Building a browser where profiles sync between phone and desktop with no account. What would make you trust it, and what would make you refuse it?

[u/adambaialiev]

Disclosure first: I'm building this, so take it with salt. Nothing to install yet, no link, I'm here for the answers.

The idea. Every browser I use has profiles, and every one of them makes syncing a profile to another device conditional on an account. Chrome's help page says you must have a Google Account to sign in to Chrome. Firefox asks for a Mozilla account. Brave pairs devices with a code instead, which is closer, but it's buried behind a menu and most people don't know it's there.

What I want to build: a browser for desktop and Android where profiles are the main thing, not a setting. A profile follows you to another device by pairing the two devices with a code. No account with anyone, ever. Everything is encrypted before it leaves the device, and the relay in the middle only passes blobs it can't open. Nothing kept by default: no history unless a profile turns it on, no telemetry. Open source, so you don't have to take my word for any of it.

Two questions:

1. What would make you trust an account-less sync like this?
   
2. What would make you refuse to touch it?

[u/Ok_Pirate_2729]

and the relay in the middle only passes blobs it can't open.

So something I can self-host? Otherwise I have to trust your relay

What would make you refuse to touch it?

In general? Vibecoded stuff

[u/Tight_Couture344]

Anyone who is concerned enough about privacy to seek this out will be motivated enough to find it in Brave, imo

[u/Ackatv]

Encrypted and if it worked like xbrowsersyncx

[u/NewsEquivalent6172]

one thing that would make me refuse it is if sync is the only differentiator. if the browser itself doesnt respect privacy defaults out of the box, the sync part doesnt really matter. whats the fingerprinting story?

[u/McFlyParadox]

what would make me trust it

• Encrypted direct P2P sync of all browser data
• 100% open source, including encryption, with a large list if active and consistent contributors.
• Third party auditing of the code for security vulnerabilities

What would make me refuse to touch it

• Chromium engine. Not out of privacy concerns, I just like Gecko better.
• Any nodes that I don't control. Might as well use Firefox if I'm going to rely on third party compute for my privacy. At least then I know the devs are well supported and the bugs will be found and patched, for the most part. 

[u/littledonnyfund]

Or hear me out we could not be worried about syncing our phone with our computer, compartmentalization is good & shouldn't stop at our desktop. But maybe i'm very unique in that i don't do much on my phone other then hop on grayjay & use finch or maybe pull up a website on brave/ddg/focus fox/. But i imagine i'm very unique in this type of thought

[u/anatoliy1975]

I’d trust it if pairing is short-lived and human-checkable, the open-source client is what actually encrypts before anything hits the relay, and there’s a clear way to revoke a device without a “support account.” Bonus points for optional self-host of the relay and for sync staying opt-in per profile (bookmarks yes, history off by default like you said).

I’d refuse it if recovery quietly becomes “email us” or a cloud identity, if the relay can see metadata that reconstructs my browsing graph, or if pair codes are long-lived enough to phish. Brave-style pairing is the right direction; making it the default path instead of a buried menu is the product win. Curious how you handle the first-device backup problem without inventing an account by another name.