All I know is that Kagi triggered my scam alarms from the start, and moving into the browser market just made them ring even louder.

https://help.kagi.com/orion/faq/faq.html#oss

We’re working on it! We’ve started with some of our components and intend to open more in the future.

The idea that “open-source = trustworthy” only goes so far. For example, the same tech company that offers a popular open-source browser also has the largest ad/tracking network in history, with that browser playing a significant role in it. Another company with a closed-source browser (using WebKit like Orion) is on the forefront of privacy awareness and technologies in its products.

So, does anyone here remember when all chromium browsers had a secret api that sent extra data to google? Brave, Opera, and Edge got hit by this one, but I think Vivaldi dodged it. They all removed this after they found out, but still…

When it comes to things like browsers, due to the sheer complexity and difficulty to truly audit chromium, I don’t really consider chromium to be “open source” in the same sense as many other apps. Legally, you can see and edit the code. But in practice, it’s impossible to audit all of it, and the development is controlled by a single corporation who puts secrets in it, or removes features that harm their interests (manifest v3). Personally, I consider Minecraft Java to be closer to open source than chromium is.

To say that:

The idea that “open-source = trustworthy” only goes so far

is really just a cop-out and excuse for not being transparent with their code and what they are doing.

I know it’s a privacy focused browser, and I’ve used it on my iPad. It’s a decent enough browser. The best feature is that on iOS it actually supports plugins like ublock.