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This just doesn't feel right to me. Firstly, what's a "Private Encrypted Browser" supposed to be? What's making it private? What's even being encrypted? There'
by laksjd 10y ago
This just doesn't feel right to me.
Firstly, what's a "Private Encrypted Browser" supposed to be? What's making it private? What's even being encrypted? There's a high density of buzzwords and a serious lack of explanation.
While it's not always fair to judge a book by its cover, statements like "Smart Incognito™ and Built In 256-bit Encryption" sure feel weird. Good security doesn't come from random trademarked buzzwords or providing a bit number without any context. Actually, those are major warning signs that the product is probably not nearly as secure as it pretends to be. The fact that this is not open-source just underlines that point nicely. Projects that are serious about privacy and security as their main goals always provide source code, not doing so is a sure sign that something other than privacy and security is the main goal.
The entire project seems very flashy but it just gives of an odd smell. The video,too, explains very little and leaves many more questions than it answers. All this seems to be is a somewhat convenient frontend for a proprietary vpn system which allows you to have multiple connections running and associate them to tabs. That's not bad but it's certainly not some world changing super-private thing and the fact that you're trying to present your proprietary VPN solution as your great gift to humanity just rubs me the wrong way.
It doesn't help that VPNs are basically pointless for anonymity since any browsing experience that's usable by normal people (e.g. executes javascript) can be trivially de-anonymised.
- peterwwillis 10y agoIt's not for anonymity, it's for privacy. And the VPN extensions are actually nice... You can do something similar now with a bunch of extra tools, but building them all into one seamless interface enables regular people to get the benefits without needing to spend time learning new technology. If there is a market for this, this would be the first tool to address that market need.
- tenta 10y agoYour comments touch upon a challenge we had when deciding how to market Tenta. At the end of the day, we want this to have mainstream appeal, which means everyone should feel comfortable using and understanding the browser and not necessarily have to know or care how the tech works, but that it simply works. For example, a good test we went through during development was to ask our own parents to review it, to make sure non-tech savvy folks understood the main points and were willing to try this out. Having said that, as I mention below, we are acutely aware that we have a trust and reputation issue since we're brand new. We'll supplement our site with a more technical blog and provide in-depth descriptions of how each feature works and our philosophy behind it. So I totally understand your concern and we'll do our best to address it. If there's anything specific that you'd love for us to write about on our blog, let us know.
- joecool1029 10y agoI don't know why you're marketing this outside of your background. If the average internet user cared very much about state/company privacy we'd have riots in the streets. But alas, we don't. The average HN reader is going to care a lot more about privacy, but they're going to want you to give tech specifics, they won't blindly adopt this based on marketing whizzbang. Since you're from the adult background, why not market this browser to people wanting to view porn at work and not get caught? I'm sure it'd get a lot more adoption since legitimate use case, realistic goals.
- tenta 10y agoWe'll provide the tech specifics too. We know that's super important. Yeah we're not going to run from our background. But having experience in that industry for so long, we already know it will do well there. We're also planning to reach out to people who already use and love incognito mode, ad blockers, vpns/proxies, etc. And to your first point, part of our job now is to do our part in educating people why privacy matters and why Tenta exists. For example, explain why tools like your average browser's incognito mode is useless. That term is completely misleading/false and we will redefine the standard for what it means to be incognito mode.