European Commission chucks cash at UR – the universal language of mind your own biz Privacy-focused French browser developer UR* has scored a grant from the European Union it hopes will help turbo charge its nascent technology. UR, founded two years ago in 2015, plans to use the funds to bring its browser to a larger number of people. The French startup scored the funding by fulfilling two core values of the …
"There is nothing they describe that can't be achieved using existing browsers with plugins and a good VPN," Honan told El Reg"
All of which require you to go off, research and then install the appropriate plugins (many of which won't work soon) and software.
The idea is the simplicity, not the feature set.
Yes they do need more scrutiny, but he is missing the point.
BTW Startpage do a lot of this.
"All of which require you to go off, research and then install the appropriate plugins"
Sure. The alternative suggested here requires you to go off, research and then install the appropriate browser. How exactly is that any better? Anyone who knows this browser exists and is willing and unable to use it is also perfectly capable of setting up another browser to do exactly the same things.
Ultimately is all comes down to educating the end users. Producing ever more products that will supposedly do all the work and not require them to know what they're doing does help, it just adds to an ever growing list of products that most people don't know about and wouldn't know how to use anyway. Is it really easy to educate people about an entirely new browser and how to use it, rather than to educate them how to install a couple of plugins on the browser they're already using?
"Is it really easy to educate people about an entirely new browser and how to use it, rather than to educate them how to install a couple of plugins on the browser they're already using?"
Yes.
See how Google managed to push Chrome over all other browsers by pestering promising it would be "better". Most users are not El Reg readers and can just about grasp the idea that "Install XYZ and you are safer" but not the list of plug-ins, settings and a VPN subscription (and matching network changes or app to manage it) needed to achieve the same goal.
"The alternative suggested here requires you to go off, research and then install the appropriate browser. How exactly is that any better?"
Better than researching individual plugins and their settings, as well as making sure thare they are not Trojan horses by themselves? I'd say much, MUCH better for Joe User. I'll indulge in a (necessarily flawed) analogy: sure you can go buy a shelf at Ikea, but how is it better than go buy a few raw planks, cut them to size, buy a set of proper tools, decide on the design, implement it then paint the thing?
The difference is: unfortunately, no matter how hard you try to educate users, the effort is just too hard for most. See for example El Reg's reporting on a fine piece of research on the matter:
https://www.theregister.co.uk/2017/06/13/privacy_betrayed_for_a_pizza/
In IT sec a one-stop shop is a GOOD thing, provided of course that it can be trusted. The guy from that company seemed straightforward enough about the strengths and possible shortcomings of his product, I'd tend to trust him more than the usual snake oil sellers that pollute the "ITsec for consumers" scene. Of course it *could* be an elaborate scheme, but that's going to be easy to verify. In one step.
The "perfect VPN" connundrum is almost impossible to tackle in my opinion (and not just for your project). It's good that you did not set up your own, as it removes the "single point of pressure" that could undermine the whole thing, unless you can have access to enough funds to set up and operate proxies in several countries operating under separate laws, operated by proxy companies set up under these same laws, and that's going to cost dearly. Using distributed Tor-like models would severely impair the performances (and let's be honest, that maket is already crowded). Using third-party VPN services will let you open to criticisms (and / or unpredictable costs, possibly) but is certainly the safest route for now, as long as you keep monitoring said VPN services for possible changes in, erm, "allegiance", which in itself has a cost.
In any case, that's a step in the right direction, keep it up!
I love VPNs (Google think I'm in Rejkjavik at the moment)
But some wise person pointed out that things are worth what you pay for them.
Arguably, once you've paid for writing software, it doesn't matter whether it's used by 1000 people or a billion, there is no serious on-going cost (yes, I know, security updates etc, but in an ideal world...stay with me on this). Install it and use it for ten years, there is still no cost.
But a commercial VPN relies on a serious network setup, and lots of servers in lots of different countries. That costs big bucks (unless NSA/GCHQ are picking up the tab). There are a lot of free or peanuts VPNs out there - ask the question, who pays the bills?
Personally I'm happy paying a fiver a month for mine.
No, this confirms that bureaucrats will throw money at anything as long as it has the right buzzwords to make them sound good for supporting. What WILL confirm if there is a clear opening in the market for Yet Another Web Browser is if anyone actually bothers to download, install it, and then a month later continue to use it.
Frankly, I wouldn't be surprised if a major browser player doesn't just bundle their browser with the plugins needed to provide the same features into their browser and then call this bundled installer package something like Firefox Secure or Solid Chrome.
And then MS will try a me-too, it will be full of holes, no one will use it even though a Windows 10 update automatically installs it against your will, and eventually they will be sued for bundling products and Europe will force them to release a non-bundled version while everyone else gets away with the exact same behavior.
"All of this, of course, can be achieved by users running one of the better known browsers simply by adding their preferred extension or third-party service to benefit from additional security and privacy."
But the vast majority don't do so, they just operate under the default config of whatever browser they use.
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