Iron Portable - chromium browser [spyware / adware]

Submit portable freeware that you find here. It helps if you include information like description, extraction instruction, Unicode support, whether it writes to the registry, and so on.
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webfork
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Re: Iron Portable

#16 Post by webfork »

I tested SRware Iron Updater to see if it would work with the portable version of the program
http://www.softpedia.com/get/Internet/B ... ater.shtml

I set the values for each field respectively:

SRware Iron Location: c:\whatever\iron.exe
Update URL: http://www.srware.net/en/software_srwar ... wnload.php
Download URL: http://www.srware.net/downloads/IronPortable.zip

Edit: The program will check for version number but I don't think it can automatically extract the files the way it wants to with the installer. I wasn't able to test this completely, but I'd be surprised if it worked.

Posted something to GHacks about it, but evidently the moderator didn't find it worthwhile.

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joby_toss
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Re: Iron Portable

#17 Post by joby_toss »

Found an interesting read over at portableapps.com forums: http://portableapps.com/node/34465

freakazoid
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Joined: Wed Jul 18, 2007 5:45 pm

Re: Iron Portable

#18 Post by freakazoid »

Yup, as I stated here in the comments section of Iron Portable:
http://www.portablefreeware.com/index.php?id=1459#22026

I stopped using Iron a long time ago.
is it stealth? ;)

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smaragdus
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Re: SRWare Iron - spyware

#19 Post by smaragdus »

According to this article SRWare Iron is spyware.

appsuser
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Re: Iron Portable

#20 Post by appsuser »

According to this article SRWare Iron is spyware.
Most of the tests on this site are a year or two old. I'm not doubting the data, just would be interesting to see more recent results, especially with the outing of large companies selling user data in the news. Probably not much change for products like Iron Portable, but I'd like to see if there's any improvement for products like Brave, etc.

freakazoid
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Re: SRWare Iron - spyware

#21 Post by freakazoid »

smaragdus wrote: Mon Jul 08, 2019 2:57 pm According to this article SRWare Iron is spyware.
Unlike the Slimjet article on Neocities, I agree with this one :D

This is old news though!
is it stealth? ;)

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webfork
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Re: SRWare Iron - spyware

#22 Post by webfork »

freakazoid wrote: Tue Jul 09, 2019 7:48 pm This is old news though!

I think the broader suggestion here is that we take down the "privacy enhanced" notice on the entry. An analysis from back in 2013 from Cnet at minimum suggested it's no better or worse than standard Chrome: https://www.cnet.com/how-to/three-priva ... -compared/

More recently, Howtogeek noted the same thing and that they were behind on their updates: https://www.howtogeek.com/108384/6-alte ... le-chrome/

I think that's plenty of evidence so I'm going to update the entry.

billon
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Re: Iron Portable

#23 Post by billon »

Image

come on guys, only four left!

Stephen Leibowitz
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Re: Iron Portable - chromium browser [spyware / adware]

#24 Post by Stephen Leibowitz »

Here are some ideas about dealing with browser privacy issues.

Download the browser installation file and temporarily disconnect from the Internet. Then extract and launch. Change problematic settings before reconnecting to the Internet. For GC, instead of an online installer, you can use a standalone offline installer, but it is not portable.

Many browsers have default settings that are bad from a privacy standpoint, but the user is allowed to change them. For example, it is common for browsers to allow the user to change the search engine. For Chromium-based browsers, a thorough check of Settings > Privacy and security is a good idea. For example, Customized behaviors includes Sites that can never use cookies. Another site-specific setting would allow session, but not persistent cookies: Always clear cookies when windows are closed. Both these settings have the option to block third-party cookies on this site. There is also a General setting to Send a "Do Not Track" request with your browsing traffic.

A user might consider shifting away from the “enhanced safe browsing” protection in Chromium and other browsers to Cloudflare 1.1.1.2 . See also this for Cloudflare.

Also, the hosts file can be used to block undesirable Internet sites. For example:
127.0.0.1 www.doubleclick.net

Here are some programs to edit and backup/restore the hosts file:
BlueLife Hosts Editor
HostsXpert
Hosts File Editor
Softpedia hosts file tag

Hosts seems to work well with Firefox. It can be a challenge to get it to work with Chromium-based browsers, but this might help: Privacy and security > Security > Turn use secure DNS (DoH) off. In place of DoH, Enable DNS over TLS (DoT). TLS 1.3 is enabled by default in Win 11 and can be fully enabled in Win 10.

It is likely that during the browser setup, the user will miss some undesirable sites. Fortunately, the user can add these sites later to a list mentioned above, and delete cookies and site data for individual sites or Clear browsing data.

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