-
Privacy Browser 3.4
Privacy Browser 3.4 has been released. It replaces the use of Android’s built-in download manager with a custom implementation. I didn’t start off trying to do this. Rather, I was building a feature to save a raw URL, and after I had done it I realized I could use it for all download purposes. As…
Last updated
-
Download Problems on Android 9 Pie
There appears to be a bug in Android’s Download Manager on Android 9 Pie that causes it to periodically crash and refuse to download files. New downloads will show up as queued, but will fail to download. I’m assuming that at some stage Google will release an update that fixes this, but in the meantime…
Last updated
-
Privacy Cell 1.10
Privacy Cell 1.10 was released on 30 October 2023. It adds an optional monochrome icon that follows the OS color theme if enabled on Android >= 13. Privacy Cell can now be included in system backups. Previously it was prevented from doing so by security flags in the AndroidManifest.xml file. These flags were copied from…
Last updated
-
Privacy Browser and Password Managers
From time to time I become involved in conversations regarding the integration of Privacy Browser with password managers. The purpose of this post is to place all of my thoughts on this subject in one place, as well as to explain why I consider it insecure to integrate a password manager into a web browser.…
Last updated
-
Privacy Browser 3.5
Privacy Browser 3.5 has been released. It switches to using Android’s relatively new Day/Night theme, which constitutes the largest UI change since the original Privacy Browser was released. This fixes a longstanding bug with alert dialogs in the dark theme, makes the app font colors easier on the eye in dark mode, and fights burn-in.…
Last updated
-
Privacy Browser PC 0.5
Privacy Browser PC 0.5 was released on 12 October 2023. The major feature of this release is the addition of bookmarks. There is an edit bookmarks dialog. An optional bookmarks toolbar can be displayed. With a fresh install of Privacy Browser PC 0.5, the bookmarks toolbar will be displayed below the URL toolbar by default.…
Last updated
-
URL Modification
Privacy Browser includes the following URL modifications, which are enabled by default. Each of these queries are stripped out as well as everything that follows them. An example URL looks like this: Privacy Browser strips out anything from the first ?utm_ forward, turning the URL into: Tracking Queries Privacy Browser blocks all the trackers listed…
Last updated
-
Privacy Browser Design Guidelines
From time to time I receive feedback from individuals regarding the layout of privacy browser on small screens. Usually this feedback relates to eliminating an element that they feel is not important enough to warrant the space utilization or diminishing the size of the fonts so that more information can fit on the screen. I…
Last updated
-
WebView
As part of the Android, Google ships WebView, which is used to render HTML, CSS, and JavaScript. This is one of the standard views in Android Open Source Project (some others being TextView, EditText, Spinner, and ImageView). Privacy Browser uses WebView to render websites. If you do not have WebView on your system, Privacy Browser…
Last updated
-
Search Engine Syntax
Privacy Browser has the ability for the user to select a custom search engine. The purpose of this page is to explain the search engine URL syntax. Privacy Browser expects to be able to append a search term to the search custom URL. What this URL looks like varies based on the search engine, but…
Last updated
Programs that respect your privacy