Privacy Browser

Stoutner

About this app

The only way to prevent data from being abused is to prevent it from being collected in the first place. Privacy Browser has two primary goals.

1. Minimize the data that is sent to the internet.

2. Minimize the data that is stored on the device.

Most browsers silently give websites massive amounts of information that allows them to track you and compromise your privacy. Websites and ad networks use technologies like JavaScript, cookies, DOM storage, user agents, and many other things to uniquely identify each user and track them between visits and across the web.

In contrast, privacy sensitive features are disabled by default in Privacy Browser. If one of these technologies is required for a website to function correctly, the user may choose to turn it on for just that visit. Or, they can use domain settings to automatically turn on certain features when entering a specific website and turn them off again when leaving.

Privacy Browser currently uses Android’s built-in WebView to render web pages. As such, it works best when the latest version of WebView is installed (see https://www.stoutner.com/privacy-browser/common-settings/webview/). In the 4.x series, Privacy Browser will switch to a forked version of Android’s WebView called Privacy WebView that will allow for advanced privacy features.

Features:
• Integrated EasyList ad blocking.
• Tor Orbot proxy support.
• SSL certificate pinning.
• Import/export of settings and bookmarks.

Ratings and reviews

Can we get an option to not clear cookies on a per-domain basis? The linked issue isn't exactly like I was hoping (and hadn't been updated in 2 years). I want to clear most cookies, but not those for my internal home lab services like Gitea or Adguard. Duckduckgo lets me do this. It's the only thing keeping me from fully switching.

Great. The only browser on Android I know of that makes it easy to control JavaScript, cookie and DOM permissions per site without a big hassle. Which is a huge need these days (that other browser devs are ignoring) if you have any concern over your privacy. It also deletes all data folders on quit. My reasons for no full stars are the lack of ability to save trusted cookies, and I don't entirely trust WebView which is based on Chrome. Settings profiles would be nice too. Keep up the good work.

Navigating is tricky (sometimes difficult) because Escape, which I'm used to using to move back a level, dumps one out of the browser, whereas the center button (android) pops out but leaves websites open. I would suggest making escape move back a level, and the attention button close and purge data, if its set up for that on exit. Also, when browsing, a pop up keeps occurring, asking if I want to use the Google or Samsung browser. I've set my default to Duck Duck Go, but don't want ads.

What’s new

• Fix a crash on certain devices when using the bottom app bar.
• Fix the navigation drawer scroll position on Android <= 14 (API <= 34).
• Disable using the web cache.