CLIQZ, a web browser with integrated tracking protection

[OpenSourcerer 1442]

CLIQZ GmbH is a start-up based in Munich, Germany, developing the web browser Cliqz.

 

Cliqz focuses on two things:

1. An integrated "advanced" tracking protection feature which rewrites "unsafe" tracking links to fixed fake ones.
   If you are using CLIQZ, your tracking data would be mixed with those of other users, making it harder to identify you as a specific user with a specific profile.
2. A revamped search feature powered by Human Web, a web index by CLIQZ to which other users passively contributed.
   In short, they seem to have edited the relevancy calculation a bit so that the ways how users interact with the search results are more important than technical things like links.
3. It can redirect your search queries through CLIQZ' proxy servers. Their location is not documented.

Some thoughts:

1. and 3. can easily be integrated into the regular Firefox as well via extensions, so it's not that new.

2. might be interesting, but building a search index the way they do it requires data from users. Besides, it directs the search query to another search engine if the user couldn't find what he was looking for.

They added an about:transparency page which lists all the data your usage of the browser generated. But they completely removed addon support for security reasons, so you can't install things like NoScript which, ironically, would contribute to your security..

 

Cliqz can be downloaded from its website. Current version is 1.0.2 based on FF 44.0.2 (as of post date, not edit date).

 

Update: Mozilla officially announced a strategic investment into Cliqz GmbH, the developer of the browser CLIQZ.

Edited ... by giganerd

[zhang888 1066]

Shipping a privacy focused browser without uBlock Origin and HTTPS Everywhere is a crime

[me.moo@posteo.me 80]

Sounded interesting at first, then not so much

[OpenSourcerer 1442]

Update: Mozilla officially announced a strategic investment into Cliqz GmbH, the developer of the browser CLIQZ. (german resource)

 

It's also a Firefox addon.