Which browsers are best for privacy?
privacytests.org
An open-source privacy audit of popular web browsers.
  • Voytrekk@lemmy.worldEnglish
    2023·
    1 year ago

    Looking into privacytests.org, the main developer behind it is someone who contributes to Brave source code. He may not be officially affiliated with the company, but it would be hard to ignore any sort of bias towards Brave.

    • Otter@lemmy.caEnglish
      522·
      1 year ago

      I’ve been seeing a lot of techy “privacy” blog posts, even here on Lemmy. It’s a little annoying when they muddy up the waters like this. People new to privacy will come across them and head off in the wrong direction.

      We need more comments calling them out and linking to proper resources. The site linked in this post even has a confusingly similar name to the actual recommended resource:

      https://www.privacyguides.org/en/desktop-browsers/

      (And a quick sidenote: privacyguides is the same team from privacytools. There was a name change after the original owner for the domain came back and fought over the project. PrivacyTools is now a paid advertising site, and it is NOT recommended. https://www.privacyguides.org/en/about/privacytools/ )

      Edit: while I’m at it, here’s the official community on Lemmy

      • TWeaK@lemm.eeEnglish
        132·
        1 year ago

        Even Privacy Guides has its own set of controversy, where basically one group completely took over the community from its founder (who themselves wasn’t squeaky clean, either).

        • Otter@lemmy.caEnglish
          8·
          1 year ago

          Isn’t that the same controversy, just worded in favor of privacytools?

          I’m trying to judge based on what I’ve read from each party, and I’m still leaning towards the privacyguides account of what went down

          The recommendations are probably the biggest factor for me. See the VPN pages on each site

          • TWeaK@lemm.eeEnglish
            2·
            1 year ago

            Tbh I don’t really care enough either way. But I would lean a little more towards privacyguide’s account of things, while I still don’t fully trust their judgement either. I can’t remember why now but there was something they were very fanboy-like over which I disagreed with, and since then I haven’t been following their advice, let alone their drama.

          • Otter@lemmy.caEnglish
            2·
            1 year ago

            The article on privacyguides I linked above touches on some of this as well. I haven’t read through this one, but seems like the less verifiable one in a “x said y said” situation?

      • TWeaK@lemm.eeEnglish
        273·
        1 year ago

        The project technically being independent does not mean it isn’t biased towards one browser.

            • Platform27@lemmy.mlEnglish
              21·
              1 year ago

              You can but:

              1. There is no clear indication of bias, from PrivacyTests, just accusations.
              2. If the tools and tests ARE open source (which they are), they can be checked for bias/cheating. Someone could also expand (fork) upon them to give more of a rounded opinion.
              • bloodfart@lemmy.ml
                1·
                1 year ago

                A better defense against accusations of bias is a group or persons transparency.

                Simply having an open source methodology and code base isn’t transparency either, since it takes a much, much deeper and more developed skill set to audit both software source code and testing methodology than it takes to raise an eyebrow at sus circumstances.

        • Ado@lemmy.worldEnglish
          411·
          1 year ago

          Okay? Where is the proof it’s biased towards one browser