Abrowser - Address Bar - Preference to use as search: Button unchecked, but still insists on search
Hello,
I have unchecked to radio button in preference's preference to disallow search from Address Bar.
However, the Address Bar still shows the default search engine.
And, it drops down to offer search engine choice when an address is being typed.
Escape is pressed to exit that options drop down, but it would seem to indicate that the search is still triggered upon 'enter'.
Is there a way to stop this behavior?
Thanks.
There is no radio button in preferences to disallow search from Address Bar. Not on my version of abrowser, which is version 84.0.2.
If you really want to turn off search from the address bar, go to about:config, and set "keyword.enabled" to "false".
I don't recommend it, however. It will send you to a lot of weird websites if you accidentally type in a search term or if you mis-spell a web address.
Hello andyprough,
Thanks.
My version of abrowser is 81.0.2 in Trisquel 9.0 32-bit.
Synaptic pkg. mgr. shows that is the latest version.
It does have the option in preferences under the Search catagory to choose to search from either the Address Bar or an additional search bar in the toolbar, which can be added. It is an either or for some reason. But when the additional search bar radio button is selected, the other button for the Address Bar is consequentially deselected, yet the behavior of the Address Bar does not change.
Thank you for pointing out the config setting controlling the behavior.
I tested a couple of blind mistakes and I was not taken to any site, rather abrowser returned an error page in each case.
When typing an address, a dropdown box still appears, but now, no search engine is indicated.
That's good to hear. I am not using 32-bit, so it sounds like our experiences and version numbers are a bit different. I'm glad that's working out for you.
Hello,
In case it were to matter later and as a note:
When typing in an url address in the Address Bar, at the point of reaching the colon (:), the dropdown box switches to the DuckDuckGo logo and says, "search with DuckDuckGo."
Then, after typing the following two slashes (//), entering any character changes out the DuckDuckGo logo and 'suggestion to search' with another logo (looks like a globe) followed by all of the entered characters.
Also, when there is nothing added into the Address Bar, there is still the default message in the Address Bar in light lettering, "Search with DuckDuckGo or enter address."
As above, for now I take it on faith that the solution offered by andyprough (thanks again) does indeed prevent an unintended solicitation for communication with DuckDuckGo corporation.
If your main objective is to avoid sending info to duckduckgo, then you could change your default search engine to something more privacy respecting, like a searx instance. For example, this is one that's generally respected for privacy in Switzerland: https://searx.info/search
Go to that site and perform a search. You'll get a little green "+" sign in your abrowser search box (see pictures). Click that green "+" sign and you can add that searx instance to your search engines. Right click on it and you can make it default.
Or you can even host your own searx instance and make that your default search engine.
Hello andyprough,
Thanks.
I appreciate your sharing your time for this.
I thought DuckDuckGo and Startpage both advertise privacy as a feature too.
What is the difference? Or, how would I be able to know the difference, in terms of privacy, and data collection, or other profiling (e.g. let me imagine a fictional one: such as by use of language proficiency), between either of those or searx?
Well, Searx is a web search engine built by the community, and you can even create your own Searx search engine on your own computer if you like. All the code is AGPL licensed and available online for your inspection at this site: https://github.com/searx/searx
The built-in privacy protections are discussed here: https://searx.github.io/searx/user/own-instance.html#how-does-searx-protect-privacy
They include the following points:
1. removal of private data from requests going to search services
2. not forwarding anything from a third party services through search services (e.g. advertisement)
3. removal of private data from requests going to the result pages
If you want to use a public instance of Searx, they are all listed and ranked in terms of their privacy features here: https://searx.space/
Their privacy features are open and inspected, so the rankings should be accurate.
I prefer Switzerland based instances ("CH" country code), as they have some of the best privacy protections against government seizure in the world. So I tend to use this instance: https://searx.info/
But you could also look for one that is closer to you or faster or has the top-rated privacy features you are looking for.
So the difference with duckduckgo and Startpage is that they are both private companies, and they are both going to be using some amount of proprietary code. I still use both of them when necessary to help find something, but I am aware that because of the nature of their businesses and code that they aren't going to be as transparent as Searx.
Another private company with privacy policies similar to duckduckgo is Swisscows.com, which gives you the benefit of their servers being in Switzerland and not subject to the government seizures of data that most companies located in other countries would be subject to.
Bottom line - Startpage, Swisscows, and Duckduckgo give better search results and each one promises privacy, but Searx is running fully open code and is going to give you the strongest assurance of real privacy.
Hello andyprough,
Thanks.
I will see what I can learn about Searx.
As an aside, I am not concerned about "...best privacy protections against government seizure..."
One question that keeps coming up is how would an individual keep up with changes to any instance of,... anything open source or 'community' built.
I find it difficult on one hand to acknowledge bad actors all over the planet, in or out of governments, and then embrace that the 'community' is to be thought of as benevolent and a member of the Community not being able to affect code in the nature of for example the zero day which the best experts find overly difficult to discern its presence. (so I have read)
I have in the past been lightly counselled away from a 'no hope' forecast. Whereas, it were possibly more effective, not necessarily affective, to face open-ly the circumstances in hope as the only way real solutions to problems were to be resolved, and not to mention the embrace of a general principle of attaining to knowledge might be the 'good' thing.
Any guidance here is to be welcomed too.
Hi Mr.r,
The reason that protection against government seizure of data is important is that in jurisdictions where this is permissible, governments have forced tech companies to put backdoors into their cloud and email systems, so the governments can watch everything you are doing in real time. The PRISM project and MUSCULAR project that Edward Snowden exposed were two examples of this, where everything someone put into a gmail or a yahoo mail or a microsoft online email message was being read by government actors in real time. And they were sharing data with 14 different country's spy agencies. And then on top of that, there is a high concern that rogue governments like North Korea who are involved in global phishing and identity theft and fraudulent credit card and ransomware programs may have hacked their way into some of the backdoors that these government agencies had forced on the tech companies. So ultimately it becomes a bigger risk, and not just a privacy risk but also a security risk.
Hello andyprough,
Interesting.
How is the average going to avoid that random number of known and unknown possible threats? It seems like it could come from anywhere at anytime, and one wouldn't know that they were unsuccessfully evading, if that is what they were trying to do.
Thank you and I think that I might opt, if it is alright with you, to end conversing on this thread. It might be straying, even though it is following a reasonable course.
Unless, you think it more appropriate to continue here.