Privacy Browser works with both JavaScript and cookies disabled by default, and one of their requirements for even the inclusion of a search engine on the preselected list is that is also operates in the same manner. Although this sounds like a low bar to clear, only Mojeek, Monocles, Metager, Google, Bing, and Yahoo! manage to do so.
All of Soren’s explanations/assessments are available via his repo but it looks like it came down to this need for a search choice to work without JS and how small that list becomes if you’re pro-privacy.
This has also got us to thinking about other browser projects out there, both big and small, that might be interested in at least including Mojeek as a part of a preselected list. I’d be very interested to hear all and any thoughts you might have on this one.
just wanted to add the F-Droid link here in the forum as well
for those that may not know about the F-Droid repo for Android apps, it is an excellent repository, far better than Google’s Play Store in terms of being malware and ad free - they compile all apps from source - for more, see here: Cool Android Apps
I like this browser. There are a few other things disabled by default that are useful — screenshots, for example. I also like the “snackbar” download notification and the ability to edit the URL before downloading.
A little tip or two:
if there are sites that you want to stay connected to (logged in) you can just set domain settings and enable cookies and DOM storage
some sites don’t want to switch to mobile view, you can change the agent for those sites
As noted, it is worth taking a look at Soren’s blog. He is working on a tweaked version of WebView which should make this browser a little more privacy friendly.
I like it. I replaced DDG browser for Android on my phone with Privacy Browser with Incognito Mode turned on. I rarely used DDG browser but it does not hurt to be prepared. Thanks for mentioning it.
This has also got us to thinking about other browser projects out there, both big and small, that might be interested in at least including Mojeek as a part of a preselected list. I’d be very interested to hear all and any thoughts you might have on this one.
Frankly I don’t know of any new ones, but you are on the right track, try to get listed as a search engine on every browser you can find that isn’t already owned by your competition. In particular all those little Linux and Android browser projects. If you can get listed as a choice, see if you can get listed as “Mojeek (Privacy)” like DDG did.
I’d look into all the different new Linux smartphone OS’s and see if you can get onboard early in the game while they are still in beta. Ditto with the privacy Android forks.
This would be a great get, I guess my only reservation here is that with some of these projects that are a group of people building something together might have some resistance to a direct request from a company. There are definitely deeply-held shared values between us and them though.
Incidentally on "doesn’t clarify what “browser data means” - we simply log the browser used. Chrome, Edge, Safari … as you can imagine not much on Safari with no customisation of their (closed) list.
edit: for full transparency we log the full UA however that is presented, not just the browser name.