Decentraleyes is a free and open-source browser extension used for local content delivery network (CDN) emulation. Its primary task is to block connections to major CDNs such as Cloudflare and Google (for privacy and anti-tracking purposes) and serve popular web libraries (such as JQuery and AngularJS) locally on the user's machine.[3] Decentraleyes is available for Microsoft Edge, Mozilla Firefox + Firefox ESR, Google Chrome, Pale Moon and Opera web browsers.[4]
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Original author(s) | Thomas Rientjes[1] |
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Stable release | 2.0.18
/ August 24, 2023 |
Repository | git |
Written in | Javascript, HTML, CSS |
License | Mozilla Public License 2.0[2] |
Website | https://decentraleyes.org |
Overview
editDecentraleyes is bundled with 14 Javascript libraries; AngularJS, Backbone.js, Dojo, Ember.js, Ext Core, jQuery, jQuery UI, Modernizr, MooTools, Prototype (including script.aculo.us), SWFObject, Underscore.js, and Web Font Loader. It can locally redirect connections to the Google Hosted Libraries, Microsoft Ajax CDN, CDNJS (Cloudflare), jQuery CDN (MaxCDN), jsDelivr (MaxCDN), Yandex CDN, Baidu CDN, Sina Public Resources, and UpYun Libraries networks.[5] With these bundled resources in the software package, they are served to the user locally from his machine, as opposed to from a server.[6] The blocking of connections to these CDNs is claimed to result in faster loading times for the end user.[7]
Reception
editLifehacker has recommended Decentraleyes as a solution to help prevent the user's data from being tracked by Google.[8] CloudPro, a UK-based cloud computing publication, endorsed Decentraleyes as a way of blocking malicious man-in-the-middle CDN attacks.[9]
History
editDecentraleyes was first released in late 2015, compatible with the Firefox browser.[10]
Between 2016 and 2017, a spinoff extension called LocalCDN was created. It brought the functionality of Decentraleyes to Chromium based browsers, for which it was not available at the time (until later that year).[11][12]
In October 2017, Decentraleyes 2.0.0 was released. The new version was rewritten from scratch to comply with the new Firefox browser add-on standards and had a more consistent user interface and better support for right-to-left languages.[13][14]
References
edit- ^ Rientjes, Thomas. "Synz Solutions". synz.io. Archived from the original on 17 November 2019. Retrieved 6 June 2020.
- ^ "LICENSE.txt · master · Thomas Rientjes / decentraleyes · GitLab". git.synz.io. 24 November 2015. Archived from the original on 6 June 2020. Retrieved 6 June 2020.
- ^ Colby, Clifford (22 August 2018). "Stay private and protected with the best Firefox security extensions". CNet. Archived from the original on 19 November 2018. Retrieved 6 June 2020.
- ^ "Decentraleyes - Local CDN Emulation". decentraleyes.org. Archived from the original on 24 November 2015. Retrieved 6 June 2020.
- ^ "Decentraleyes - Free Software Directory". Free Software Foundation. Archived from the original on 21 September 2019. Retrieved 6 June 2020.
- ^ Williams, Dwen (1 February 2016). "Take privacy one step further and use this extension to block content delivery networks". The Next Web. Archived from the original on 1 February 2016. Retrieved 6 June 2020.
- ^ "Decentraleyes Firefox Add-On Speeds Up Page Loads by Emulating CDNs Locally". Softpedia News. 30 March 2016. Archived from the original on 24 April 2016. Retrieved 6 June 2020.
- ^ Hesse, Brendan (14 February 2020). "Mozilla's New Firefox Android App Only Supports These Extensions For Now". Lifehacker. Archived from the original on 14 February 2020. Retrieved 6 June 2020.
- ^ Clark, Steve (1 November 2018). "How to immunise your browser against the latest security threats". cloudpro.co.uk. Archived from the original on 1 November 2018. Retrieved 6 June 2020.
- ^ Brinkmann, Martin (23 November 2015). "Decentraleyes for Firefox loads CDN resources locally". Ghacks. Archived from the original on 25 November 2015. Retrieved 6 June 2020.
- ^ Brinkmann, Martin (15 February 2017). "Local CDN for Chrome". GHacks. Archived from the original on 17 February 2017. Retrieved 6 June 2020.
- ^ Fray, James (2016-12-01). "first commit". Local CDN’s Git repository. Archived from the original on 2021-03-23. Retrieved 2020-08-04.
- ^ "Decentraleyes version history - 14 versions – Add-ons for Firefox (en-US)". addons.mozilla.org. Archived from the original on 4 December 2015. Retrieved 6 June 2020.
- ^ Rientjes, Thomas (October 12, 2017). "v2.0.0 tag". GitLab. Archived from the original on 2022-02-06. Retrieved 2022-02-06.