Donate to e Foundation | Murena handsets with /e/OS | Own a part of Murena! Learn more

Skip to content
README.md 9.24 KiB
Newer Older
csagan5's avatar
csagan5 committed
# Bromite - Take back your browser

<img src="https://www.bromite.org/release.svg" alt="current Bromite release" title="current Bromite release" /> <img src="https://www.bromite.org/license.svg" alt="GNU GPL v3" title="GNU VPL v3" />
csagan5's avatar
csagan5 committed

csagan5's avatar
csagan5 committed
<img title="Bromite - take back your browser!" src="https://www.bromite.org/android-icon-192x192.png" width="96" alt="Bromite" />
csagan5's avatar
csagan5 committed

csagan5's avatar
csagan5 committed
Bromite is [Chromium](https://www.chromium.org/Home) plus some patches for ad blocking and enhanced privacy.
csagan5's avatar
csagan5 committed

Bromite is only available for Android v4.4 and above.
<img src="https://www.bromite.org/bromite_bromite_gh_downloads.svg" alt="downloads on Github" title="downloads on Github" />
csagan5's avatar
csagan5 committed

csagan5's avatar
csagan5 committed
# Goals

Bromite aims at providing a no-clutter browsing experience without privacy-invasive features and with the addition of a fast ad-blocking engine.
Minimal UI changes are applied to help curbing the idea of "browser as an advertisement platform".

csagan5's avatar
csagan5 committed
# Donate

Please donate to support development of Bromite and the costs for the build system.

[&rarr; Support development with a donation](https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_s-xclick&hosted_button_id=JP3XTQPVRNET2): [![paypal](https://www.bromite.org/assets/img/btn_donate_LG.gif)](https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_s-xclick&hosted_button_id=JP3XTQPVRNET2)
csagan5's avatar
csagan5 committed

csagan5's avatar
csagan5 committed
<a href="bitcoin:3MkC3idL61npQSCxL1gceksmRTkNkiCPcG">BTC donations address</a>: `3MkC3idL61npQSCxL1gceksmRTkNkiCPcG`
csagan5's avatar
csagan5 committed

ETH donations address: `0xf47ff39223d828f99fec5ab53bd068c5c0522042`

csagan5's avatar
csagan5 committed
# F.A.Q.

## Does Google Sync/Translate/Data saver work?
No.
This is not a limitation of Bromite but of all Chromium-based projects in general, as general public is not allowed to use Google's APIs for free unless when using Chrome.

csagan5's avatar
csagan5 committed
Additionally, these features would not be privacy-friendly.

csagan5's avatar
csagan5 committed
## Does Bromite require root?
No.

csagan5's avatar
csagan5 committed
## Is Bromite de-googled?

Yes, although this has not been verified (and hardly can be) under all situations; if you were to find connections to cloud-based services please report them via the issue tracker.
Projects which follow a strict approach on this are [Iridium](https://iridiumbrowser.de/) and [Inox patchset](https://github.com/gcarq/inox-patchset).

Carl's avatar
Carl committed
## What is the SystemWebView?
It is the core component of Android for all web page visualizations. For example when you access a new wifi network and need to activate it, that is using the SystemWebView. If you do not know what it is then you do not need to install it.

See also [the wiki page](https://github.com/bromite/bromite/wiki/Installing-SystemWebView) for community-contributed installation instructions.

csagan5's avatar
csagan5 committed
## How to enable DNS-over-HTTPS?

See [this wiki page](https://github.com/bromite/bromite/wiki/Enabling-DNS-over-HTTPS).
csagan5's avatar
csagan5 committed

## Can you add HTTPS everywhere?
No.
csagan5's avatar
csagan5 committed
We cannot add add-ons to Bromite (merely some features).
## Is Bromite on Play Store?
csagan5's avatar
csagan5 committed
No, and this is unlikely to change. Many limitations apply for submissions there, including which ads are allowed to be blocked.

Bromite favors user freedom in software choice: the device is yours so you get to choose which software to run on it, end of the story.

## Is Bromite on F-Droid?
csagan5's avatar
csagan5 committed
It is not on the official F-Droid repository and there are no (more) plans to submit it.

You can use F-Droid client to install and receive updates via [the official Bromite F-Droid repository](https://www.bromite.org/fdroid).

## Does Bromite support WebRTC?
Yes, since version 69. While the desktop version of Chromium has an option to disable it (video/audio site settings), the Android version cannot.
csagan5's avatar
csagan5 committed
# Features

* native adblock engine
csagan5's avatar
csagan5 committed
* remove click-tracking and AMP from search results
csagan5's avatar
csagan5 committed
* DNS-over-HTTPS support via Google, Cloudflare, Quad9 and AdGuard servers
csagan5's avatar
csagan5 committed
* [proxy configuration page](https://github.com/bromite/bromite/wiki/ProxyConfiguration) with PAC and custom proxy lists support
csagan5's avatar
csagan5 committed
* [StartPage](https://startpage.com/), [DuckDuckGo](https://duckduckgo.com/) and [Qwant](https://www.qwant.com/) search engines
csagan5's avatar
csagan5 committed
* chrome flags to disable custom intents and clear session on exit
csagan5's avatar
csagan5 committed
* always-incognito mode
csagan5's avatar
csagan5 committed
* completely removed safe browsing and other privacy-unfriendly features
csagan5's avatar
csagan5 committed
* anti-fingerprinting mitigations for canvas, audio, client rects, webGL and sensor APIs
* use fixed User-Agent to conceal real model and browser version
csagan5's avatar
csagan5 committed
* privacy enhancement patches from [Iridium](https://iridiumbrowser.de/), [Inox patchset](https://github.com/gcarq/inox-patchset), [Brave](https://brave.com/) and [ungoogled-chromium](https://github.com/Eloston/ungoogled-chromium) projects
csagan5's avatar
csagan5 committed
* security enhancement patches from [GrapheneOS](https://github.com/GrapheneOS) project

## Features not related to privacy
* import/export bookmarks
* allow playing videos in background tabs and disable pause on switching tabs
csagan5's avatar
csagan5 committed
* all codecs included (proprietary, open H.264 etc.)
* [AV1 codec support](https://github.com/bromite/bromite/wiki/AV1-support)
csagan5's avatar
csagan5 committed
* built with official speed optimizations

csagan5's avatar
csagan5 committed
You can inspect all functionality/privacy changes by reading the patches: https://github.com/bromite/bromite/tree/master/build/patches
csagan5's avatar
csagan5 committed

# Privacy limitations

Bromite's privacy features, including anti-fingerprinting mitigations (which can be easily circumvented), **are not to be considered useful for journalists and people living in countries with freedom limitations**, please look at [Tor Browser](https://2019.www.torproject.org/projects/torbrowser.html.en) in such cases.

csagan5's avatar
csagan5 committed
# Releases

csagan5's avatar
csagan5 committed
All built versions are available as [releases](https://github.com/bromite/bromite/releases); the [official website](https://www.bromite.org/) points to those releases and - when browsing via Android - it will automatically select the one apt for your device (or none otherwise).
csagan5's avatar
csagan5 committed

Each tag corresponds to a Chromium Stable release tag.
csagan5's avatar
csagan5 committed

Bromite is currently built for ARM, ARM64 and x86 and for the Android SDK versions 19 and 21; [Bromite SystemWebView](https://www.bromite.org/system_web_view) is provided as well (SDK21+).
csagan5's avatar
csagan5 committed
For every Bromite build you can always find a matching [vanilla Chromium](https://www.bromite.org/chromium) build which is used for example to verify which issues are specific to Bromite or not.
csagan5's avatar
csagan5 committed
All official releases are also available through the [official third-party F-Droid repository](https://www.bromite.org/fdroid).
## Integrity and authenticity

You can verify the integrity of a downloaded APK file from this project with any `sha256sum`-compatible tool by downloading the corresponding `brm_X.Y.Z.sha256.txt` or `chr_X.Y.Z.sha256.txt` file, where X.Y.Z is the release version number. Example:
```
$ sha256sum --check brm_68.0.3440.54.sha256.txt
arm64_SystemWebView.apk: OK
arm64_ChromePublic.apk: OK
arm64_ChromeModernPublic.apk: OK
```

If you prefer an UI-based tool, you might want to look into [GtkHash](https://github.com/tristanheaven/gtkhash).

You can verify authenticity, e.g. that the author ([csagan5](https://github.com/csagan5)) released the file, by using gpg2:
```
$ gpg2 --quiet --verify brm_68.0.3440.54.sha256.txt.asc
gpg: assuming signed data in 'brm_68.0.3440.54.sha256.txt'
gpg: Signature made Sun 08 Jul 2018 04:22:52 PM CEST using RSA key ID D85DC0C5
gpg: Good signature from "csagan5 <32685696+csagan5@users.noreply.github.com>"
```

You can download csagan5's public GnuPG key from here: [csagan5.asc](./csagan5.asc).

**NOTE:** releases before v68 did not have published signed hashes files.

csagan5's avatar
csagan5 committed
# How to build

csagan5's avatar
csagan5 committed
The [Bromite main repository](https://github.com/bromite/bromite) contains tags for each corresponding Chromium release (see https://chromium.googlesource.com/chromium/src.git).
csagan5's avatar
csagan5 committed

Please refer to [official Chromium build documentation](https://www.chromium.org/developers/how-tos/get-the-code) to get started on how to build Chromium; if you can build Chromium for Android, you can build Bromite.

csagan5's avatar
csagan5 committed
The GN args used to build Bromite are available here: [GN_ARGS](./build/GN_ARGS).
csagan5's avatar
csagan5 committed
The patches are to be applied second the order specified in the `bromite_patches_list.txt` file (you can use `git am`).

## How to build the filters

See upstream documentation: https://github.com/chromium/chromium/blob/master/components/subresource_filter/FILTER_LIST_GENERATION.md

Bromite uses an unindexed filter file, which is periodically published at https://github.com/bromite/filters
csagan5's avatar
csagan5 committed

csagan5's avatar
csagan5 committed
# Credits

csagan5's avatar
csagan5 committed
* [Chromium project](https://www.chromium.org/Home) and developers
* [Iridium project](https://github.com/iridium-browser) for some patches
csagan5's avatar
csagan5 committed
* [ungoogled-chromium](https://github.com/Eloston/ungoogled-chromium) for some patches
csagan5's avatar
csagan5 committed
* [GrapheneOS](https://github.com/GrapheneOS) for some security patches
* [Inox patchset](https://github.com/gcarq/inox-patchset) for some patches (via ungoogled-chromium)
* [Brave Browser](https://github.com/brave/browser-android-tabs) for some patches
* nochromo for the original adblock patch, currently used only in the SystemWebView
* [Vadim Pleshkov](http://vadimpleshkov.me/) for Bromite's logo
csagan5's avatar
csagan5 committed

csagan5's avatar
csagan5 committed
# Filters credits
csagan5's avatar
csagan5 committed
* [EasyList](https://easylist.to/#easylist)
* [EasyPrivacy](https://easylist.to/#easyprivacy)
* [uBlock Origin](https://github.com/uBlockOrigin)
csagan5's avatar
csagan5 committed

csagan5's avatar
csagan5 committed
# License

csagan5's avatar
csagan5 committed
The patches published as part of the Bromite project are released under [GNU GPL v3](./LICENSE).
csagan5's avatar
csagan5 committed

[version-image]: https://img.shields.io/github/release/bromite/bromite.svg?style=flat-square
[version-url]: https://github.com/bromite/bromite/releases/latest
csagan5's avatar
csagan5 committed
[license-image]: https://img.shields.io/github/license/bromite/bromite.svg
[license-url]: https://github.com/bromite/bromite/blob/master/LICENSE