Ungoogled Chromium is a fork of the Chromium web browser, which is the open-source project that serves as the foundation for Google Chrome. The main goal of Ungoogled Chromium is to remove all connections to Google services and user tracking mechanisms, thus enhancing privacy and reducing data collection.
Here are some key aspects of Ungoogled Chromium:
Privacy Focus: Ungoogled Chromium aims to eliminate any features or connections that could potentially compromise user privacy. This includes removing features like Google’s Safe Browsing, which checks visited URLs against a blacklist.
User Control: The project emphasizes giving users more control over their browsing experience by removing features that send data to Google or other third parties without user consent.
Open Source: Like Chromium, Ungoogled Chromium is open-source, meaning its codebase is publicly available for review and contributions from the community.
Regular Updates: Ungoogled Chromium is typically updated regularly to incorporate security patches and improvements from the upstream Chromium project while maintaining its privacy-focused modifications.
Extension Support: It supports Chrome extensions, allowing users to customize their browsing experience with a wide range of available extensions from the Chrome Web Store.
Platform Availability: Ungoogled Chromium is available for various operating systems including Windows, macOS, and Linux.
Avoiding Google’s Surveillance: One of the strongest arguments for using Ungoogled Chromium is Google’s well-documented history of tracking users, even when they believed they were browsing privately. Google has been caught collecting user data even in Incognito Mode, a practice that directly contradicts the expected privacy of that feature. This undermines user trust and highlights the need for browsers like Ungoogled Chromium, which actively strip out Google’s telemetry and tracking code to prevent such silent data collection.
It’s worth noting that while Ungoogled Chromium enhances privacy by removing Google’s tracking mechanisms, it doesn’t guarantee complete anonymity or protection from other potential privacy risks. You should still take necessary precautions such as using VPNs and other privacy-focused tools for comprehensive protection.