Tempest Browser

[Catweazle]

Tempest is another Chromium based browser from Ireland, with some interesting features and, like Vivaldi an inbuild ad/trackerblocker.
It has also an own privacy focused search engine, Tempest search, which I'm currently testing (take also a look, @stardepp, for your collection).

I don't know what this browser is like, maybe someone here already uses or has used it and can say something more.

In any case, it is to be welcomed that the EU is also getting its act together to be able to compete in a market dominated by the US and China, until now only defended by Vivaldi, after the failure a few years ago of the French UR browser and the testimonial presence of the German. KDE Konqueror.

[mathieulefrancois]

Interesting and on mobile it used a fork of Firefox apparently

[Catweazle]

@mathieulefrancois, it's Chromium, maybe imite the UI of FF on Android.

I found this review
https://www.privacyjournal.net/tempest-browser-review/

[mathieulefrancois]

@Catweazle it's chromium on desktop, but on iOS and Android it's using Firefox.

Here I installed it on my phone

Found an older post on Reddit by their product manager:

[stardepp]

@Catweazle This browser is 99 percent similar to Google Chrome, I don't like it at all. The search engine has no advantages either, in my opinion.

[Thot]

@Catweazle Why to take another Browser if you have Vivaldi, with all the history behind it and longterm developers, introducing for instance tabs for the first time in olde Opera?

The user interface alone is scary and removes the trust in this „new“ browser, so the UX.

[mathieulefrancois]

Yeah, I tried Tempest out a bit, it was okay but so bare bones. I quickly uninstalled it.

[Catweazle]

@Thot, I used other browsers as Vivaldi, but all with different engines (Mulvad (Gecko), SSuite Netsurf (WebView), Otter (Qt5)), for tests if arrise an issue, to see if it is caused by Vivaldi (Chromium) or general for all browsers. No need of another Chromium with Vivaldi as the best one.

[iqaluit]

@Catweazle Upon your post I went ahead and downloaded to put it to test. It is identical to Chrome, processes fast!.
I haven't checked privacy side but it gives away A LOT just by looking at the default search engine options and it is a no-go. You can understand from that section with which companies a browser deals behind the scenes. That is typical. And we don't know what the browser is doing behind, in the kitchen while you browse. I wouldn't advise this browser to anybody. There are better alternatives if we care about privacy. That's my take on it so far with limited testing.

[Catweazle]

@iqaluit, yes ALWAYS is needed to read TOS and PP, that is the only trustworth indication, because it's a legal contract with the user. Not so with which companies they have relations.

There they are required by law to specify in detail what they do with your data, with which data, how they treat it and what your rights are.

For this reason, as a general rule, the shadier the company, the longer these documents and with more legal jargon that is difficult to understand, to bore the user by preventing them from reading it.

A company that has nothing to hide, does not need such long documents and texts that require legal training to understand.

I think that Tempest is a reasonble private respecting browser, but as said by other users and the review said, nothing special, a Chrome with somewhat better privacy and certainly not an alternative to Vivaldi.

[iqaluit]

@Catweazle True for the wording being complicated and omiting and I agree on that however some practices in the past ( i.e. DDG) proved that some questionable stuff might be going on. As I said before , my testing is very limited and dowloaded only because your comments were positive. I typically don't download without extensive research. Thanks for your input