this post was submitted on 23 Nov 2023
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After trying different browsers on android I found Privacy Browser to be what I need. It have encrypted backups,Domain settings,jsless by default,Deleting all site data and Most usable UI. Only issue is It is based on webview and I am using system default webview as my device is nonrooted so how secure is to go this way?

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[–] [email protected] 2 points 11 months ago (3 children)

Webview is whatever version of Chrome you have installed, so not very.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago) (1 children)

That depends on the ROM/OS. Granted, we're in the Android community, but GrapheneOS uses a hardened rendering engine, and never Chrome's/Android's even if you install them both from the Play Store:

WebView-based browsers use the hardened Vanadium rendering engine, but they can't offer as much privacy and control due to being limited to the capabilities supported by the WebView widget. For example, they can't provide a setting for toggling sensors access because the feature is fairly new and the WebView WebSettings API doesn't yet include support for it as it does for JavaScript, location, cookies, DOM storage and other older features. For sensors, the Sensors app permission added by GrapheneOS can be toggled off for the browser app as a whole instead. The WebView sandbox also currently runs every instance within the same sandbox and doesn't support site isolation.

https://grapheneos.org/usage#web-browsing

[–] [email protected] 2 points 11 months ago (3 children)

Can you install an alternative webview if you have root/magisk?

[–] [email protected] 2 points 11 months ago

Yes you can, DivestOS has one, Bromite (no longer maintained) previously did.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 11 months ago

Out of curiosity, why would you want to?

I honestly don't know as rooting and magisk go against the principles of a secure OS that GrapheneOS strives for. At that point, it is no longer GrapheneOS but GrapheneOS-derived, and the devs will not offer support... rightfully so, in my opinion.

Is it possible? I assume it is, but probably very difficult. Has someone gone through the effort to do so? Doubtful as that goes again the target audience of GrapheneOS users.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago) (1 children)

This mentality of Google = bad and FOSS = good and secure is harmful.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 11 months ago

nah, there are legitimate concerns around chrome's privacy stuff, a lot of people would be fine if they could run cromite or one of the privacy centric forks. the main issue is that vendors for some reason lock down webview to the google play store provider. I presume this is due to some false security notion around a bad webview being installed. but that would be a lot of steps so...

[–] [email protected] 1 points 11 months ago (1 children)

Android system webview is a different app and chrome is removed from my current user?

[–] [email protected] 1 points 11 months ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 1 points 11 months ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 1 points 11 months ago (1 children)

It's still Chrome and it's only technically a different app unless you've rooted your phone to replace it.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 11 months ago