Psylo, which bills itself as a new kind of private web browser, debuted last Tuesday in Apple’s App Store, one day ahead of a report warning about the widespread use of browser fingerprinting for ad tracking and targeting.

It was a fortuitous coincidence.

Psylo for iOS and iPadOS was created by Mysk, a Canada-based app biz run by software developers and security researchers Talal Haj Bakry and Tommy Mysk.

“Psylo stands out as it is the only WebKit-based iOS browser that truly isolates tabs,” Tommy Mysk told The Register. "It’s not only about separate storage and cookies. Psylo goes beyond that.

“This is why we call tabs ‘silos.’ It applies unique anti-fingerprinting measures per silo, such as canvas randomization. This way two Psylo tabs opening the same website would appear as though they originated on two different devices to the opened website.”

  • FireIced@lemmy.super.ynh.fr
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    1 day ago

    I’ve done both app and phone browser banking, and they’re pretty interchangeable, just set up site shortcuts on your home screen instead

    Won’t work for things like neobanks (revolut, n26, trade republic, sumeria)

    Also many banks have a disastrous web interface in my country, and card 2FA is sometimes only done on the app for internet payments

    I know not having the app makes me unable to get Burger King offers, or use the Yuka app, both of which I really need

    • Prismaarchives@lemmy.ml
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      23 hours ago

      Won’t work for things like neobanks (revolut, n26, trade republic, sumeria)

      Ya know, fair enough there ngl, I forgot about those and it definitely makes a difference if you’re reliant on an app.

      Also many banks have a disastrous web interface in my country, and card 2FA is sometimes only done on the app for internet payments

      Yeah, not much can be done about bad web design. I found that me during a period abroad, it was a worthwhile compromise, but sometimes it can be brutal to deal with.

      I know not having the app makes me unable to get Burger King offers, or use the Yuka app, both of which I really need

      Gotcha, but in that case, it’s effectively them bribing privacy concessions from you. That’s part of the payment trade-off there.

      I don’t really disagree with your points here; it highlights the importance of threat modelling. On a country-by-country basis, things may be far easier or harder. For example, when I was in Japan, I used fewer privacy-questionable apps due to less cultural and technological impetus than I have in the States. The differences you’re having issues with are likely heavily based on both infrastructure and value differences between much of the comm and you. I frankly make many privacy compromises compared to others here myself, but that is less do to the alternative being backwards but more so due to it being ever so slightly more inconvenient.

      • FireIced@lemmy.super.ynh.fr
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        10 hours ago

        I believe you got it right. There’s an important part of me but it’s clear that it’s not ready for mainstream use due to too many edge cases

        I know it made it really annoying for me to hear that X OS works nice and stuff when I didn’t have the same experience at all because I wasn’t willing to make the same compromises

        I still believe this should be highlighted more. I feel that is talked about in the Windows vs Linux debate but pretty silenced when it comes to Normal vs Custom phone ROM, where I believe the problems are indefinitely harder to solve