Tell HN: I tried arc browser and I am scared

3 points by jFriedensreich ↗ HN
I just got access to the arc browser beta and was blown away by the experience as many before. The natural use of gestures, interface that gets out of your way and FINALLY a concept to combine tabs, windows and bookmarks so that it works for the modern age is just amazing.

Then i stumbled: first there was a compulsory login before you could use anything, sure that is maybe needed so they could limit the beta users and control support load as well as turn the app off when a paid version is released BUT the way this was build made me suspicious. The next red flag is that spaces and virtual tabs/bookmarks are not exposed via the bookmarks api to extensions. Finally I realised there is not even an export feature for my data, something i did not check as i never even imagined that would be missing from a browser. This is also not a matter of features they did not have time to implement as i understand the beta phase is quite advanced and they even found time to build ridiculous features like track pad vibrations when you change a slider to set the background texture intensity.

The company website has a wall of text under values that basically says nothing and kind of only says experience is important to them and they wont sell user data, which is both understood.

How likely is it they will create sweet poison that makes users addicted and then treat them as slaves?

I hope I am wrong, but we have to stop letting companies get away with this.

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