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.