Privacy and security
Your browsing stays your business.
OwnWeb keeps your history, bookmarks, Library and apps on your own computer. You decide what is blocked, what a site may use, what an app may touch and what the agent may do without asking.
- On your device by default
- History, bookmarks, saved passwords, your Library and every app’s data are stored on your computer. Nothing is uploaded unless you turn on a feature that needs it.
- No account needed to browse
- Browsing, the Library, local apps and an agent that uses your own model all work without signing in.
- No browsing history collected
- OwnWeb does not send the pages you visit to us. Optional usage statistics are a separate choice, off until you turn them on.
Private tabs
A tab that forgets.
Open a private tab with Ctrl+Shift+N. It sits in the same window, coloured violet so you always know which is which, and leaves nothing behind when the last one closes.
What a private tab does not keep
- No history entry, and nothing offered in “Reopen closed tab”.
- Cookies and site data live in memory and are deleted when the last private tab closes.
- No offer to save passwords.
- Permission answers last only for that tab and that site.
- Not restored when the browser starts again.
A private tab hides your activity from other people who use this computer. It does not hide it from the websites you visit, your employer or your internet provider.
Blocking
Choose how quiet the web should be.
Ad and tracker blocking has three settings, and a list of sites where you have chosen to let ads through.
Off
Pages load as their owners built them. This is how a fresh install starts.
Standard
Ads and known trackers are blocked. Sites you want to support can be allowed one by one.
Strict
A wider set of lists for people who would rather fix the occasional broken page than be followed.
- Third-party cookies
- Block cookies set by sites other than the one you are on.
- Always use secure connections
- OwnWeb tries HTTPS first and labels an http: page “Not secure”.
- Cookie pop-ups answered
- OwnWeb can answer “Reject all” on cookie consent pop-ups for you, tells you when it has, and leaves alone the sites you choose.
- Pop-ups
- Blocked or allowed, your choice.
- Clear when the browser closes
- Choose which kinds of data are wiped every time you quit.
- Cookie manager
- See what each site has stored and delete one site’s data or all of it.
- History you control
- Keep history forever, 90 days or 30 days. Clear the last hour, today or everything.
Blocking uses published filter lists and does not catch everything. It is a control you choose, not a promise that nothing tracks you.
Profiles
Separate lives, separate spaces.
A work profile and a personal profile do not share bookmarks, history, sign-ins, Library or apps. Open both at once in separate windows and nothing crosses over.
- Passwords
- A built-in password manager, encrypted with your operating system’s keychain. Saved passwords are never given to the agent or to apps.
- Site permissions
- Camera, microphone, location and notifications are asked for per site and remembered. Change or revoke any answer in Settings.
Apps and the agent
Nothing gets more access than you gave it.
Apps and the AI agent are powerful, so each has a boundary the browser enforces.
- Apps declare what they need
- Every app lists its permissions in plain words before you install it. An app that reads files can read only the files or folder you pick.
- Apps are kept apart
- Each app has its own storage, separate from other apps and from other profiles. One app reaches another only when you grant it.
- Apps are reviewed
- The readable source of every published app is reviewed, and the reviewed source is what gets built and signed.
- The agent needs your say-so
- A step that changes, sends or deletes something runs only with an approval you gave: for that step, for the task, or as a standing rule you can withdraw. Payments, passwords and account security are always handed back to you.
- You see where text goes
- Before anything is sent to a cloud model, OwnWeb shows which provider will receive it. A model on your own device sends nothing.
- Keys in the system key store
- Provider keys you add are stored in your operating system’s key store, not in a settings file.
These are controls and boundaries, not a guarantee against every fault. If you control a device you can always inspect what software on it does.
Next