UR is based on Chromium, a secure and continually-updated code that we know well. However, it calls home to Google a bit too much for our liking. We’ve fixed that!
Here is the exhaustive list of modifications we have made to Chromium to protect your privacy while you browse:
Privacy improvements
- Block third-party cookies by default
- Passwords not stored by default
- Site data (cookies, local storage, etc.) only kept until exit, by default
- Disable autocomplete prediction service when typing in Omnibox
- Always send “Do-Not-Track” header
- Disable “Use a web service to help resolve navigation errors”
- Disable by default Network/DNS prediction
- Disable by default input form autofill
- For IPv6 probes, use a DNS root server instead of Google
- Disable cookies for Safe Browsing background requests
- Disable autofill download service
- Disable the battery status API
Other privacy features
- Qwant is default search provider
- Let user confirm downloading translation dictionaries from Google
- Don’t ask to send settings to Google by default on profile reset
Other disabled features
- Disable background mode
- Disable EV certificates, so they are shown just like “normal” certificates
- Disable Google cloud printing
- Disable Google hot word detection
- Disable Google experiments status check
- Disable Google translation service
- Disable Google promotion fetching
- Disable Google Cloud Messaging (GCM) status check
- Disable Google Now
- Disable automatic update check
- Disable profile-import on first run
Networking Changes
- Link auditing (<a ping=”…”>) disabled by default
- Network/DNS prediction disabled by default
Security Improvements:
- RSA keysize doubled to 2048 bits
This post will be updated to reflect the current development of UR.