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 AngularJS is a discontinued free and open-source JavaScript-based web framework for developing single-page applications. It was maintained mainly by Google and a community of individuals and corporations. It aimed to simplify both the development ...

) locally on the user's machine. Decentraleyes is available for the Microsoft Edge,

Mozilla Firefox Mozilla Firefox, or simply Firefox, is a free and open-source web browser developed by the Mozilla Foundation and its subsidiary, the Mozilla Corporation. It uses the Gecko rendering engine to display web pages, which implements current and a ...

Firefox ESR Mozilla Firefox, or simply Firefox, is a free and open-source web browser developed by the Mozilla Foundation and its subsidiary, the Mozilla Corporation. It uses the Gecko rendering engine to display web pages, which implements current and ...

Google Chrome Google Chrome is a cross-platform web browser developed by Google. It was first released in 2008 for Microsoft Windows, built with free software components from Apple WebKit and Mozilla Firefox. Versions were later released for Linux, macOS ...

Pale Moon Pale Moon is an open-source web browser with an emphasis on customization; its motto is "Your browser, Your way". There are official releases for Microsoft Windows and Linux, as well as contributed builds for various platforms. Pale Moon origi ...

and

Opera Opera is a form of theatre in which music is a fundamental component and dramatic roles are taken by singers. Such a "work" (the literal translation of the Italian word "opera") is typically a collaboration between a composer and a librett ...

web browsers.

Overview

Decentraleyes is bundled with 14 Javascript libraries;

Backbone.js Backbone.js is a JavaScript rich-client web app framework based on the model–view–controller design paradigm, intended to connect to an API over a RESTful JSON interface. Backbone is known for being lightweight, as its only hard dependency i ...

Dojo A is a hall or place for immersive learning or meditation. This is traditionally in the field of martial arts, but has been seen increasingly in other fields, such as meditation and software development. The term literally means "place of the ...

Ember.js Ember.js is an open-source JavaScript web framework that utilizes a component-service pattern. It allows developers to create scalable single-page web applications by incorporating common idioms, best practices, and patterns from other single-pa ...

, Ext Core, jQuery, jQuery UI,

Modernizr Modernizr is a JavaScript library that detects the features available in a user's browser. This lets web pages avoid unsupported features by informing the user their browser isn't supported or loading a polyfill. Modernizr aims to provide feat ...

, MooTools,

Prototype A prototype is an early sample, model, or release of a product built to test a concept or process. It is a term used in a variety of contexts, including semantics, design, electronics, and Software prototyping, software programming. A prototyp ...

(including script.aculo.us), SWFObject,

Underscore.js Underscore.js is a JavaScript library which provides utility functions for common programming tasks. It is comparable to features provided by Prototype.js and the Ruby language, but opts for a functional programming design instead of extending o ...

, 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. With these bundled resources in the software package, they are served to the user locally from their machine, as opposed to from a server. The blocking of connections to these CDNs is claimed to result in faster loading times for the end user.

Reception

Lifehacker ''Lifehacker'' is a weblog about life hacks and software that launched on January 31, 2005. The site was originally launched by Gawker Media and is currently owned by G/O Media. The blog posts cover a wide range of topics including: Microsoft W ...

has recommended Decentraleyes as a solution to help prevent the user's data from being tracked by

Google Google LLC () is an American multinational technology company focusing on search engine technology, online advertising, cloud computing, computer software, quantum computing, e-commerce, artificial intelligence, and consumer electronics. ...

. CloudPro, a UK-based

cloud computing Cloud computing is the on-demand availability of computer system resources, especially data storage ( cloud storage) and computing power, without direct active management by the user. Large clouds often have functions distributed over mul ...

publication, endorsed Decentraleyes as a way of blocking malicious

man-in-the-middle In cryptography and computer security, a man-in-the-middle, monster-in-the-middle, machine-in-the-middle, monkey-in-the-middle, meddler-in-the-middle, manipulator-in-the-middle (MITM), person-in-the-middle (PITM) or adversary-in-the-middle (AiTM) ...

CDN attacks.

History

Decentraleyes was first released in late 2015, compatible with the Firefox browser. Between 2016 and 2017, a spinoff extension called LocalCDN was created. It brought the functionality of Decentraleyes to

Chromium Chromium is a chemical element with the symbol Cr and atomic number 24. It is the first element in group 6. It is a steely-grey, lustrous, hard, and brittle transition metal. Chromium metal is valued for its high corrosion resistance and hardne ...

based browsers, for which it was not available at the time (until later that year). 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 more consistent user interface and better support for right-to-left languages.

References

External links

* {{Portal bar, Free and open-source software 2015 software Free security software Google Chrome extensions Internet privacy software Computer-related introductions in 2015 Free Firefox WebExtensions