Disconnect is a partly
open source
Open source is source code that is made freely available for possible modification and redistribution. Products include permission to use and view the source code, design documents, or content of the product. The open source model is a decentrali ...
browser extension and mobile app designed to stop non-consensual third party trackers,
[ and providing private web search and private web browsing. On mobile, it is available for Android and ]iPhone
The iPhone is a line of smartphones developed and marketed by Apple that run iOS, the company's own mobile operating system. The first-generation iPhone was announced by then–Apple CEO and co-founder Steve Jobs on January 9, 2007, at ...
. It was developed by Brian Kennish and Casey Oppenheim. ''Disconnect-Search'' had once been the default search engine of the security-focused Tor Browser
Tor is a free overlay network for enabling anonymous communication. It is built on free and open-source software run by over seven thousand volunteer-operated relays worldwide, as well as by millions of users who route their Internet traffic ...
, which now uses DuckDuckGo
DuckDuckGo is an American software company focused on online privacy whose flagship product is a search engine named DuckDuckGo. Founded by Gabriel Weinberg in 2008, its later products include browser extensions and a custom DuckDuckGo web ...
.
The Electronic Frontier Foundation
The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) is an American international non-profit digital rights group based in San Francisco, California. It was founded in 1990 to promote Internet civil liberties.
It provides funds for legal defense in court, ...
compared the app to its own Privacy Badger
Privacy Badger is a free and open-source browser extension for Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox, Edge, Brave, Opera, and Firefox for Android created by the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF). Its purpose is to promote a balanced approach to ...
browser plugin.Google Play Store
Google Play, also known as the Google Play Store, Play Store, or sometimes the Android Store (and was formerly Android Market), is a digital distribution service operated and developed by Google. It serves as the official app store for certifie ...
five days after its release in late August 2014. Google cited a violation of its Terms of Service which prohibit developers from using its store "to distribute apps that interfere with or disrupt the services of any third party".[Google Bans Disconnect.me App From Play Store Based On Vague Guidelines] This, however, attracted criticism from parties such as EFF (and Disconnect itself) which saw this app as privacy-friendly, and argue that Google's motivations are primarily based on the fact that this app interferes with ad-based revenue models of numerous companies, including Google itself.
See also
* Ad blocking
Ad blocking (or ad filtering) is a software capability for blocking or altering online advertising in a History of the web browser, web browser, an Application software, application or a network. This may be done using browser extensions or othe ...
* Ad tracking
Ad tracking, also known as post-testing or ad effectiveness tracking, is in-market research that monitors a brand’s performance including brand and advertising awareness, product trial and usage, and attitudes about the brand versus their com ...
* Web beacon
A web beaconAlso called web bug, tracking bug, tag, web tag, page tag, tracking pixel, pixel tag, 1×1 GIF, spy pixel, or clear GIF. is a technique used on web pages and email to unobtrusively (usually invisibly) allow checking that a user has ...
* Website visitor tracking
References
External links
*
2014 software
Android (operating system) software
Online advertising
Internet privacy software
IOS software
Software using the GNU General Public License
Free Firefox WebExtensions
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