company will have all of the personal information that WebDiscover has collected about them disclosed to any party at their discretion.
-
"If we determine, in our sole discretion, that you have engaged in conduct which might be considered, unlawful, fraudulent, or which might harm or damage the reputation or standing of WebDiscover Media with either the general public or with a business partner or potential business partner of WebDiscover Media, we reserve the right to release your Personal Information to such persons or third parties as we consider necessary in order to prevent you from causing injury to, or otherwise injuring or interfering, now or in the future, with WebDiscover Media' rights, property or operations or otherwise the rights, property or operations of anyone else who could be harmed by such conduct."[1]
-
Which is basically threatening their users that they will use the information they collect to dox anyone who says bad things about their software. This is possibly the most anti-user statement that I have read in a privacy policy.
-
Phoning Home
-
When WebDiscover is started, it will begin making requests to ec2-54-191-159-75.us-west-2.compute.amazonaws.com
-
This is presumably how it collects a lot of the personal information about its users. This was discovered using Microsoft Network Monitor 3.4.
WebDiscover is a web browser made by WebDiscover Media.
+
Spyware Level: EXTREMELY HIGH
+
WebDiscover uses the spyware search engine Yahoo as it's default search engine, but on its website it says it uses the spyware search engine Bing as it's default search engine. It is hard to review since every time I run it, it messes up MITMproxy so I can't see what it's doing. The privacy policy explains that it collects a large amount of personal information from its users, so it is at least not a secret that this browser is spyware. This program acts in a very suspicious way and the privacy policy contains a lot of language in it about the use of the information it collects that elevates it to a uniquely bad stance on user privacy and use of user information, so I would recommend staying far away from it.
+
WebDiscover installs itself onto users computers through installer bundling
+
WebDiscover is mostly installed through other programs as an opt-out. This means that most users did not want to install this browser, and were tricked into doing it by other software's installer programs. For example[2]: [1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10]
+
WebDiscover collects a large amount of information about its users
+
According to its privacy policy[1], WebDiscover collects the following information about its users as its browser is downloaded and used:
+
+
Web Browser type
+
Operating System type and version
+
Domain Name
+
Browser version
+
Browser usage and statistics
+
+
Some of this information is typical of the kind of info that is collected by developers who write programs that phone home using the HTTP protocol. However, WebDiscover also collects the following information about its users which is more concerning:
+
"We may collect Personal Data and Anonymous Data when you download the Browser. We may also collect Personal Data when you send us information or communications directly. “Personal Data” means data that allows someone to identify or contact you including, without limitation, your name, physical address, electronic mail (email) address, phone number, and credit card information (collectively, your “Personal Data”) for the purposes of recording the transaction when you engage in activities on the Site or through use of the Browser."[1]
+
So, WebDiscover will profile your computer, and WebDiscover Media will use every opportunity they get to collect information about you.
+
WebDiscover sells information about its users
+
In this quote from the privacy policy:
+
"We may share Anonymous Data with selected third parties and business partners..."
+
Confirming that the information that WebDiscover collects about you will be sold to advertisers.
+
WebDiscover uses your personal information in a malicious way
+
WebDiscover sells your information to advertising companies that will send you junk mail separately from WebDiscover's discretion- it also DOES NOT comply with requests to stop contact, and requires you to separately request each company that it has sold your information to, to stop contacting you. I didn't check if they would comply with those requests or not. The following quotes from the privacy policy should explain this:
+
"To opt-out of having future third-party marketing communications sent to you, you will be required to unsubscribe with the applicable third party providers. Despite your request to no longer receive future newsletters or promotional and marketing communications from us, we reserve the right to continue to send you notices of any updates to the Browser, our Software End User License Agreement, and our Privacy Policy."[1]
+
WebDiscover also claims that anyone who acts in a way that "damages the reputation" of their company will have all of the personal information that WebDiscover has collected about them disclosed to any party at their discretion.
+
"If we determine, in our sole discretion, that you have engaged in conduct which might be considered, unlawful, fraudulent, or which might harm or damage the reputation or standing of WebDiscover Media with either the general public or with a business partner or potential business partner of WebDiscover Media, we reserve the right to release your Personal Information to such persons or third parties as we consider necessary in order to prevent you from causing injury to, or otherwise injuring or interfering, now or in the future, with WebDiscover Media' rights, property or operations or otherwise the rights, property or operations of anyone else who could be harmed by such conduct."[1]
+
Which is basically threatening their users that they will use the information they collect to dox anyone who says bad things about their software. This is possibly the most anti-user statement that I have read in a privacy policy.
+
Phoning Home
+
When WebDiscover is started, it will begin making requests to ec2-54-191-159-75.us-west-2.compute.amazonaws.com
+
This is presumably how it collects a lot of the personal information about its users. This was discovered using Microsoft Network Monitor 3.4.
-Yahoo! search is a search engine made by Yahoo.
-
-
Spyware Level: EXTREMELY HIGH
-
-Yahoo! search is integrated into the Oath spyware ecosystem, which is a merger between Yahoo and AOL. When you use Yahoo! Search, your
-internet history is sent to Oath, and Oath will track you across the internet. This tracking is then sold to advertisers. The Oath Privacy Policy makes it difficult to know which parts of it refer to Yahoo! search, and which parts of it refer to other Oath services, so it's difficult to quantify the extent of data collection done by Yahoo! search specifically. (combining privacy policies is a common tactic to obfusicate privacy information)
-
-
- It's important to notice that this is just scratching the surface at the extent of spying that the Oath
- spyware platform does to its users, and only includes information collection aspects of the Oath spyware platform that could be reasonably attributed to Yahoo! search.
-
-
Integration into the "Yahoo Account" spyware platform and tracking internet history
-
-Yahoo's privacy policy is actually called the "Oath" privacy policy, so it's not as simple to find. Yahoo search
-is integrated into the "Yahoo Account" spyware platform, which shares all of the information it collects with its parent company, Oath, including your browsing history. When you have an account connected to Oath, which would be an AOL account or a Yahoo account, your internet history is collected and associated with a unique user identity obtained through browser fingerprinting.[1]
-
-
- It's important to notice that this information will be collected whether you are signed in or not. The Oath Privacy Policy makes it clear that
- they fingerprint your computer and so can uniquely identify you no matter what. What is probably happening is that Yahoo will fingerprint your
- use of its services, so that you will be tracked through your usage of them, whether you have an account or not.
-
-
Tracking users
-
- The Oath Privacy Policy makes a lot of statements about how it tracks its users across their devices and across the internet:
-
-
- "We collect information from your devices (computers, mobile phones, tablets, etc.), including information about how you interact with our Services and those of our third-party partners and information that allows us to recognize and associate your activity across devices and Services. This information includes device specific identifiers and information such as IP address, cookie information, mobile device and advertising identifiers, browser version, operating system type and version, mobile network information, device settings, and software data."[1]
-
-
Selling user information to advertisers
-
- The Oath privacy policy clearly states that the information it collects from you is shared with advertisers:
-
-
- "We may recognize your devices to provide you with personalized experiences and advertising across the devices you use."
- [1]
-
- "We also may use the information we have about you for the following purposes: ...
- Help advertisers and publishers connect to offer relevant advertising in their apps and websites.....
- Match and serve targeted advertising (across devices and both on and off of our Services) and provide targeted advertising based on your device activity, inferred interests and location information....
- Create analytics and reports for external parties, including partners, publishers, advertisers, apps, third-parties and the public regarding the use of and trends within our Services and ads, including showing trends to partners regarding general preferences, the effectiveness of ads and information on user experiences...."
- [1]
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- A LOT more could be written but this is probably enough to understand that Yahoo! search is spyware. If you want any more, the privacy policy should speak for itself.
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- If you want to edit this article, or contribute your own article(s), visit us at the git repo on Codeberg. All contributions must be licensed under the CC0 license to be accepted.
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Yahoo! search is integrated into the Oath spyware ecosystem, which is a merger between Yahoo and AOL. When you use Yahoo! Search, your internet history is sent to Oath, and Oath will track you across the internet. This tracking is then sold to advertisers. The Oath Privacy Policy makes it difficult to know which parts of it refer to Yahoo! search, and which parts of it refer to other Oath services, so it's difficult to quantify the extent of data collection done by Yahoo! search specifically. (combining privacy policies is a common tactic to obfusicate privacy information)
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It's important to notice that this is just scratching the surface at the extent of spying that the Oath spyware platform does to its users, and only includes information collection aspects of the Oath spyware platform that could be reasonably attributed to Yahoo! search.
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Integration into the "Yahoo Account" spyware platform and tracking internet history
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Yahoo's privacy policy is actually called the "Oath" privacy policy, so it's not as simple to find. Yahoo search is integrated into the "Yahoo Account" spyware platform, which shares all of the information it collects with its parent company, Oath, including your browsing history. When you have an account connected to Oath, which would be an AOL account or a Yahoo account, your internet history is collected and associated with a unique user identity obtained through browser fingerprinting.[1]
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It's important to notice that this information will be collected whether you are signed in or not. The Oath Privacy Policy makes it clear that they fingerprint your computer and so can uniquely identify you no matter what. What is probably happening is that Yahoo will fingerprint your use of its services, so that you will be tracked through your usage of them, whether you have an account or not.
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Tracking users
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The Oath Privacy Policy makes a lot of statements about how it tracks its users across their devices and across the internet:
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"We collect information from your devices (computers, mobile phones, tablets, etc.), including information about how you interact with our Services and those of our third-party partners and information that allows us to recognize and associate your activity across devices and Services. This information includes device specific identifiers and information such as IP address, cookie information, mobile device and advertising identifiers, browser version, operating system type and version, mobile network information, device settings, and software data."[1]
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Selling user information to advertisers
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The Oath privacy policy clearly states that the information it collects from you is shared with advertisers:
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"We may recognize your devices to provide you with personalized experiences and advertising across the devices you use."[1]
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"We also may use the information we have about you for the following purposes: ...
+ Help advertisers and publishers connect to offer relevant advertising in their apps and websites.....
+ Match and serve targeted advertising (across devices and both on and off of our Services) and provide targeted advertising based on your device activity, inferred interests and location information....
+ Create analytics and reports for external parties, including partners, publishers, advertisers, apps, third-parties and the public regarding the use of and trends within our Services and ads, including showing trends to partners regarding general preferences, the effectiveness of ads and information on user experiences...."[1]
+
A LOT more could be written but this is probably enough to understand that Yahoo! search is spyware. If you want any more, the privacy policy should speak for itself.
-YouTube is an American video-sharing website headquartered in San Bruno, California. It is owned by Google.
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Spyware Level: EXTREMELY HIGH
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-Google’s business strategy with YouTube relies on tracking user’s device identifiers, location, search history, IP addresses and other personally identifying data to provide to advertisers. Google discloses in their YouTube privacy policy that it collects many types of personal information, including geolocation, unique device identifiers, mobile telephone numbers, and persistent identifiers used to recognize a user over time and across different websites or online services.[1]
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Integration with Google Tracking
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-YouTube is integrated with Google’s suite of advertising technologies and services, including AdWords, DoubleClick, and Google Preferred. DoubleClick is “an advertising serving and tracking company that uses web cookies to track browsing behavior online by their IP address to deliver targeted ads. Other DoubleClick ad technologies used to target YouTube users include the Campaign Manager, which helps advertisers “identify, locate and understand your customers, wherever they are.”[2]
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- You can find that Google operates tracking domains active on the YouTube page, “pubads.g.doubleclick.net” and “googleads.g.doubleclick.net” in addition to three cookies requested by *.youtube.com. YouTube serves a particular tracking cookie, “VISITOR_INFO1_LIVE” in order to continue monitoring users that have signed out of their account and to continue serving recommended videos related to that session. Of course, while you are logged in to any Google service, Google can track you with absolute precision. [3]
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-The YouTube app for android additionally uses the Google Firebase Analytics tracker which provides methods for logging events and setting user properties. The full app report finds that the YouTube app employs three trackers and requires 33 permission, 14 of which are considered dangerous such as access to the user’s location and contacts.
-[4][5]
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Taking down more private alternatives
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- For some time, a popular YouTube tracking sanitizer, Hooktube.com was a useful resource for accessing YouTube videos without being subjected to Google’s surveillance techniques in full. Hooktube was also useful for circumventing region blocking. However, Google, not to be stopped in their spying endeavors, served Hooktube’s operators with a cease and desist over their use of the YouTube API. Hooktube was effectively forced to use YouTube’s official embedded player if they wished to continue to operate, nullifying Hooktube as a viable means for privately viewing YouTube content.[6][7]
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YouTube Requires non-free JavaScript
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- It is also worth noting that, in order to function, YouTube requires visitors to run non-free JavaScript. As with any proprietary software, these programs can be doing just about anything with almost no way to determine exactly what.[10] For example, there has been some speculation as to whether YouTube’s compulsory JavaScript might be useful for YouTube to track your device’s unique MAC address. [8][9]
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- All that said, it would be wise to avoiding using any of Google’s services. If you must access YouTube, we recommend doing so through one of the remaining sanitizers such as Invidious (https://invidious.io/).
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Credits
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- This review was written by Alia Sarmor.
- Formatting changes were done by the site maintainer.
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- This article was created on 9/10/2018
- This article was last updated on 6/19/2021
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- If you want to edit this article, or contribute your own article(s), visit us at the git repo on Codeberg. All contributions must be licensed under the CC0 license to be accepted.
-
YouTube is an American video-sharing website headquartered in San Bruno, California. It is owned by Google.
+
Spyware Level: EXTREMELY HIGH
+
Google’s business strategy with YouTube relies on tracking user’s device identifiers, location, search history, IP addresses and other personally identifying data to provide to advertisers. Google discloses in their YouTube privacy policy that it collects many types of personal information, including geolocation, unique device identifiers, mobile telephone numbers, and persistent identifiers used to recognize a user over time and across different websites or online services.[1]
+
Integration with Google Tracking
+
YouTube is integrated with Google’s suite of advertising technologies and services, including AdWords, DoubleClick, and Google Preferred. DoubleClick is “an advertising serving and tracking company that uses web cookies to track browsing behavior online by their IP address to deliver targeted ads. Other DoubleClick ad technologies used to target YouTube users include the Campaign Manager, which helps advertisers “identify, locate and understand your customers, wherever they are.”[2]
+
You can find that Google operates tracking domains active on the YouTube page, “pubads.g.doubleclick.net” and “googleads.g.doubleclick.net” in addition to three cookies requested by *.youtube.com. YouTube serves a particular tracking cookie, “VISITOR_INFO1_LIVE” in order to continue monitoring users that have signed out of their account and to continue serving recommended videos related to that session. Of course, while you are logged in to any Google service, Google can track you with absolute precision. [3]
+
The YouTube app for android additionally uses the Google Firebase Analytics tracker which provides methods for logging events and setting user properties. The full app report finds that the YouTube app employs three trackers and requires 33 permission, 14 of which are considered dangerous such as access to the user’s location and contacts.[4][5]
+
Taking down more private alternatives
+
For some time, a popular YouTube tracking sanitizer, Hooktube.com was a useful resource for accessing YouTube videos without being subjected to Google’s surveillance techniques in full. Hooktube was also useful for circumventing region blocking. However, Google, not to be stopped in their spying endeavors, served Hooktube’s operators with a cease and desist over their use of the YouTube API. Hooktube was effectively forced to use YouTube’s official embedded player if they wished to continue to operate, nullifying Hooktube as a viable means for privately viewing YouTube content.[6][7]
+
YouTube Requires non-free JavaScript
+
It is also worth noting that, in order to function, YouTube requires visitors to run non-free JavaScript. As with any proprietary software, these programs can be doing just about anything with almost no way to determine exactly what.[10] For example, there has been some speculation as to whether YouTube’s compulsory JavaScript might be useful for YouTube to track your device’s unique MAC address. [8][9]
+
All that said, it would be wise to avoiding using any of Google’s services. If you must access YouTube, we recommend doing so through one of the remaining sanitizers such as Invidious (https://invidious.io/).