Category: Security (page 1 of 2)

Digital Privacy On Different Computer Software’s And Their Internet Browsers – Everything You Need To Know

June 7, 2019 / Rachel / Comments Off

You are probably already aware of the extreme importance of digital privacy during the use of internet browsing. Once a person has realized that they should have some sort of privacy on the web where their personal information is protected, the next step is to search for a secure and efficient digital privacy browsing software.

It is important to know that each software may have a different type of browser which further results in different applications to use for private browsing. For instance, UR-Browser is available on both, Apple and Windows software. Similarly, there may be different methods to download a private browser.

For your ease, we have compiled a list of 7 digital privacy tools that can be used to increase your security while browsing the web.

VPNs

Virtual Private Networks or VPNs are networks that hide all of your browsing data from your Internet Service Provider and other third-parties as well as the user’s location.

UR-Browser has a very efficient VPN which enables all your personal information and searches to be protected.

Password Manager

Many people do not change their passwords frequently and even use the same password for many different sites. Due to this, there is always a high risk of the user’s personal data being hacked.

The use of password managers helps the user to create long and tricky passwords that may be impossible to hack.

Privacy Driven Web Browser

Just like the VPN, UR-Browser also is a privacy-focused browser that hides all your data including third-party cookies or trackers that may be viewing your location and actions.

DNS Encryption

Some software also has the option of encrypting your website’s Domain name system from your original one that came from the ISP.

Destroying Data

When usually deleting files or folders from a desktop or laptop, they go to the recycle bin, this means that they have not been permanently removed. By using a data destroyer, the recycled files can be fully deleted.

Secure Messaging Software

This enables all your private messages to be encrypted.

Private Search Engines

You have the ability to choose which of your data is being collected by certain search engines.

Private Browsers in the Apple World

First and foremost, private browsing can be done in Safari on a Mac device. Private Browser Safari can be enabled by choosing the “file” option and then the “private window” option. This activates the private browser on your Mac, however, your Internet service provider may still be able to access your search history and location.

Private Browser In Chrome

In Chrome, private browsing can be activated by going to the “incognito” version. This can be done by clicking the ‘CTRL’, ‘SHIFT’, and ‘N’ buttons together.

Private browser mode can be used by the same directions if one is using windows.

One private browser for Windows can also be the UR-Browser. This hides all the user’s personal data from third-parties or any potential hackers.

Adblocking During Private Browsing

Sometimes adblocking and private browsing may not go hand in hand. This may be because many software only enables Adblock during regular and non-private internet searching.

Other software such as UR-Browser does, in fact, enable private browser Adblock. This can be used in the medium or high versions of the browser.

In more basic terms, even though both Safari and Chrome may offer incognito and private modes, they may not be as beneficial as they do not hide the user’s search history from its internet service provider, employer, school, or, any and all websites that the user may visit.

On the other hand, software such as UR-Browser are able to hide the user’s search history, location as well as other personal information from the school, employer, Internet Service Provider and, all websites.

Moreover, the use of these browsers and/or VPNs, some of which may come with these browsers or are separate, also enable the user to access certain websites that may be blocked within a specific country. For instance, in the previous years, the famous social media app, Facebook, was banned in some countries for some time. However, those users who had access to a VPN were still able to use the social media website.

VPN and Private Browsers in Various Countries

In some countries, the use of VPNs or private browsers is considered illegal. This may be because of certain acts that may be considered illegal. For instance, in the United States of America using a Virtual Private Network is perfectly legal, however, if a VPN is used for illegal purposes such as for illegally using a torrent in order to download a movie, music or games.

The use of torrents is the main problem that is associated with a VPN or private browsers.

In other countries such as China or Russia, the use of VPNs has been completely restricted or banned. In such countries, it may even be difficult to search through and open a private browser. This is where the popular “internet privacy vs national law” debate occurs.

Just as so, sometimes the use VPNs can be legal for some certain websites, however, may breach their terms of use. One popular application with such terms is Netflix.

Some VPNs are generally considered as non-trustworthy. This may be because the use of these virtual private networks may lead to your personal information being shared when any authorities may ask for it. Although, other VPNs may not collect and save any personal data at all.

There may even be some options for a user to access a private browser online, this means that the process of downloading and installing may not have to be completed. This method, however, may be very rare nowadays as more advanced software has been introduced in the market.

One of these of which is, UR-Browser, the private browsing software that can be used on both Apple and Windows, regardless of mobile phone or desktop. This also has a built-in Adblock and a virus scanner that is used every time the user opens a new website.

Digital Privacy And Its Relationship With Ethics – A Complicated Affair

May 29, 2019 / Jennifer P. / Comments Off

One thing about digital ethics and privacy is that many businesses and websites may not be sure of what should be labelled as ethical in terms of privacy. However, in the European Union, the GDPR helps to ensure the guidelines of protecting the data and personal information of users. As the world of technology expands, there may be even more ethical rules and regulations about digital privacy that one should be careful about.

What is Digital Ethics?

Digital ethics is a field of study that is concerned with the shape of technology in current times and how it will affect the social, moral and, the political existence of human beings. Many various terms can be found on digital security, ethics and, privacy on Quizlet.

Some popular topics in the context of digital ethics and privacy 2019 are the following;

Digital monopolies and how to overcome them
Digital Democracy
Can code and speech be considered similar?
Cloud Computing
Autonomous Machinery.

Many a time, ethics and digital privacy have not exactly gone hand in hand. This may be because some companies only gain profit by selling their user’s data to third party companies and businesses for marketing reasons.

This may be where digital privacy acts and regulations come in. These are created in order to ensure user privacy, thus, compiling with ethical factors. Private browsing software such as UR-Browser keeps an updated privacy policy which informs users how and when their data and personal information will be used.

Digital Privacy Acts Over the Years

Although there are different digital privacy acts for different countries, most of them tend to have the same concept and similar rules and regulations.

The Canadian digital privacy act 2015 includes rules of personal data collection. Some of which are, the fact that the user must consent to the whole process prior to the gathering of personal data, the collector must state the purpose of the personal information and when it will be used, protection from financial abuse and, protection from the fraud of any kind. The digital privacy act Section 10 was also amended in 2015.

Privacy acts as such are continuously updated for more efficient information each year. The digital privacy act 2017 was updated for various countries including Australia, Canada, the European Union, Japan, France, Germany, Israel, the United Kingdom, and, Italy.

Some of these updates consisted of, prevention of invasions of privacy for both online and offline matters, privacy principles for both government and private sector companies that collect the user’s personal information.

Canada

For the privacy act of Canada, the Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act (PIPEDA) was updated in 2017 to include specifically what kind of consent is valid for the collection, distribution and, destroying of personal data and information.

The European Union

As for the European Union, one update to its privacy act was the right for the controller to delete all personal data and information if the individual demands so. Moreover, when the purpose of the data has been completed the party who collected this information must remove it permanently.

UR-Browser compiles with all the privacy laws of the European Union, thus proving that it is a perfectly safe browser to use.

Japan

In Japan, privacy laws are from the Act on the Protection of Personal Information (APPI) which was also updated in 2017. Some of the changes included updating of the definition of “personal information”, the introduction of criminal penalties for the misuse of information databases and, the right to privacy has been recognized in the official courts of Japan.

Digital Data Privacy in 2018

2018 is said to be the year that digital privacy and security got extremely real. Its importance increased widely in all types of industries. Digital privacy in 2018 began to receive many new updates and software. Different types of private browsing software and applications were introduced in 2018 as well as improved virtual private networks to hide the location and search history of a user.

Digital Privacy 2019

The time of writing, also 2019, is the most advanced year for digital privacy browsers. Many new and improved digital private browsers and VPNs have been introduced in the market with a very extensive range of features in each one.

For instance, the UR-Browser is not only a completely safe and secure browsing software but also comes with a built-in virus scanner and a virtual private network alongside many other amazing features.

Although technology has increased to extreme heights in 2019, there is still a sense of doubt among many users of the World Wide Web. So much so that around half of the users on the internet believe that complete and utter digital privacy is impossible and cannot be attained even with the use of the best private browsing applications or virtual private networks.

Digital Privacy in The Near Future

It is said across the internet that digital privacy in 2025 will be completely different than what users have seen up until now.

Many users believe that until 2025, a whole privacy rights infrastructure will be created. On the other hand, others believed that by 2025, the concept of privacy in online life will become a taboo subject and will not be understood nor appreciated by further generations.

Digital Privacy Rights – Christian Perspective

Digital privacy rights and ethics are also considered in the Christian religion. Some Christians may believe that the internet is a place of evil while thinking about the questionable material that is available on the World Wide Web. From a Christian perspective, some may accept technology and the internet whilst keeping in mind the positive uses of the internet.

In some cases, some people may believe that privacy was not a big issue in previous times just as it should not be now and that the government and other authorities have the right to access the private information of all internet users for legal purposes.

However, as time goes on, more and more religious perspectives on digital privacy updates are changing in order to meet the changing world and technology.

Secure browser – the necessity of today

March 13, 2019 / Rachel / Comments Off

Are we really safe?

We live in a day and age when a large portion of our lifestyle, social correspondence and everyday routine is determined and governed by the internet. We make our morning coffee and read the daily newspaper on the internet, we go to work and use emails, search engines and browsers, we get ready for bed and set the alarm clocks on our Wi-Fi connected phones. Most of us developed some skills that would seem completely unnecessary 40 years ago. We can type an essay within ten minutes, our language now includes tech-savvy lingo and we can have a one-hour conversation consisting solely of emojis. Needless to say, we feel completely comfortable and safe on the internet. However, one question comes to mind: Are we really as safe as we think we are?

Numerous reports show that the high-level data breaches are experiencing a growing pattern in recent years. Many of us choose to believe that most of these problems hit just large companies or political establishments, but the sad truth is that we are all in danger. More and more individuals are targeted and falling victim to the cyber crime every day, yet most of us choose to neglect the eminent peril that unprotected usage of the internet carries with it. Protecting digital privacy and digital identity has never been harder or more necessary. Cyber crime is more prevalent today then ever before, because of the immense amount of time we spend on the internet. The increase of cyber bullying, credit card frauds and social networking scams, show that we are in deep necessity of secure and privacy-oriented internet browser.

How could secure and privacy browsers protect you ?

Most web browsers use a feature called “third-party cookies”, as well as under-the-radar trackers. Both of these are heavily used to gather information about you. We’ve all been witnesses of recent identity theft issues on the news, as well as misused information from social networks. Many of us tried to just wave it off and continue using the internet like nothing happened. However, once the seed of paranoia has been planted, it just keeps growing. In this case, the paranoia that has set in after some scandals could be a good sign of collective awareness. Identity protection should be among our top priorities when we browse the internet, and our data should be just our own. Secure browsing is the top priority of today, as stealing information via internet has never been this widespread. One of the bright examples of the fight against cyber-crime is the UR Browser. It was created to protect the privacy of every individual that has opted to expand its views and reap the benefits of the internet. This particular browser enables all of its users to surf freely and securely through the internet. Once you’ve started conducting your searches through UR Browser’s private search engines, you can do so without a worry on your mind. It doesn’t use trackers, and it acts as your very own invisibility cloak, so secure browsing is guaranteed.

One of the primary thoughts during the creation of numerous focused browsers is about skipping the middleman. In the case of browsers, the middleman is Chromium’s built-in tracking. Contrary to widespread opinion, Google’s open source code, Chromium does have the built-in tracking, as his closed source brother Chrome, that can potentially allow your personal data to be shared. UR for example, manages to be a fully secure browser, although it is built with Chromium, because the built-in trackers of Google are removed from it. Features such as automatic password filling, prediction text on webpage searches and several others, are somewhat practical and time-saving. However, these particular traits are easy to be tempered with, so saving a few minutes is not worth the potential risk. That is the main reason that UR has these features either disabled, or completely removed. If you want to have even more browser security, this browser has the option of Ninja Mode. This particular mode functions without saving searches, passwords, history or cookies. Any login you make while the Ninja Mode is operational, will be forgotten without a trace once you leave the last opened Ninja tab. Aside from their mandatory features that save your privacy and identity, most privacy focused browsers are equipped with numerous fun features to make your internet-surfing as effortless as possible. Options such as browser personalization and shortcuts for quicker accesses are just valuable addition to make the hours spent on the internet as pleasant as possible.

Online privacy matters!

Keep in mind that the internet is one of the greatest creations of modern times. This seemingly endless source of knowledge and entertainment is available to everyone who have Internet access. Internet enables you to ask virtually any question about any topic, and once you hit the search button, you’ll get thousands of answers and explanations. Furthermore, Internet makes us connect with people who are oceans away. Whether you opt for a live chat or email, you will be able to connect with anyone anywhere in the world in less than a minute. Internet also lets you do your banking and pay your bills without standing in long, tedious queues. The web allows you to do your business online, sell and purchase almost anything you can think of. In the end, the internet reminds you that you are not alone. In the fast-paced world of today we tend to become introverts and forget the people around us. Once the loneliness sets in, the internet can let you know that there are millions of people all over the world, just like you. They share the same interests, same pain and same joy.

Internet gave us so much, but at the same time, it made us be vulnerable. It gave the monsters a bigger forest to hide in and it gave the tricksters a bigger field to play on. Now, more than ever before, it is our duty to protect ourselves and the people we love. Privacy focused UR Browser is the proper answer to internet scammers and frauds. It is the modern solution to a modern problem.

Privacy matters

Small team, great achievements and even bigger ambitions for 2019!

January 16, 2019 / Jennifer P. / Comments Off

2018: Guerrilla Anti-Tracking and Embedded Virtual Private Network Shielding

We are still a start-up and even though we are a small team, and do not always get to address all your messages and needs, they do concern us and we do listen to them! Thank you for that!

We are sharing all of them with our product team who is prioritizing each of those along with our planned features and improvements, so that they will be eventually addressed.

For the past year, we had to reduce the communication efforts in favor of focusing more on the product and achieving some major milestones:

Improve stability and security with UR 61 release, (do we want to link to an old version in this post vs. just having a reference to it in plain text?) adding anti-fingerprinting capabilities and improving the HTTPs enforcing;
Introduce a unique feature in the browser: a full VPN client with UR 62, not only to protect the browser traffic but all your device’s traffic;

We will not talk about the first one as we already have on the blog and it’s already too old, we are already working to bring UR to Chromium 71.

We do want to share with you more about the latest VPN feature and why we considered it such an import part of the puzzle.

Why does a browser need a VPN?

For those of you who are not aware of what a VPN is and why you should use one here is a short intro.

By its’ meaning a Virtual Private Network is an internet security service that allows users to access the Internet as though they were connected to a private network. This encrypts the Internet communications as well as providing a strong degree of anonymity. Some of the most common reasons people use VPNs are for location anonymity, the right to online privacy, to protect against snooping on public Internet connections, to circumvent Internet censorship, or to connect to a business’s internal network for remote work purposes.

Generally, when users create an Internet connection to visit a website or to access an online service, most Internet traffic is unencrypted and very public. The device that initiates the request through a browser or another app, will connect to their Internet Service Provider (ISP), and then the ISP will connect to the Internet to find the appropriate web server to fetch the request website or service. Information is exposed with every step of the Internet request. The IP address is exposed throughout the process, the ISP and any other intermediary can keep logs of the user’s browsing habits and interests. Moreover, the data flow between the user’s devices and the webservers is unencrypted, which creates opportunities for malicious actors to spy on the data or perpetrate attacks on the user, such as a man-in-the-middle attack.

When using a trusted VPN service to connect to the Internet, users gain a higher level of security and privacy by:

The VPN client connects to the ISP by creating an encrypted connection
The ISP connects the VPN client to the VPN server, maintaining the encrypted connection
The VPN server decrypts the received data from the user’s device and then connects to the Internet to access the web server in an unencrypted communication, exposing only the IP address of the VPN server and masking users’ IP

This is known as a ‘VPN tunnel’ the encrypted connection between the VPN Client and VPN server passes through the ISP, blocking the ISP and/or malicious actors from seeing a user’s activity.

Beware, VPN and Proxy extensions are not enough!

In the past UR explored, as did other competitors, the so-called ‘VPN extensions’ or ‘proxy-extensions.’ They offered a similar service as a VPN but with a few important drawbacks like: not fully encrypted communications and solely browser request protection, excluding by its tech limitations the requests issued by any other apps running on the device. A potential negative effect of this lack of coverage could be – the location was masked while surfing websites w

ith UR, yet other local apps/services would expose user’s location when communicating with their servers on the Internet. To avoid such scenarios users would have had to subscribe in addition, to other VPN services, requiring the installation of an additional software: a VPN client.

We stopped that type of service a while ago when such weaknesses surfaced. However, many players in the space continue to proposes ‘proxy-like’ features advertised as VPNs, while not offering true VPN protection.

Leveraging open-source, with the power of Open VPN and a great partnership (don’t want to promote another solution and took out the links), we have built a powerful and multi-faceted privacy took that combines the utility of a browser with the protection of a VPN.

In addition to standard private browsing features, UR Browser now offers the same level of protection as other stand-alone VPN clients. And as usual, we’ve made it extremely simple to use so that not only tech savvy users can benefit from it.

If this solution is appealing to you, check it out now ! (currently available only for Windows)

2019: Let the real privacy battle begin!

Still in beta but improving rapidly, here are some key updates you can expect from UR in 2019:

The latest Chromium patches (on Windows, and as soon as possible on Mac too)
Upgraded privacy and anti-tracking features
An improved browser anti-fingerprinting technology (more on browser anti-fingerprinting here)
A bunch of under-the-hood and functional fixes (for example online streaming services and translations services had been disabled due to privacy concerns, now will become optional)
A VPN build for Mac
New features like secure account synchronization, improved bookmarks and offline web content management
Integrated private Search engine

We are considering opening our source code too while mobile and Linux versions are in planning as well, and should go into development later this year.

These are some of our resolutions for 2019, wish us good luck to achieve the most!

28 fake advertising agencies causing forced redirections!

March 30, 2018 / Rachel / Comments Off

Scams of all kinds multiply on the web, from now classic Viagra to Windows pop up inviting you to clean your PC urgently. The organization of the culprits is gets increasingly sophisticated. Continue reading

Your computer is infected ! Call Microsoft.

March 30, 2018 / Rachel / Comments Off

If you frequently use Chrome on your Windows PC, you may have already seen a page during a surfing session telling you that your computer was infected, that your browser was blocked, and that in desperation there was only one thing left for you to do: Call Microsoft! Continue reading

Sharing everything carries
unsuspected risks…

March 30, 2018 / Rachel / Comments Off

Mark Zuckerberg has often said: his ultimate vision is to connect all the inhabitants of the Blue planet (and perhaps beyond) into a culture of integral sharing. Continue reading

meltdown spectre vulnerabilites navigateurs

Spectre allows the execution of malicious scripts via your browser!

January 25, 2018 / Rachel / Comments Off

You’ve probably heard of two vulnerabilities recently revealed by a 22-year-old German researcher, a member of Google’s Project Zero team, Jann Horn: Meltdown and Spectre. Continue reading

A new warning against
malicious browser extensions.

January 25, 2018 / Rachel / Comments Off

Today, Google Chrome holds nearly 60% market share in the world of browsers (followed by FireFox and Internet Explorer, both oscillating at around 13%). A dynamic ecosystem has developed around this market leader. Continue reading

If your computer is slower than usual, it may be the fault of your browser …

January 18, 2018 / Rachel / Comments Off

If you constantly use your internet browser (especially Chrome), you will probably notice that the more tabs you open, the slower your machine gets. Each open tab consumes resources from your processor.
There are ways to pause unused tabs, such as The Great Suspender, but these are extensions that can cause other issues, even at the security level. Continue reading

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Privacy and security | UR Browser

Category: Security (page 1 of 2)

Digital Privacy On Different Computer Software’s And Their Internet Browsers – Everything You Need To Know

Secure browser – the necessity of today

Are we really safe?

How could secure and privacy browsers protect you ?

Online privacy matters!

Small team, great achievements and even bigger ambitions for 2019!

Why does a browser need a VPN?

2019: Let the real privacy battle begin!

28 fake advertising agencies causing forced redirections!

Your computer is infected ! Call Microsoft.

Sharing everything carries
unsuspected risks…

Spectre allows the execution of malicious scripts via your browser!

A new warning against
malicious browser extensions.

If your computer is slower than usual, it may be the fault of your browser …

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