By Modupe Gbadeyanka
A privacy-centric browser known as Ulaa, built specifically to help users secure their personal data and activity by providing a browser solution that universally blocks tracking and website surveillance, has been launched by a global technology company, Zoho.
Zoho disclosed that the newly-launched web browser’s name originates from the Tamil language and connotes the beginning of a journey into a secured browsing experience, as Ulaa, which is free and has desktop, iOS and Android versions, was developed to protect against tracking and surveillance and is rooted in three areas.
“Not many browsers on the market today are built to protect user privacy. They were created to protect the respective company’s ad-based business models and surveillance companies that complement them.
“This conflict between user’s preferences and browser’s business models means end users lose,” the Country Manager for Zoho Nigeria, Mr Kehinde Ogundare, said.
“With Ulaa, users don’t have to compromise their privacy to browse the web, which unfortunately has become a surveillance minefield. Zoho’s commitment to privacy and a privacy-centric business model allows us to offer a conflict-free, privacy-centric browser,” he added.
According to Norton, 85 per cent of global adults want to do more to protect their online privacy, with two-thirds of global consumers feeling that tech companies have too much control over their data.
Zoho said Ulaa is the next step in its long-standing commitment to privacy and is designed to help users protect their personal information and internet activity from the prying eyes of user tracking.
The browser has a family-friendly Kids Mode to provide a safe online space for children to learn, play games, and explore content. It has content filtering and Parental Control features to block inappropriate websites.
In addition, it has ad and data tracking blockers to prevent unauthorised push notifications, pop-ups, and time tracking. It does not track or share user data with any third parties, as DNS prefetching is prohibited, preventing data caching.
Zoho said Ulaa comes equipped with tabs management options to view all open tabs in one place to be grouped and organised. Users can easily switch between tabs or move tabs to a different mode or a new window. It comes with integrated productivity apps, including Zia Search for existing Zoho users, Text2Speech, and Zoho Notebook, a dedicated note-taking space that works across all tabs. Ulaa includes Annotator, a new, built-in feature that can add annotations directly to web pages and images.