This might be the most secure browser in the world - but also the least

A screenshot of Ulaa's Open Season mode, in bright danger red.

Zoho has released a secure browser that can - if you, really, really want - leave you a sitting duck for ad trackers and big tech, while priding itself on other robust security features.

Its new browser, Ulaa, disables monitoring of mouse movement and clicks, preventing you from becoming a marketing statistic. That’s on top of the standard ad, notification, and pop-up blockers.

It also offers "a multi-ID model, which is frequently refreshed, making it impossible to correlate a signed in user to a browsing session." That’s an extremely important measure in an age where countless nebulous ad companies see nothing wrong with tracking you across the internet.

Open season for web privacy violation

Ulaa goes the other way with a supposedly ill-advised “Open Season” mode, turning off all of its protections. From the bright danger-red color scheme to the repeated warnings that users are being watched and their data harvested, it’s clear that the overall aim is education.

This all sounds great, then, but Ulaa - like many, many browsers currently out there - is a Chromium offshoot. Go out into the street and ask people if they know what Chromium is, and when they all say “no”, you’ll realize that, for all of Zoho’s good intentions, it may just be preaching to the choir.

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The leading browsers are the domain of big tech, that’s a (probably irreversible) given. 

Microsoft Edge and Apple’s Safari are bundled with the most popular operating systems in the world, and Google Chrome belongs to a household name, making it the most popular browser available. Mozilla’s Firefox, a solid privacy-focussed choice, has seen its market share dwindle.

Zoho’s UIaa browser is a terrific idea in theory, but it’s unlikely to change any minds about the importance of online privacy, or raise awareness of the dirty tricks ad and social media companies use to track your activity for their own purposes. Plus, if you’ve heard about Ulaa at all, you probably have an existing browser designed to protect your privacy.

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Via The Register