Hello,
I was just wondering if anyone has heard of or installed whale browser: Naver Whale , I think it’s developed in korea . I did in fact evaluate it but since I’m not familiar with the korean language it makes it difficult to try and use the browser properly.
Thanks,
David
The privacy policy being only in Korean means there isn’t any way to evaluate it without fluent ability in the language.
That alone is enough to make me not want to use it.
In the pages that are in English, I don’t see anything about security audits. As far as I can tell, the code is proprietary and closed-source, so there’s no way for experts outside of their company to examine it.
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That makes perfect sense, being honest I gave up on this browser because of several factors, security & I couldn’t read the information contained on their pages. Thanks for your response.
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What made you interested in this browser in the first place?
I’ve always liked evaluating new & different software, but this time I was very disappointed with the whale browser.
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As a native Korean, I can confidently say NO to Whale browser, or whatever product from Naver, Daum (Kakao) for privacy. It’s just pure garbage. I’d rather use Edge, seriously.
Edit) for those wondering about Whale browser’s and Naver’s privacy policy, I translated some part from the Whale’s privacy policy (https://policies.whale.naver.com/ko/privacy-whitepaper)
Internet Basics (인터넷 기본)
Whale helps users find, browse, and interact with websites on the intranet or the Internet. When users access the Internet or use software that includes the ability to use the Internet, basic information from the device (PC, Tablet, Mobile Devices) is sent to the site or service provider they visit. In addition, the minimum basic information needed to provide the Whale function is sent to Naver.
Basic information that is required for Internet use includes, but is not limited to, IP address, browser information (version and format information), access time, HTTP Header, Referr, website address (URL), OS information (OS name, version, etc.). Such information is typically recorded automatically on the Web server of the site you visit. What information is recorded for how long and for what purpose is used is subject to the privacy policy of the site or service provider you visit.
It’s closed source, forbids reverse-engineering, definitely collects telemetry (and doesn’t even clarify what it collects and how it’s managed). There are tons of better chromium-based browsers such as ungoogled-chromium, Brave, Cromite, etc.
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Thanks so much for clarifying what I feared about the whale browser as far as privacy concerns. I’m so glad that I decided to stop trying to use it.
If it’s not open source, I would not consider it a viable alternative browser, as the most competitive privacy respecting options are based on at least some core of OSS.
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I would also add that even in South Korea, the browser has mainly been used at schools and other educational institutions, e.g. to conduct online classes, as it has some in-house video conferencing abilities built in. Naver is a giant Internet corporation and has been pushing its services, including this browser, heavily. The majority of Koreans use other browsers though, with the main one being Google Chrome (which is no different than the rest of the world).
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