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Freeserve founder, Ajaz Ahmed, has launched his next global freebie, Browzar, a new internet browser which allows people worldwide to surf the Web without leaving a history of websites visited and protects against leaving personal details on the computers they use to access the internet.
The launch of Browzar comes after AOL employees published personal search histories of 685,000 of its US customers and recent research found one in five second hand computers are resold with personal data left on them by previous owners*.
Free and downloadable in seconds or run directly from the Web, Browzar does not require any installation or registration and doesn’t save information from any websites visited while using it. Cache, history, cookies and auto-complete forms are all automatically deleted, protecting people’s privacy while online.
If you want to know what people using your computer have been searching for, just click in the box in your search engine, it’ll probably make very interesting reading. If you double click in Browzar, you’ll get no list of search terms.
Ajaz Ahmed, founder of Browzar, said: “Browzar will do for surfing and searching the web with privacy what eBay did for auctions and My Space did for social networking. It is the first in a range of products that we’ll be rolling out this year.
“We divulge masses of information about our habits, hobbies and financial dealings while online, often unknowingly, and there are times when all of us would rather this was kept private. Using Browzar, anyone worldwide can surf the Web privately in the knowledge that no-one will stumble across the sites they have visited when using the same computer.
“You can use Browzar through your existing internet window to run it directly from the Web, so you don’t even need to download it to the computer you use. If using a shared computer, it gives you peace of mind that you are not leaving personal details behind after you have finished surfing the Web.”
We divulge personal and financial information online creating a risk to our privacy and security as standard internet browsers store this information on their computer and can display it to other people who may use the same machine.
Ahmed said: “Although it’s possible to delete history folders and empty cache with existing internet browsers, the majority of internet users worldwide don’t have the time or expertise to do this.
“There is no free, method that offers the freedom to surf the Web privately that is as simple and easy to use as Browzar. It doesn’t keep copies of pages that have been visited or retain details that have been entered into online forms.”
Browzar embodies Ahmed’s trademark approach to technology. Having worked on the shop floor of Dixons for 16 years prior to the success of Freeserve, Ahmed has a unique understanding of the consumer mindset. Freeserve was a European Internet Service Provider (ISP) which gave Internet access for free to people who bought a computer from Dixons and sold to Wanadoo for £1.6billion.
Both Freeserve and Browzar translate complicated technology into simple, people-friendly internet tools with mass appeal, given away to people completely free.
Ahmed’s inspired ‘free’ business model pioneered by Freeserve and employed by Browzar has become a standard across the internet industry as a whole. ISPs, telephone, broadband and social networking companies have all adopted the ‘free’ model.
Ajaz Ahmed added: “Browzar is free, quick and simple to use so it has global appeal and is something that everyone who accesses the internet will have a use for.
“Browzar means that even those with limited time or computer knowledge can choose to surf the internet privately while protecting their personal details.”
Notes to editors:
System requirements for Browzar
Browzar can be run from almost any computer that is connected to the internet. The computer must be running at least Windows 95 and Internet Explorer 5 - that’s it.
How to use Browzar
Browzar can be started in two ways:
• downloading a copy of Browzar means that it is always ready for use. It takes just seconds by visiting the Browsar website and clicking on the download icon to easily and simply save it to your computer’s hard drive or to a USB memory stick. Browzar does not need to be installed, it runs straight from the file you download, just go to where you saved it, click on the Browzar icon and surf privately.
• If you do not want to save a copy of Browzar, perhaps because you are not using your own computer, you can start the programme from the download page online. When you click on the download link just choose to run the file rather than saving it to your disk.
Once you have started Browzar works like any other web browser but without the privacy risks of storing data on the computer used to access the Web. Browzar doesn’t save web cache, web history, cookies or use auto-complete.
How it works
Although it is a small programme, Browzar delivers a full web browsing experience that is secured for privacy from the moment it starts. This has been achieved by reusing some software components which are already installed on computers, such as parts of Internet Explorer. Temporary files are created which Browzar uses to hold any information which it needs to work with while you are online. These files are automatically deleted as soon as you shut Browzar down. There is even a function to erase these temporary files if your computer has crashed and you need to restart.
Ajaz Ahmed
In September 1998 after sixteen years working for the Dixons Group, Ajaz Ahmed founded one of the greatest internet success stories of all time – Freeserve. In December 1998 Freeserve became the largest ISP in the UK. In September 1999, Freeserve floated at a market cap of £1.5bn. In April 2001, following the sale of Freeserve to Wanadoo, Ajaz left the company and from April 2001 has been sitting on a number of boards and is chairman of Callserve, Europe’s largest independent VoIP company. This summer Ajaz has launched Browzar – the world’s first “freedom” browser which is incredibly simple, completely flexible and totally free of charge.
*Research by BT, the University of Glamorgan in Wales and Edith Cowan University in Australia.
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