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Old 02-17-2020, 07:55 PM   #21 (permalink)
freebeard
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My ignorance on the subject is because I'm not curious enough to Google it.
Good for you. Resist that temptation.

In other news, the browser I use was acquired by System1. tech.slashdot.org: Alternative Browser 'Waterfox' Acquired By System1 (waterfox.net)
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Long-time Slashdot reader Freshly Exhumed contextualized the news with this brief history of the alternate browser ecosystem:
As the usage share of web browsers continues to show a lopsideded dominance by Google Chrome, many previously-independent browsers have fallen by the wayside or have been reinvented as Chrome variants (i.e. Opera, Edge, Brave). Apple forges on with its Safari browser while other, smaller projects tend to be quite limited for multi-platform users, such as Dolphin and Bromite.
....
Alex Kontos is a developer who attempted to provide continuity with dropped Firefox capabilities in his multi-platform Waterfox browser, proudly declaring that Firefox's user data sharing and telemetry collection was not included. For that privacy focus a certain popularity of Waterfox occurred. Now Kontos has revealed that his Waterfox project has been sold to System1, a company describing itself as "a consumer internet and applications company with the most powerful audience expansion platform in the industry."
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Also notice startpage.com (Score:5, Interesting)
by higuita ( 129722 ) on Sunday February 16, 2020 @05:03PM (#59733968)

the privacy search engine starpage.com was also acquired by the same company back in November (but hidden behind other shell companies). so also be careful with that one
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Re:

It's very suspicious because Waterfox is basically going nowhere. The old extensions are mostly abandoned and the browser will never complete with Firefox on performance.

So what value do they see in owning it?
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Re:Also notice startpage.com (Score:5, Insightful)
by higuita ( 129722 ) on Sunday February 16, 2020 @06:05PM (#59734094)

Probably the same objective as startpage, monitor and quantify people that are outside the other tracking platforms. Both waterfox and startpage are used by people that want to avoid tracking, so they want to track those people to quantify the market. They can sell what other companies can't, tracked and untracked people profiles

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Originally Posted by serialk11r
There's that report of a man from Japan contracting the virus in Hawaii...I feel like it's only a matter of time before lots of cases are discovered in the continental US. I'm in NYC so my chances are very high :/
I'm following Dr. John Campbell. He seems to know what he's talking about.

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