Surprised noone mentioned NoScript yet. It requires a bit more user interaction. But if you are worried about privacy and maybe security, it is important to know who is running scripts on your machine.
NoScript is magic. I got it on whitelist so websites by default don’t get to use scripts. Turning uBlock Origin and NoScript off is an entirely different internet.
When I looked into it, it appeared uBlock origin already does what no script does when you turn on advanced mode and block 3rd party urls. (medium mode) Probably need to block first party to get quite there but that’s usually overkill.
Now sticking with medium mode, most sites need a bit of fixing like no script did, but it’s all done in uBlock.
Just curious: why do you use adnauseam instead of ublock origin for ad block on the rest of your profiles? I haven’t heard of it before, and was curious what futures made it stand out.
This is a switch I made yesterday, but instead of Chrome to Firefox, I switched from Vivaldi (Chrome, but kinda like old Opera) to Floorp (japanese fork of Firefox with focus on privacy and sane defaults).
I got Sponsorblock for YouTube, uBlock Origin for ads and Gesturify for those awesome mouse gestures (my main reason for using an Opera-like).
Sometimes, I use Tampermonkey for misc Scripts on different Pages, so I installed that aswell. But for now, no scripts for Tampermonkey, as I primarily focus on setting it up to be more like Vivaldi.
Other addons are Ghostery for more privacy and Session Buddy to prevent oopsies when playing around with Tabs and windows.
Floorp even has dark mode for bright pages already included in the box.
First of all, install Betterfox, it is not an extension per se, but a set of custom settings. Betterfox offers a lot of fixes, including removed Mozilla telemetry, increased speed, smooth scrolling, privacy protections, etc.
I believe, Betterfox can also be used on Floorp (In case their website doesn’t work, here’s a Github link - github.com/Floorp-Projects), which is a Firefox-based browser with Vivaldi/Opera-like interface. Sounds neat, but i didn’t really test it yet.
In case you feel too lazy to install Betterfox/Arkenfox/other user.js modifications, you can use Librewolf instead. It is a version of Firefox with bundled Arkenfox and uBlock Origin.
If configuring Redirector is too confusing for you, you can use LibRedirect, it can automatically redirect YouTube to Invidious and Piped, Fandom to Breezewiki, Google to SearX, Twitter to Nitter, and so on, so you won’t have to bother with popups and ads.
For password managers, use Bitwarden, if you want to have your passwords synced in the cloud, or KeepassXC, if you want to store them locally.
Block The Rich is a fun little extension for those who are tired of reading billionaire spam, but i did not test it.
Instance Assistant Is made to improve Lemmy and Kbin experience, but, once again, i did not test it.
Also, do not use Google, Bing, Yandex or Brave as your search engine, instead switch to DuckDuckGo, Mojeek, and 4Get or SearX
Originally, i too, have thought that Mozilla’s telemetry would be limited to only technical aspects, such as crash reports. I mean, they are using privacy as their main selling point. But of course, that was a lie. Read this. You may think that only Spyware Watchdog and Dig Deeper dislike Mozilla, but no. By searching around, it’s possible to find information about this on countless sources. And again, why do projects like LibreWolf and Arkenfox exist, if Firefox’s tracking is not an issue?
Firefox makes unsolicited connections on startup, uses Google Analytics, and connects to their website when opening every single page. They are not leaking all of your data, like Opera and Chrome do, but such behaviour is very concerning. Why do they need to know how many times i have opened my bookmarks, or when i cleaned my browser history? Extremely suspicious, and on top of that it makes the browser a bit slower.
I believe that what happens on your PC, should stay on your PC, the pages you open in your browser, stay in the browser.
The article you sent me is totally absurd and shows a complete lack of understanding or will to understand.
Librewolf and Arkenfox exist for the exact same reason this article exists: unbridled paranoia. They are actually by fat less secure than Firefox because of the risk of a compromised build chain which is lesser for an established browser.
The first example of “phoning home” your article gives is merely the get request Firefox uses to check if you are online and redirect you to a login portal if you are on shared WiFi.
The article also then makes a complaint about Firefox making requests to the sites you visit most frequently, which maked absolutely no sense, because if you visit them so frequently that then end up in your new page, then what is the problem with Firefox preloading the content?
On Google analytics, it is not part of the browser, but just used on Mozilla’s website with an explicit exemption from Google not to use that data.
The “safebrowsing” requests are to download the list of known malware sites in order to keep you safe. They are not used for tracking.
The health report telemetry is the only thing that could be vaguely construed as actually being problematic, but it literally collects no personal data and is used to improve the browser.
Finally, the entire paragraph about pocket is bullshit: or course, if you create an account and start saving web pages to pocket then it is going to be stored on pocket’s servers… What would you expect? The solution is simple: Just don’t use pocket, nobody is forcing you to.
It is infuriating to see these lies repeatedly perpetuated online by people who have no understanding of what they are criticizing
None of the points mentioned even vaguely constitute a threat to user privacy.
To make matters worse they actually weaken users security by driving them to forks that risk them not recieving timely security updates.
Firefox can save passwords without an extension although there is a password manager you can add. Sign into something on Firefox and it will ask you to if you want to save your login. I’ve haven’t needed google for any reason after switching.
If, like me, you do a lot of Chromecasting from your browser, you’ll want to install fx_cast. You need to do a bit of manual installation to get it running, but it works great when you do.
Honestly the less you can live with the better. For me essentials are always ublock for ads, imagus for better image viewing while browsing and simple translate because I deal with a lot of languages. Also containers is useful for work.
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