I was able to try hydraveil for a couple weeks, and it is awesome. It kind of reminds me of the fdroid FFupdater application where you can download different browsers and keep them up to date, in its UI. You can use hydraveil to install different browsers which have been preconfigured for privacy and to circumvent browser fingerprinting. You install them in the app, and they are already set up for private browsing, in a way that makes them indistinguishable, and then you can choose to launch the privacy optimized browser either over a wireguard vpn or tor connection, and since it's not a privacy browser like tor, mullvad, or a hardened ff/brave browser with noscript, the sites still work normally.
So instead of browsing with your regular browser, which can leak metadata and has not been optimized for privacy, you just launch a hydraveil browser, and use it with a VPN or over Tor by default, to greatly improve your online privacy. All in all, it's a sick little tool for your privacy arsenal. It's a plug and play solution for those too busy or too limited technically to set something similar up manually.
The version I used was a linux appimage which means you can use it on almost any distro. There is a cost, hydraveil is a paid service, although it's pretty cheap. this is my honest opinion, and I wasn't paid to write this, although the simplified privacy guys did give me a free 2 week trial to play around with the app so I could check it out, so there's my full disclosure.
HydraVeil Release 1.1.0
New Privacy Features:
--Font randomization per profile, to prevent cross-browser fingerprinting, implemented in the core environment
--Hardened Canvas reset per enabled session, customized and tailored for each of the 4 browser families we support
--Updated Browser Versions for Security
New Quality of Life Features:
--In-app QR codes for XMR/Bitcoin lightning
--Improved Checkout UI flow
SHA-256 sum:
24f34a280447adbea4cb9457b5191cec9a3031c5fa384433d626d63ade7bfdf4
Download link (or do it in app):
https://api.simplifiedprivacy.is/downloads/linux-x86_64/clients/v1.1.0/appimage/hydra-veil-x86_64.AppImage
Gitlab with changes:
https://git.simplifiedprivacy.is/codeking/sp-hydra-veil-core/commits/branch/master
Instructions:
Please upgrade HydraVeil asap, and then upgrade/download the browsers as well (except Chromium see article below). Not only for general browser security, but to take advantage of our new features.
Article with Notes:
https://simplifiedprivacy.com/hydraveil-upgrade-release/new-features.html
View quoted note →
SHA-256 sum:
24f34a280447adbea4cb9457b5191cec9a3031c5fa384433d626d63ade7bfdf4
Download link (or do it in app):
https://api.simplifiedprivacy.is/downloads/linux-x86_64/clients/v1.1.0/appimage/hydra-veil-x86_64.AppImage
Gitlab with changes:
https://git.simplifiedprivacy.is/codeking/sp-hydra-veil-core/commits/branch/master
Instructions:
Please upgrade HydraVeil asap, and then upgrade/download the browsers as well (except Chromium see article below). Not only for general browser security, but to take advantage of our new features.
Article with Notes:
https://simplifiedprivacy.com/hydraveil-upgrade-release/new-features.html