I thought it would be helpful for all the good people of Lemmy World if we shared our browser setups.
I’m mostly a laptop user when it comes to the Internet. I’ve been using Firefox with the Ublock Origin addon and it makes browsing the web so much less ad filled.
For youtube specifically I’ve had the best results with Chrome and an extension called Clear Skies for ad skipping.
Share you own browser setup. What do you use to surf the wild waves of the web to avoid the sharks and the sharp rocks?
Firefox with the Ublock Origin and Privacy Badger add-ons. I also run Adguard Home on my home network, which I think helps a bit.
This, plus Consent-o-matic. I run Diversion instead of AdBlock Home, though
Phone: firefox android with ublock origin, darkreader, privacy badger, ruffle, and search by image
Laptop: firefox linux with ublock origin, darkreader, privacy badger, ruffle, search by image, multi-account containers, and flagfoxThis is the way
Firefox mobile works with Jerboa too for web containers
I didn’t think the account containers worked on mobile
I recommend Mull and Librewolf for the respective platforms. They are way more private.
Flagfox should not be used, it sends every site you visit to random servers of theirs, which is basically really invasive tracking.
Android: Fennec Fdroid with ublock origin Works like a charm
Safari with 1Blocker, Adblock Pro, AdGuard, Consent-o-matic, Ghostery, and Vinegar
Ghostery is extremely shady and should not be used. Also piling up adblockers is really bad, use one and that should be enough.
Look at badness enumeration to understand that reasoning.
What is shady about Ghostery?
Desktop: Firefox + uBlock + SponsorBlock (for youtube) + Consent-O-Matic + Tampermonkey w/ YouTube HD script (force 1080p resolution)
Mobile: Fennec (Firefox fork) + uBlock + Consent-O-Matic, for youtube I’m using NewPipe with Sponsorblock
Mobile and Laptop: Brave
Just Firefox/Librewolf with uBlock Origin is enough. The more extensions you add, the larger the attack surface and chance of site breakage. A common mistake many do is to add multiple blockers on top of uBO which will decrease uBO’s ability to defuse various anti-adblocks. This also includes addons like Privacy Badger, Ghostery, DuckDuckGo Privacy Essentials, etc. uBO have good enough privacy protection enabled by default. If you want more, enable some other privacy filter lists. And if you know what you’re doing, enable hard mode by blocking all 3rd party requests and JavaScript.
If you want to feel more secure when adding more extensions to your browser, then only use Firefox addons that are recommended by Mozilla. Those extensions have gone through a review process to make sure they don’t contain anything malicious.
If you’re like me and don’t care about recommendations and being able to comment, then use Freetube with sponsorblock enabled.
FF and uBO have been mentioned many times already, so I’ll say use encrypted DNS with blocking on your browser like Mullvad, Aha Blitz, or ControlD.
Daily Driver - Vivaldi with any applicable EFF plugins and custom settings aimed at security and privacy.
2nd Daily Driver (usually on a separate screen) - Firefox configured with any applicable EFF plugins and settings put at the most restrictive and forgetful to facilitate privacy and security.
Mobile - Literally the same as above to the extent i have the ability to ^^
Why would you have 2 daily drivers?
Tracking mostly. If i need to visit a site that i want to know the absolute minimum about me or my accounts, i use Firefox. Vivaldi is secured well, but I’m logged in to various accounts for convenience there. I have a 3 monitor set up so it’s easy to just have it open on a separate screen.
Just switch user agents
How do you mean?
A user agent is a string it sends the website you’re connecting to so it can know what rendering engine you have and which browser you use and so on. But, the dark side of user agents is that websites can use this to track you. So, if you don’t want them to do so you can change it either manually or by using a browser extension. I recommend you to make your user agent look like chrome’s, as this is the most popular browser and you will not be tracked as easily.
I don’t know… Sounds like I’d have to trust another extension to do the user agent stuff in the background… I’m sure that’s a solid solution for a lot of use cases, but i might just keep my method for now.
If the extension is FOSS then you can trust it.
Instead of forget everything I recommend to keep session and create cookie exceptions for selected sites. So you will stay logged in there and have a normally working browser, that is just as private
Good advice, but for how i have my workflow set up, it makes more sense for me to have it set on full amnesia. Vivaldi is what i use if i need persistence.
You can use profiles if you want different use cases. I dont think “increased attack surface” is the biggest problem, but you have 2 browsers that are both updated, take up RAM etc.
You could just use different Firefox profiles, using a custom desktop entry with actions and one action for every profile, example:
desktop entry
[Desktop Entry] Name=Firefox Comment=Web Browser GenericName=Web Browser Exec=firefox %u Type=Application Icon=firefox Categories=Network;WebBrowser; MimeType=text/html;text/xml;application/xhtml+xml;application/vnd.mozilla.xul+xml;application/rss+xml;application/rdf+xml;image/gif;image/jpeg;image/png;x-scheme-handler/http;x-scheme-handler/https; Actions=Private;Work;PrivateWindow;Insecure [Desktop Action Private] Name=Open Private Profile Exec=firefox -p private %u [Desktop Action Work] Name=Open Work Profile Exec=firefox -p work %u [Desktop Action PrivateWindow] Name=Open Private Window Exec=firefox -p private --private-window %u [Desktop Action Insecure] Name=Open Insecure Profile Exec=mullvad-exclude firefox -p insecure %u
This was so cool to find out, and in KDE (and likely other desktops) you can access those actions using right click.
You can also change such a workflow to do
launch app && rm -rf ~/appdirectory
which will enforce to always delete everything without needing to trust that app. I do that for the flatpak app “Decoder” which is great but wants to save a history without an opt-out, and as I use it for password sharing (generate a QR code locally on my phone)That’s pretty neat… I’ll look in to it. Than you for the info.
Edge. I simply disable what I don’t use.
And if a site has ads that I can’t ignore, I just close that browser tab.
You really cant rely on GUI settings at all. Edge cannot be made private very likely.
Using Christitus WinUtil you can remove edge entirely, reinstall the webview afterwards its needed, replace it with Librewolf, Brave, thats basically it.
Odd that you trust Brave but not Edge.
What about privacy?
Some people don’t care. This was posted in technology and the post didn’t specify privacy settings.
Firefox(Desktop): Ublock origin, Clearurls, Sponsorblock for YouTube,Clickbait remover.
If you’re already using a whole second browser just for YouTube, may I suggest looking into FreeTube? It’s a great YouTube desktop client.
A 1970’s dumb terminal dialed up to a mainframe running Lynx…
PiHole+:
* Firefox with uBO, Privacy possum, Sponsorblock as primary, BypassPaywallsClean * Brave with shields up and fingerprint resist for when I need chrome, with BypassPaywallsClean and privacy badger.
When a site blocks or is otherwise slow on FF, I use Brave. When a site is slow or blocks brave, I use FF. Brave really stays on top their YT ad blocking so they’re a good fallback even if I’m selling my soul to them a bit.
I regularly blow away bookmarks in Brave and reimport from FF to keep all my browsers synced.
If a site doesn’t work in FF, then it doesn’t work in Brave, I’ll open it in vanilla Edge to sanity check but I generally don’t open edge otherwise.
Mobile: (android) mull browser with ublock origin, adguard adblocker, privacy badger along with privacy settings on strict. Also, access youtube using the app tubular. PC: (windows) : Firefox with ublock origin and privacy badger.
You dont need adguard, just add its blocklist to ublock origin