I am trying to get better with my privacy, and I specifically want to try and avoid big US tech where possible. I know they there are many people saying you should use multiple browsers for better privacy and all that stuff, but I’m also being realistic with myself - I just want a solid browser experience that has decent privacy and i can live with that for the most part. Not opposed to maybe 2 browsers, but I’d like one daily driver, especially for work.
I do a lot of social media management and am using the Steam backend daily as I work for a game studio. I need to use YouTube and Bluesky and all those things, so it needs to handle media.
I’m running Vivaldi at the moment after jumping off Chrome. I don’t need to use Chromium. I was trialing Orion on my Mac but I use a Linux machine at home, a windows PC sometimes at work, having something across all would be nice and once again I know that is not 100% privacy, but it’s better than the average user.
Advice would be super appreciate.
Librewolf if you want something more heavy handed with the privacy. It can break some websites though if you don’t tune it. Firefox for an every-man browser that isn’t chromium based. I personally run Firefox with ublock because I’m not looking to use Google stuff anymore. I’m waiting to see Orion’s deployment on Windows and Linux. I’ve been using that on my iPad and phone and like its potential.
If you want a privacy-focused Chromium browser with no Google stuff and also one that has extensions then, check out Cromite.
If you want a privacy focused browser which runs the most smoothly out of all privacy focused browsers and is the best one for simple people, I suggest Brave. (sadly it’s a US product)
And there’s always the Firefox forks, I would recommend these: Iceraven Browser, Fennec, WebLibre, IronFox. I would suggest IronFox and the most here since it’s the best one for privacy and doesn’t need any more hardening since it’s mostly fully hardened out-of-the-box. This is specifically for Android. If on desktop, you can check out LibreWolf, Mullvad Browser, Zen Browser etc. I recommend LibreWolf the most here.
Main advice: Every browser has pros and cons. You have to use each one and figure out the best browser for yourself. For example, Brave is greatly hardened out-of-the-box and every site runs very smoothly. So, great convenience. But sadly, it’s a US product! Cromite has no Google stuff and runs smoothly too, but it’s not hardened out-of-the-box. You have to manually add filter lists to improve your experience. IronFox is greatly hardened out-of-the-box, but it’s sometimes too hardened that sites break or behave weirdly. And sites also don’t run as smoothly as it runs on Chromium browsers (this happens for any Firefox browser at all, especially on Android)
Optional but recommended tip: Check out Celenity and his guides. You can also check out his Recommendations for services you use
I use Zen as my daily driver, and Firefox on mobile. I isolate different areas of my life with containers and profiles but you don’t necessarily need to do all that. It’s good and private out of the box
firefox on everything. it supports ublock origin on mobile too, it’s great.
I just switched to waterfox and it’s doing great, doesnt have the trouble shooting of the 6 years od adons from firefox either
Pick either chrome or Firefox. I use Firefox when possible. Configure it to delete all cache, history and cookies when closed. Install the appropriate container extension. Install ublock origin and privacy badger. Install your password manager of choice. Configure dot or doh perhaps using the socks proxy settings.
Use containers to avoid sharing cookies. Close your browser when you’re done using it. If you are going to walk away from it you’re done using it, close your browser.
If you’re worried about remembering your tabs, bookmark em. You can’t rely on ctrl-shift-t
If you’re worried about fingerprinting, use a window size that reflects a common screen size or common device.
Browsers//
Android: Ironfox (BEST OF ALL) and Cromite Linux: Librewolf, Zen, and Ungoogled Chromium Anything Apple: Orion Windows: Anything from Linux section
For future reference keep an eye on Servo, and I guess Ladybird too
Recommend all that!
Librewolf is so awesome that microsoft refused to serve me a win10 iso because I was unknown with my vpn off and everything.
Thanks for the links. I’ve heard of Librewolf but never tried it. Will give it a spin.
LibreWolf is great.
I’m using Waterfox: privacy respecting and AI-free fork of Firefox.
LibreWolf is a Firefox fork hardened for privacy. I suggest to disable the cookie and history deletion for it to be more usable. It has a more tradicional UI than Zen.
Thanks for the info. I’ve seen Librewolf recommended a lot but also found a lot of threads of “normies” complaining it was a pain to use daily. I’ll give it a spin!
You’ll almost certainly want to disable some of the more extreme privacy settings. Specifically, enabling Canvas and WebGL will make it much more usable, at the cost of some reduced privacy.
It needs a bit of fine tuning for daily use, but it’s nothing cryptic: If you don’t want to save all cookies, then you gotta add exception to sites you want to stay connected to (unless you are ok with having to login every time you enter a site). I think saving history is disabled by default, and this is quite inconvenient. You also gotta allow saving passwords if you want the browser to have them.
I use 1Password so I’m guessing Librewolf handles Firefox extensions? Should be fine there.
I don’t mind logging in every time actually, but yeah I can take a look at those settings.
Yes, Librewolf runs Firefox extensions just fine.
Oh, before “setting in”, test out all the sites you need to use regularly, because of its hardened fingerprinting protection webgl and webgpu are disable, also canvas and other scripts, and I believe they completely stripped the browser DRM checks, so some streaming services won’t work as well.
If you don’t disable the cookie autodeletion, it is indeed a pain to use.
I will try it out this coming week and let you know. Appreciate the info!
Vivaldi is chromium… It’s also not FOSS. As with most the other people in the comments, I’d suggest Librewolf, though I’m looking into going back to regular Firefox with a custom user.js for added security.
I would use Mullvad Browser for browsing as it has very strong anti-fingerprinting/tracking and Brave/Librewolf (or a different privacy Firefox fork) for anything that you need to be logged in for.
Falkon is pretty decent if you’re using kde plasma.
Zen is Firefox but really pretty and with a ton of added functionality and customization.
I was quite fond of Arc so the layout would work for me. How does the privacy compare to say Librewolf which is what others are recommending?
I’ll check out their website. Would be awesome if they had a mobile browser. I’m not sure what to do there. I’m on iOS.
Not on PAR with that. I would recommend Mullvad over Librewolf though. Not to say that there’s anything wrong with either.
