Epic: A Privacy-Focused Web Browser

Rob @CmdrTaco Malda writes "I've been advising Epic Browser, a startup building a privacy-focused, Chrome-based browser that starts where incognito mode ends. Epic employs a host of tactics designed to make what happens inside your browser stay there, to the tune of a thousand blocks in a typical hour of browsing. They also provide a built-in proxy service. If the corporations and governments are going to watch us, there's no reason to make it any easier for them. Epic has Mac and Windows builds for now. Their site goes into far greater detail about how they block tracking methods most browsers don't."

Maybe I'm an excessive user

[i kan reed]

But 1000 blocks an hour is way short of what Ad-block plus gets with the standard list.

Based on Chromium, not Chrome

[spivster]

The summary is incorrect. This browser is based on the open source Chromium, not Chrome, a subtle but important difference since Chrome has Google's extra tracking goodness. However, I have to wonder why they didn't start with Firefox, which is truly open source and not connected at all with Google, which has pretty much become the poster child of privacy invasion these days.

Proxy ?

[Jimpqfly]

Proxy is a nice option, except when you don't know where the Proxy is... Easy to implement a Proxy and have a look at users communications...

Re: Interesting

[Anonymous Coward]

Wouldn't using some special snowflake browser like this make you especially vulnerable to fingerprinting?

Why another?

[mwissel]

Sounds a lot like SRWare Iron* to me - that's a long existing Chromium-based fork altered for enhanced privacy.

At a first glance, I cannot make out any advantages of Epic over Iron. Aside from the removal of all user tracking which Chrome brings, they only provide a 1-click-proxy functionality. Which, if I used it, would leave me and my privacy at the mercy of an India based startup. Instead, I'd also rather suggest JAP** which is also long and well established.

So what am I missing that makes Epic Browser worth a Slashdot post?

[1] https://www.srware.net/en/software_srware_iron.php [srware.net]
[2] http://anon.inf.tu-dresden.de/ [tu-dresden.de]

Where does the money come from?

[kullnd]

From their page::

Epic like most browsers earns a commission on searches we drive. So the more you use Epic’s default search engine, the more you support Epic and our continued privacy efforts : - ) And best of all your searches always remain exceptionally private since they’re routed via a secure, encrypted connection over a proxy – so private by design when you use EpicSearch.me that we literally can’t know what you’re searching for nor anyone else. Ads and search results never include any personalized results or tracking of any sort and are only based on your search term and general geographical location.

So ... They get paid for searches they drive but those searches don't have any ads or tracking? Again, where does the money come from?

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Re:Interesting

[Samantha Wright]

Can either of them defeat Panopticlick [eff.org]? I don't see anything on Epic's site about hiding font lists. (And on that point, Epic is a bad name choice [makingithappen.co.uk] since it's vaguely synonymous with the death of objectivity in news reporting.)

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Re:Chrome?

[poetmatt]

There's no browser company that doesn't have backdoors, including Mozilla. Whether willingly or not, well - only IE does it willingly.

What do you think encryption research from FIPS 140 is for? Gov't has been given the keys to OS-level encryption for over 8 years, now.

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