Revisit first criterion on the Mobile Browsers page

[Redoomed (Devourer of Documentation)]

Affected Page

https://www.privacyguides.org/en/mobile-browsers/#criteria

Description

In the context of the currently recommended mobile browsers, I find the following criterion for evaluating them strange:

Must support automatic updates.

For Brave (Android), links to the Google Play Store and GitHub releases are provided, both of which support automatic background updates (the latter through Obtainium, which is recommended on Privacy Guides).

For Mull, links to F-Droid repositories are provided; F-Droid Basic (recommended on the site for extraordinary cases) and F-Droid proper both support automatic background updates.

For Safari, it is updated through iOS system updates. According to this support article, the user does need to opt in to automatic system updates.

Regardless, the above criterion requiring support for automatic updates seems misplaced since it is the methods of obtaining each browser that handle automatic updates, not the browser itself.

Sources

How to update the Play Store & apps on Android - Google Play Help

F-Droid - Free and Open Source Android App Repository

Update apps from the App Store on iPhone

[Encounter5729]

No need to change it. Yes, it is managed by the app store, but this criteria is needed to be sure. Someday, an app might decide to bypass Github/F-Droid/Play Store and go directly trough it’s website, in which cases it might not be able to auto-update. Notice the criteria says support.

[dngray (Daniel Gray)]

@Redoomed

Regardless, the above criterion requiring support for automatic updates seems misplaced since it is the methods of obtaining each browser that handle automatic updates, not the browser itself.

Automatic updates criterion is to keep browsers out which require the user manually update them. If they’re distributed through system updates, a repository or an auto update functionality inside the browser then it meets this criteria.