Tenta Browser

[Luciana]

TentaBrowser is a browser that makes it easy to access any website you want without regional restrictions. Thanks to this app's well-designed interface, it's easy to take advantage of all the resources included in this browser with the latest cutting-edge technology.

Before you start using Tenta Browser, you'll need to set up a password or PIN to protect it from third parties. After that, you can access the browser's home page. Here, you'll find shortcuts to the sites you visit most frequently.

Uptodown is a multi-platform app store specialized in Android. Our goal is to provide free and open access to a large catalog of apps without restrictions, while providing a legal distribution platform accessible from any browser, and also through its official native app.

Tenta is a new Android browser with a deep focus on privacy. While most browsers monetize their service through advertising and harvesting user data, Tenta does things differently. Tenta provides OpenVPN within the browser, so that users are completely secure. In addition, Tenta never stores user keys on any of its servers for extra security. Think of a VPN and a browser on incognito mode all rolled into one and you start to get an idea of the browsing experience that Tenta provides.

Tenta seems keen on providing the service for free, and, in theory, it is an excellent product. So, the fact that it is available without subscription is pretty awesome. So, what is the catch? The truth is that as far as I can tell there isn't one! Tenta browser really does give out the software for free, and it only plans to monetize the service by allowing people to upgrade to a pro VPN package (eventually).

That upgrade will be a full-device VPN service that protects all apps rather than just data within the browser. It is those pro-plan subscribers who will create a source of revenue for Tenta's developers. As such, the browser can be understood to be a loss-leader designed to tempt people into buying the full VPN service.

When I first wrote this review, Tenta was keeping its cards close to its chest. Now, however, Tenta has open-sourced the privacy parts of its software. This is great because it will allow people to verify the veracity of Tenta's claims about the platform. As yet, that third party verification process hasn't occurred. However, making Tenta open source is definitely a huge step in the right direction for this fledgling VPN service.

In order to start your experience, Tenta asks you to provide a PIN. This means that the browser is secured right from the get-go. Any history, bookmarks, and so forth that you might want to keep are all password protected. What is also good is that, according to the firm, the PIN never gets stored on Tenta's servers, for added security.

For Tenta to be successful as a browser, the core feature of browsing privately and securely should be free. And it's not just your traffic that is encrypted with built-in OpenVPN, but think about all the other browsing data that is traditionally not hidden such as your bookmarks, downloaded files or even keeping tabs open to view later. Incognito mode and VPNs do not effectively keep your entire personal browsing experience private. We encrypt and block access to ALL of your browsing data. We take a zero-knowledge approach to your data. In fact, your keys are never stored on any servers for additional security, which means we are simply unable to provide access to your account to anyone. And again this is what the free version offers.

What seems truly remarkable is that, unlike most free VPNs, Tenta says it does not intend to put any bandwidth limits or usage caps on the built-in VPN service. This is commendable and certainly could help to propel Tenta's ingeniously marketed VPN into the limelight (within the highly competitive and crowded VPN market).

One cool feature is the browser's ability to connect to different VPN servers in different tabs in the browser (referred to as zones). In the beta, there are only four servers to choose from, located in Seattle, Miami, the Netherlands, and Singapore. However, if and when Tenta expands this list of server locations, this could be a really excellent feature that really adds usability value. Imagine, for example, being able to unblock Australian TV while doing geo-restricted internet banking securely on public WiFi, and you get the idea.

As a testament to Tenta's will to be a high-end privacy tool, its designers have even integrated interchangeable DNS settings into the browser. This is a nice addition and is something that is not the norm in the VPN industry.

Tenta has a nice-looking website. On the homepage, there is a video presentation about the browser so that people can learn about Tenta without having to dig around. However, despite being well designed, the site isn't that forthcoming with technical details.

Impressive claims are all well and good, and features like DNS leak protection and OpenVPN do sound great. In addition, the blog section also has plenty of privacy- and security-related articles, which is a useful addition. One can't help feeling though, that a nice, clear tech implementation page would round off the website perfectly, and make it appeal to tech-minded people as well as casual browsers.

Tenta Browser is still in public beta and is only available on Android. In addition, you have to be logged into the Google Play Store to get access to the free app. The app downloads quickly and installs with ease. It looks great right from the outset. The logo is extremely cool: a digital chip-track-tentacle octopus wearing a stetson - who could argue with that?

The first thing a user has to do is set a PIN. Users are warned not to lose it, or they will be locked out of their Tenta browser. Once a PIN is set, users can begin their browsing experience. By default, the browser is set to local network and works like any other browser in incognito mode. By clicking on settings in the top right of the tab (this appears as a flag when connected, or as a blue pin when on a local network), subscribers get access to a number of settings, including the VPN servers.

Tenta is a proprietary VPN system that allows multiple connections to be opened in separate tabs. It does this by firewalling everything but the browser from the VPN tunnel. For this to be a successful product, however, it needs to do those things securely.

Tenta's Zones are our proprietary method of grouping your tabs by server location. Have one Zone of tabs securely connected to Amsterdam, while another is simultaneously connected to Miami. Or Seattle. You can even have custom settings for each Zone, giving you unparalleled control over your browsing activity. All with just a couple of taps.

For now, a kill switch is not available, which is a bit of a shame. A kill switch stops any web traffic from traveling outside of the VPN tunnel to stop data traveling to a user's ISP, should the VPN connection drop out. This is without a doubt an important tech feature that will be needed to make Tenta's security top-notch. The good news is that the Tenta developers do have it in the pipeline. However, do bear in mind that until then, if the VPN connection drops, it could lead to unencrypted traffic from a user's real IP being leaked to their ISP.

Due to the fact that Tenta is closed-source, I was very keen to ask about the implementation of OpenVPN on the platform. Of course, for now, we only have Jesse Adams' word for it. However, in my opinion, Adams seemed to really know what he was talking about when he answered my questions. The encryption implementation levels that he described are definitely strong, so I can give Tenta a thumbs up. These are the specs:

Elliptic Curve DH key exchange means that Tenta implements perfect forward secrecy. Considering users get this for free (and that Tenta is still in beta), this is pretty mind-blowing, and certainly puts a lot of established VPNs to shame.

Although Tenta keeps no logs whatsoever, being based in the US is far from ideal. The US is a country that is under the watchful eye of both the NSA and the CIA. Surveillance in the country is at epidemic levels and the nation's tech firms can be forced to comply with investigations with warrants and gag orders. Due to this, the US is always considered a red flag in terms of location. With that said, a zero logs policy does go a long way and means that if the authorities to go to Tenta for information they will have nothing to hand over.

One thing that I could test for myself is the customizable DNS settings. Available options are: Google, System 3, OpenNIC, and OpenDNS (with Custom also in development). I tested Tenta Secure DNS and OpenNIC using ipleak.net and on both occasions the website detected California Google Business DNS addresses. This worried me a little.

However, a bit more testing revealed it to be a beta bug. Basically, beta users who want to change DNS may need to restart their Android device and then change DNS settings. After that, simply connect to a server and you should have the correct DNS settings (though I do recommend checking to make sure they have changed correctly by using ipleak.net).

OpenNIC is the default DNS service provider when connected to any of our VPN locations, for now. We'll transition to using our Tenta DNS which provides some advantages, including DNS-over-TLS and DNS-over-HTTPS soon. However, we found that our development Tenta DNS servers weren't capable of handling our production load, which resulted in a mishmash of fallbacks. We've unified this to OpenNIC for now, and we'll be rolling out Tenta DNS as we finish it. This comment came after the review. We also acknowledge that we had OpenDNS mislabeled as OpenNIC in the zone settings. This is fixed in a release going out today/tomorrow. Thanks for pointing this out.

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