A possible alternative to “Hyperweb”

[guest]

Hi! So I noticed that a Safari extension called “Hyperweb” is recommended on “Add Mojeek to Safari”, but its privacy is not really great (the page does ask to read their privacy policy), so I searched for alternatives, and there were a few paid options, but these can’t really get recommended, but I also found an extension called QueryDial. I tested it with mojeek, and it works great. Their privacy policy (Privacy Terms | QueryDial) is better than Hyperweb, but according to the “App Privacy” section of the App store it collects these https://imgur.com/a/rcT0sBm. I emailed the dev, and this was his reply:
“ Hi there,

Thanks for checking out my extension! I assume you are referring to QueryDial right?

The “Data Linked to You” section as required by Apple is actually a grey area for many app developers. Technically, according to Apple’s rules and requirements, if the App stores data on user’s iCloud, then the data stored on the iCloud is linked to the user, no matter what content is stored on the iCloud. Usually apps that use iCloud would store user generated content, i.e. ‘user content’. If an app collects user generated data, even these data are stored on user’s iCloud (which we developers don’t have any access to), we need to say their “user content” is linked to their them on the store page. That said, many apps that use iCloud as storage didn’t follow this rule, and that also includes some of Apple’s apps. If you check Apple’s Notes App, you will also see many data are actually ‘linked to you’ because of the fact that Apple Notes uses iCloud.

The ‘user content’ QueryDial collects are just search engines user stored in the app. These search engines data will be uploaded to user’s iCloud. I personally have no access to them at all. However, these search engines data are indeed ‘user content’ and ‘linked’ to my users, and that’s why I labelled it that way.

As of non-personal data, I am not collecting any of them, not even diagnostics at the moment. Apple is the one collecting data. Honestly I am not sure what kind of data they collect but so far for app related data I was only able to see how many times the app crashes (not even detailed reports like why the app crashes). I am putting diagnostics there simply because, if there are users came to me reporting bugs, then I will ask them some questions regarding to how they use the app in order to solve those issues.

And I just want to clarify that, QueryDial is not a search engine at all. It’s an extension to allow you quickly switch to different search engines using shortcut phrases. So I am not protecting my users’ data being collected by Google if they choose to use Google as their search engine.

I hope this answers your question. If you have any questions please let me know!

Best,
Yuhao (QueryDial dev)”

Thoughts? Can anyone confirm that the extension does not collect your searches through LittleSnitch or something (don’t have a Mac)

The last point could be somewhat mitigated by switching to DuckDuckGo, or by switching to Yahoo/Ecosia/DDG and blocking all DNS requests to these domains afaik

[Josh]

Welcome @guest and thanks for undertaking this research; as you’ve correctly pointed out the Hyperweb privacy policy is not as good as you’d want it to be. Really the best advice that can be given when it comes to Safari is use a less-closed browser .

If I’m not mistaken the tool which you’re putting forward here is not for iOS, whereas Hyperweb is just for iOS. When reading this originally I thought we could list both and let people make up their minds, but as they’re targeting different devices it makes sense to put them on separate pages providing the UX for QueryDial suits.

This being said I don’t have access to a Mac/OSX device (been attempting to fix my partner’s at weekends but less said about that the better). @Colin any chance you’d be able to check out this tool to see if it’s suitable? ‎QueryDial on the App Store

[guest]

Hello! It works on iOS, and I’ve been using it on my iPhone and iPad for the past week. I didn’t test the Mac version though

I really don’t know why Apple doesn’t allow for custom search engines when it doesn’t even have any itself.

[Josh]

Ah wicked, thanks! I have an iOS device somewhere so I’ll give it a try

[Josh]

Thanks again @guest, my tests show that this works perfectly well, and offering more options for people to make up their own minds is never a negative. I’ll do the work to get this put as an alternative method

[guest]

Very glad to help

For more ease of mind, it seems the app does in fact contact no suspicious domains or IP addresses according to Apple’s App Privacy Report

PS: Maybe you can contact the dev to include mojeek as one of the default options for easier setup. He replied quickly to my email

[Josh]

I’ve sent an email their way