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posted by martyb on Tuesday March 17 2020, @07:06PM   Printer-friendly
from the What-about-lynx? dept.

Arthur T Knackerbracket has found the following story:

Microsoft Edge is one of the least private web browsers — even more so than other popular browsers like Google Chrome and Mozilla Firefox — according to academic researchers.

According to the analysis, from Douglas Leith with the School of Computer Science and Statistics at Trinity College in Ireland, Edge sends privacy-invasive telemetry to Microsoft’s back-end servers — including “persistent” device identifiers and URLs typed into browsing pages.

Leith measured the connections made by six browsers to back-end services during web browsing sessions. From these measurements, he deduced Brave Browser to be the most private, with Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox and Apple Safari coming in as part of a less-secure second group. In the third, least private group was Microsoft Edge and Russian web browser Yandex Browser. Internet Explorer wasn’t included in the research since it is largely confined to legacy devices.

“The results of this study have prompted discussions, which are ongoing, of browser changes including allowing users to opt-out of search auto-complete on first startup plus a number of browser specific changes,” said Leith, in research released last week. “From a privacy perspective Microsoft Edge and Yandex are qualitatively different from the other browsers studied. Both send persistent identifiers than can be used to link requests (and associated IP address/location) to back-end servers.”

[...] “When the same identifier is used across multiple transmissions it allows these transmissions to be tied together across time,” he explained. “While linking data to a browser instance does not explicitly reveal the user’s real-world identity, many studies have shown that location data linked over time can be used to de-anonymize [users].”


Original Submission

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Firefox Browser Use Drops as Mozilla's Worst Microsoft Edge Fears Come True 133 comments

Firefox Browser Use Drops As Mozilla's Worst Microsoft Edge Fears Come True

Back in April, we reported that the Edge browser is quickly gaining market share now that Microsoft has transitioned from the EdgeHTML engine to the more widely used Chromium engine (which also underpins Google's Chrome browser). At the time, Edge slipped into the second-place slot for desktop web browsers, with a 7.59 percent share of the market. This dropped Mozilla's Firefox – which has long been the second-place browser behind Chrome – into third place.

Now, at the start of August, we're getting some fresh numbers in for the desktop browser market, and things aren't looking good for Mozilla. Microsoft increased its share of the browser market from 8.07 percent in June to 8.46 percent in July. Likewise, Firefox fell from 7.58 percent to 7.27 percent according to NetMarketShare.

[...] As for Mozilla, the company wasn't too happy when Microsoft first announced that it was going to use Chromium for Edge way back in December 2018. Mozilla's Chris Beard at the time accused Microsoft of "giving up" by abandoning EdgeHTML in favor of Chromium. "Microsoft's decision gives Google more ability to single-handedly decide what possibilities are available to each one of us," said Beard at the time. "We compete with Google because the health of the internet and online life depend on competition and choice."

[...] Microsoft developer Kenneth Auchenberg fought back the following January, writing, "Thought: It's time for Mozilla to get down from their philosophical ivory tower. The web is dominated by Chromium, if they really *cared* about the web they would be contributing instead of building a parallel universe that's used by less than 5 percent."

Is the browser monoculture inevitable or will Firefox hang in there?

Previously:


Original Submission

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  • (Score: 4, Interesting) by ikanreed on Tuesday March 17 2020, @08:08PM

    by ikanreed (3164) Subscriber Badge on Tuesday March 17 2020, @08:08PM (#972445) Journal

    My out the gate assumption is that all major browsers make money by being deep in bed with advertisers.

  • (Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday March 17 2020, @08:41PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday March 17 2020, @08:41PM (#972469)

    So what's the problem?

  • (Score: 2) by hendrikboom on Tuesday March 17 2020, @10:20PM

    by hendrikboom (1125) Subscriber Badge on Tuesday March 17 2020, @10:20PM (#972505) Homepage Journal

    Makes me wonder about the duckduckgo browser.

  • (Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday March 17 2020, @10:29PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday March 17 2020, @10:29PM (#972511)

    When Windows 10 telemetry tries to send your personal data to Redmond at the same time as Microsoft Edge tries to rape your privacy, which data packets get prioritized?

  • (Score: 2) by ilsa on Tuesday March 17 2020, @10:41PM

    by ilsa (6082) Subscriber Badge on Tuesday March 17 2020, @10:41PM (#972514)

    Show of hands? Anyone? *crickets*

  • (Score: 0, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday March 18 2020, @01:15AM

    by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday March 18 2020, @01:15AM (#972580)

    fuck you microshit

    from win 3.11 on up you can suck a dick

  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday March 18 2020, @07:56PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday March 18 2020, @07:56PM (#972891)

    > he deduced Brave Browser to be the most private

    RIP, good sir.

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