yashsingh1/xdaforums huggingface dataset:
[Android General] sushidog:
Why did you came here then? To defend the most privacy intruder of them all?!

Do you like it? Fine, just use it, but don't be a brainless fanboy trying to sell us such piece of garbage.

Sent from my Nexus 7
[Android General] vipercoyote:
I sure do miss dolphin

---------- Post added at 10:41 PM ---------- Previous post was at 10:39 PM ----------

I hate dolphin! You should read my past Post. But I was simply saying its underrated besides the privacy issue its the best browser out now thos is without the privacy issue
[Android General] mv522:
Wow that's surprising, glad i made the switch to. Boat browser
[Android General] aminaked:
Look a few pages back in this thread. I'll repost...

Boat looks even worse: just look at the permission requirements. Kind of off topic in this thread but I ran an analysis of the Boat APK and posted the following in Boat's forum here on XDA. They never responded.

Comment on this analysis of Boat: http://mobilesandbox.org/xml_report_static/?q=351712

0. Why is Boat reading contacts?

1. Why is Boat reading data logs?

2. Why is Boat reading last known location?

3. Why is Boat reading the subscriber and device IDs?

4. Why is Boat encrypting and phoning home data?

5. What about all of the other garbage brought to light by that analysis?
[Android General] peter-k:
They made computers to make our life easier and enable people to do things they could not do before. But then they started building operating systems having open loopholes for hackers and they started selling us anti virus-software.

They made email for everyone in the world to communicate easily. But from the beginning they made also with build-in gates open for dark individuals to read our stuff, and to use your very own email address and send spam in your name around the world. So they could sell us privacy software and spam blockers.

They made the internet and browers with barn doors open to flood us with ads and spyware, to then push us to use Internet security software.

These were commercial interests. We bite the sour apple and kept silent, since we did get a benefit.

This one here now is far overboard already.

If the free version is with loopholes and open backdoors for NSA, ads and other commercial interests, well they should say that very openly, and also what will be happening if one uses that piece of software. That would enable each of us to make a qualified decision. The paid version however should be absolutely clean and free of this all. I demand this, regretting that previously I paid for Boat thinking I need to support the developer. I feel exploited.
[Android General] vipercoyote:
^^^ Nice read
[Android General] gb.sn:
Although I don't defend dolphin browser and its crappy spyware (i dont use it anymore), you need to understand that country code and carrier's MCC and MNC are not personal information. Device resolution isn't either. Device specs aren't personal information whatsoever. Honestly, I don't even understand why you would be pissed if they take your screen resolution number. However, information in the OP is actual personal information and is a matter of concern, but not what you posted. Nearly every website sees your user agent, operating system, IP address, your country code and all that browser related crap that sometimes includes resolution, some even store it, and put a cookie in your computer for when you come back. So, if you are bothered by it, just cancel your internet provider and live out of the internet. Otherwise, its a bit hypocritical to bash taking device specs on apps but not websites. Even a crapton of free apps on the play store include google ads that you can't even see, its part of analytics.

Also, a lot of the revenue in browsers come from search royalties, firefox makes a lot of money with people using the embedded search like google, bing, yahoo etc. I'd say dolphin also makes money when people search stuff right from the browser nav bar via google or any other provider.

Dolphin's url collection and such is enough to stop using it, but not the fact they collect device specs. Your post for concern is good, just not on the right point. By the way, xda mods can see your ip address, enough to pin point your country code, or whatever VPN services you may be using. Xda also has ads ;D
[Android General] aminaked:
Web sites can only collect so much information, but a browser app can collect so much more. Read Dolphin's privacy policy for a hint as to what they are collecting. In a word, *everything* is up for grabs. A web site that you visit cannot do this. This is why you should not use a spyware browser: http://dolphin.com/privacy/privacy-policy-for-dolphin-browser/

The situation is ridiculous and you cannot defend what browsers like Dolphin do. Saying that an XDA admin can see my IP address is totally different from an app being aware of your every site visit, password, scroll, and touch.

Furthermore, phoning home wastes extra battery power, bandwidth, and CPU cycles but the bottom line is a web browser is supposed to be secure and not leak data.
[Android General] gb.sn:
Do you have problems reading? I said right at the beginning of my post that I wasn't defending dolphin browser for spywareing and I don't even use that crap, read please... Also, my paragraph was not discussing what dolphin can or cannot do with its policy, I said collecting URLs and what you visit is wrong, which is actual personal information. What my post was about is the people complaining about an app collecting device specifications and calling it personal information, when in fact, it isn't and never will be. What dolphin's policy says or not says has nothing to do with what I posted. You do realize that an admin knowing your IP address can cause more stuff (lets not call it damage) than an app querying for what android version you are running and what resolution your phone uses? Performance specifics was not my concern either, I'm talking about personal information that can do damage, not generic stuff like country, OS, cpu speed and things that don't relate to the person in any way to determine lifestyle or specific preferences or link you to a specific issue. Like I said at the end, his concern was there, but the point was the incorrect one. Complain about actual personal tracking/spying, not analytics. Analytics is everywhere, and people complaining about it are naive if they think the only things that collect such information are apps...

Browsers are supposed to not leak personal data ;D This is kind of like complaining about steam collecting your computer specifications for their survey and calling it "personal" information leak, just because they know what clock speed your processor is running at, or the video card you have. I honestly don't understand how that can be used to identify you on a personal level.
[Android General] zolaisugly:
Since dolphin is now up to version 10.x.x.x is this still valid as op stated that after version 7 the webzines is no longer being transmitted.....

Have I missed something?
[Android General] vipercoyote:
No what we are saying is that dolphin is phoning home websites we visit maybe even password or user names. Ip address and our contact list and much more.

They are located on China so I'm sure their laws late laxed. They are phoning home more personal data then most
[Android General] b00b:
Obviously you didnt read my post as well as you claim to have or you did and decided to cherry pick and twist my post to make me appear to not know what privacy detail i should really care about.

My post was on the right path and I was actually complaining about and i will quote my own post -

"apart from the infos mentioned there were 4 other sets of longish numbers that looked hashed/salted info and therefore encrypted, so i/we cant know what was being sent and ask them why they need that info!"

So if you can read properly you will realise that my gripe was about the above and i will quote my own post again -

"siphoning off to their servers, our internet usage and other private data, they are just now very clever at doing so i.e. encrypted it and hiding the codes responsible for this deep within their programming code, so we dont see or recognize it"

So to summarize.

i wasnt complaining solely about my country code and carrier's MCC and MNC being sent to dolphin

I was trying to make the point that - my country code and carrier's MCC and MNC plus (as in together with) the other encrypted stuff gives dolphin and other browers and app that do the same, all they need to collate a mountain of privacy info about their users and that plainly dis-speakable!

Anyway mate - What i concluded from your pointless post is that you are most likely a dolphin employee!
[Android General] aminaked:
http://xdaforums.com/showpost.php?p=48564902&postcount=441

You are all worked up about something and for some reason. I was just pointing out some things. Wise up.
[Android General] Schokonuss:
I want to stick this into my hosts but can't mount system as r/w. How to do this? I have tried 3 different root file managers and couldn't find such an option. I know Root Explorer can do this but I am satisfied with my other ones and don't want to pay money just for mounting system as r/w

Please help me :/
[Android General] rogier666:
Get X-plore and do like in the screenshot:
[Android General] vipercoyote:
How and what do I insert into the host to prevent dolphin phoning home?
[Android General] rogier666:
en.mywebzines.com
pnsen.dolphin-browser.com
tracken.dolphin-browser.com
[Android General] Unreasnbl:
Use a different browser.
[Android General] Nic2215:
Appops in play store or can be found In xposed
[Android General] PresidentMcCain:
Kitkat users have no choice other than Firefox, Dolphin or UC Browser; everything else gets the super laggy Chromium WebView or Chrome.

Firefox, while using its own engine, isn't nearly as fast as the 4.3 AOSP Browser; Dolphin with Jetpack gets very close. Chrome / Chromium WebView = lag galore.

The lag is especially noticeable pinch zooming and panning on Desktop web pages, whereas the lag was non-existent on an older phone with AOSP Browser on the same web pages.
[Android General] Nic2215:
One should try naked browser. I used appops it doesn't collect your location or other information.
[Android General] Citizen_Snips:
If you're not on stock ROM (4.4+), most come with AOSP browser baked in. Just flash a minimal gapps package that won't replace MMS, browser, etc
[Android General] PresidentMcCain:
Except Naked Browser is also subject to the ****ty Chromium WebView present in Kitkat:

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.fevdev.nakedbrowser&hl=en
[Android General] MichaelMcC:
If it's free, it costs the most. I used it on my tablet till just now.
[Android General] matraca:
Hi guys, I am very concerned about privacy that my girl thinks I am paranoid and a tin hat wearer, I was using tint browser but sometimes I get force closes when clicking links. What do you think about lightning browser, is it safe?
[Android General] sushidog:
Tint and Lightning are the best two open source browsers for Android. So yes, it's fine.

Sent from my GT-I9505G
[Android General] matraca:
Thank you.
[Android General] fer2503:
so what's the best browser for 4.4 that doesn't use chromium webView? UC browser? i'm looking for browser that have text reflow and good speed
[Android General] Nic2215:
Good speed naked browser
[Android General] 7sen:
but does not support flash video on 4.4 :eek:

the best for that US BROWSER
[Android General] fer2503:
It have text reflow? Uses chromium webview?

---------- Post added at 02:08 PM ---------- Previous post was at 01:25 PM ----------

Dolphin still have the problem of webzine?
[Android General] wilflare:
man.. so this is still a problem?
[Android General] vipercoyote:
Im wondering the same thing
[Android General] Fnorder:
7.0.2 was clean as per last update in op. I've switched to nakedbrowser since then, but in a fit of boredom I checked out dolphin ~ 2 months ago. No suspicious traffic.
[Android General] biatche:
as of the latest version, how does this work?

the bigger question is that, dolphin is not running, but why is there a background service..... this will take up space/battery unnecessarily. can dolphin just start like any regular browser without a background service?
[Android General] sushidog:
You ask and give the answer yourself. Just use "any regular browser".

/// Samsung Galaxy S4 GT-I9505

/// Press "THANKS" if I helped you
[Android General] starba3:
Does it support flash player? Coz it is important to me
[Android General] Rico ANDROID:
I do not like how Dolphin adds it's app into my device's "Long-Press Process Menus" as if its part of my device's os or system. Even after I have navigated to the process screen and force stopped dolphin, it remains in the menus shown in this screenshot.
[Android General] maluga:
Talking about Dolphin background services.

What bothers me is its watch_server mobi.mgeek.TunnyBrowser uninstall service.

It probably opens your web browser with a survey about why are you uninstalling it and it is started by calling some Runtime.exec() function. It will keep running even if you force close Dolphin.

It is not a clean way of starting a service, if it hangs it will do it forever until you reboot or kill that process from a terminal. Also, it can only be seen if it is running or not, from a terminal.

I don't want that service but still want to use Dolphin to watch some flash video from KitKat so I killed that service, went to /data/data/mobi.mgeek.TunnyBrowser/files/watch_server, changed owner to root and disallowed its execute permissions. Solved.

Maybe not the best way but it works. And maybe if I uninstall Dolphin that root file won't be deleted. Will see.
[Android General] vipercoyote:
geex, I dont even know if I want to use this browser now
[Android General] foggie1702:
Boat Browser conceerns

Can access your browsing history

Apps can access the list of web sites you visited in the browser

Can access your accounts

Apps can discover your accounts and get your email address

May share your location

Apps can determine your current location and send it

:(
[Android General] primetechv2:
Check the permission list for the always running Google or Play Services apps.

Arguably the apps access your private history to provide you with bookmarks, and your location to forward it on to choice sites who ask beforehand.

But hey, almost every app can get away with full Internet access these days, and given the amount of abuse that can be achieved using them, that's a shame.
[Android General] nacos:
One of the most functional browser but a privacy and security nightmare, Be warned!!!

Yes, Dolphin seems very committed to continuing to collect their user's data more and more intrusively. If you get onto a one-on-one with their support team don't get your hopes too high; they'll promise you everything on the face of the earth - yet nothing will ever happen. Been there, done that!!!

...in addition to everything that's been revealed here:

- it leaks/uploads your device's unique identifiers, (Bit Defender's Clueful)

- it leaks/uploads your email address(es) (Bit Defender's Clueful) and

- it requests shell/su permission - which in turn opens up unrestricted back-doors???!!! (the excellent Xposed module XPrivacy)

Uninstalled it despite being one of the most functional browsers out there.

See the attached screenshots!!
[Android General] Rico ANDROID:
Well, I once was an advocate for not using Dolphin for the same reason. However, now that Google is trying to be like Apple, blocking video viewing in their browser, blocking screen recording on various apps and esting up so much of my device with their interwoven backend "must have" apps /servcs..... ive opted to go back to Dolphin and keep a second decice not ugrading to 4.4 or above.
[Android General] nacos:
While I agree with your point and I'm just as bitter as you are about Google turning into a dictator, at least with the big guys like Google, Microsoft or Apple you know what to expect - or at least we think we know, plus there is NOTHING we can do to prevent it anyways. Unfortunately you cannot say the same thing about smaller guys and Dolphin is no exception (MoboTap, the Chinese developer of Dolphin has sold 51% stake to ChangYou, a large Chinese gaming company). Furthermore, stealing emails is Dolphin's very recent implementation and I don't thing is a coincidence the fact that the company got more aggressive/intrusive once they've changed ownership. I think from this point it'll get much more uglier and unfortunately even other big names like Samsung are interested in playing along this dirty game.

No biggie, we're just getting closer and closer to being the actors in our "hunger games". :(
[Android General] Rico ANDROID:
Verrrry true, [MENTION=624432]nacos[/MENTION] !
[Android General] Kore7:
What browser do people use instead?

Since the consensus is that Dolphin is an inherent privacy nightmare, what are people using instead? (And why do so many of you still use Dolphin??)

Boat Browser phones home URLs to umeng.com.

Maxthon Browser phones home URLs to maxthon.com.

Chrome Browser logs who-knows-what back to Google.

These pings can be blocked in hosts files if they're discovered, but who knows what else they're doing behind our backs. Have privacy-conscious people settled on a clean alternative? (Especially since, starting in KitKat, webkit has been replaced with Chrome's webview...with all that implies.)

Are Firefox and Opera the only options left for privacy-conscious users now?
[Android General] nacos:
In my opinion Opera is the next best browser however I'm still using Dolphin (recognizing that it remains the best despite being one of the most intrusive), while I keep it "on a short leash" by tempering its intrusiveness with XPoped. On the other hand it would be unfair not to recognize that lately they've improved a bit on privacy by responding to many users' requests and complaints.
[Android General] JaySee5:
I use Dolphin for everyday browsing and Firefox for anything sensitive/private.
[Android General] Slickone_:
Firefox or Pale Moon.
[Android General] Kore7:
If I recall correctly, the main step Dolphin took (apart from publicly apologizing) was to encrypt the sensitive data first before uploading it. Now that we can't see what's being uploaded, it could be a step backwards for privacy, for all anyone knows. But correct me if I'm wrong.

I use Xposed too, but I'm not sure it helps in this case.

I do something similar. I also wrote a custom root script that automatically flushes every internal file and database in the "sensitive" app so literally no scrap of browsing data is left after I'm done. It's the closest I've come to a sandboxed browser solution for my phone.
[Android General] rj5674:
Sounds nice. Where can we get that? Is it available on XDA?

Sent from my SCH-I545
[Android General] nacos:
There is only so much one can do to protect oneself without breaking the normal functionality of an app. In Dolphin's case that's how I use XPrivacy:

- limited access to phone's accounts

- no access to calendar

- no access to contacts

- no access to emails

- no access to media

- no access to messages

- limited network access

- no access to read phone state at all (all the device's ID are therefore inaccessible)

- no SU access (this is Dolphin's most intrusive permission request - a backdoor to unlimited access to your phone)

As far as browsing data (and data collection generally speaking) I would be much more worried about Google than Dolphin. (By the way, Google will soon be offering the possibility of paying your bills directly from your gmail account - aren't you thrilled???)

Opera offers the best in rendering engine, text reflow and video playback (using their proprietary player). However with Opera has always been one step back - two steps forward. Last example: while they've recently (finally) implemented a decent way to sync bookmarks, after the update the browser also became occasionally unresponsive (jittery) and clearly less fluid. Go figure!

Firefox seems to always be finding weird ways of doing stuff and I believe they rely way too much on add-ons for basics, but the reason I stay away from Firefox mobile is their rendering engine which is plain bad - a deal breaker for me despite the fact that I have always been using Firefox desktop.

Security wise, Opera and Firefox are by far the safest.

On another note (but related) I would strongly recommend installing Clueful Privacy Advisor. It's a (free) little security app from Bitdefender, offering some very interesting insights about the installed apps. :eek:

Just food for thought.
[Android General] DGL2033:
Hi,

There are several good new browser's that block ads & trackers. I know I'm late to this thread, but figured I would add some helpful information.

First off, I came here from a link on Naked Browsers playstore page (the pro version is $5 but worth it) but the free version is only for people to get used to it (no ads or tracking, or any privacy invasion at all) . This developer you may know, but if not, you should. This guy answer's every review, good or bad, but people rave about his privacy browser. He used to use Dolphin but was tee'd off about the issue discussed here. So that's one.

Obviously Firefox is tops, IMHO. But a new browser developed by a Co-founder of Firefox , Named "Brave" was combined with the former Link Bubble browser. Tons of functionality, and blocks ads and trackers too (free, and privacy conscious,he uses a similar business model to Adblock Plus, but is very protective of users) see Brave.com for a full description. Adblock Plus has a stand alone browser (which means SOME ads are displayed), as does Ghostery (but they do sell some data to advertisers) Forget about Opera, as they sold out to a Chinese conglomerate, headed by Qihoo 360. The sale is not complete, but they bought everything that's related to all browsers, including the new VPN software. And as always, Tor has Orfox browser used with Orbot by default, but don't plan on using for any social media, and possibly other sites requiring sign ins.

I hope someone, some day finds this post helpful.

---------- Post added at 06:30 AM ---------- Previous post was at 05:37 AM ----------

To all,

And finally, if anyone would like to know more about privacy issues, I would be glad to help out. But I leave this thread with one very good recommendation. A free adblocker, that blocks tracking to, and works globally on Non-Rooted phones. Visit https://block-this.com/ and there are more threads here at xda developers. Also, there is a forum, and very important, the apk. is listed on GitHub. This app works with just about any app or browser you have, that displays ads. Except Twitter's new mobile feed, but I really don't mind how they have done it within the feed. Facebook is moving towards the same thing. But Chrome, almost all ads disappear, and banners are blank,etc. The developer built this for his own use,and decided to share. You can visit his personal website to gain more insight, here : https://savageorgiev.com/
[Android General] finneko:
I still use Dolphin (and Firefox too). I have set some blockings on hosts file but I really do not care really much if Dolphin see what news site and forums I read. Yeah Yada yada privacy and so on. :)
[Android General] jerryn70:
Which is the best safe browser ?
[Android General] DGL2033:
Hi, in case you missed it, this recent addition to playstore is hands down the safest, most privacy oriented, with the most control of any browser yet to be offered in playstore.

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.brave.browser

This is not the version previously combined with linkbubble browser, but a completely new version offered in addition to that one. This new version is based on Chrome, but is far superior. The individual control of websites is fabulous. You have to experience it to believe it. Others with Adblock capabilities are not this comprehensive. And the simplicity, intuitiveness is what has been lacking in other browsers.