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If I’m using Firefox with privacy badger, UBlock Origin, privacy possum, cookie and cache deleters, a URL tracker plug in, noscript, https enabled by default, a

by zahma 4y ago

If I’m using Firefox with privacy badger, UBlock Origin, privacy possum, cookie and cache deleters, a URL tracker plug in, noscript, https enabled by default, a handful of others that are probably redundant on top of Firefox’s internal tracker protection, do I really stand to benefit from this fork? In other words, is this truly necessary?

gchamonlive 4y ago
Maybe for a zero-conf, out-of-the-box privacy-oriented firefox browsing environment, i.e. for convenience. One question. How does website availability fare with all these plugins and options active? Does it mangle or render sites unusable? And at what rate?
- zahma 4y ago
  When it comes to new sites, I have to usually reset noscript to allow the top level domain. Honestly I don’t know why I don’t just do that by default. At least half the websites don’t load at all without JS enabled. On the sites with more heavy tracking —- chegg comes to mind or some different clothing stores with lots of media, payment service scripts, and heavy ad tracking like tentree — the plug-ins definitely interfere to the point where I will sometimes use a second browser so that the website operates as intended. NoScript seems to be the culprit in most cases, and I suspect the interface doesn’t adequately display all the scripts attempting to load after the initial render. I’ve had some trouble with sites which communicate between themselves too. (Airlines do this a lot). All in all, I’d say my browsing experience is normal to the extent that I don’t do a lot of browsing to new sites. I’ve got a good running list for noscript, but any new sites with lots of dependencies and media to load usually requires a couple refreshed after an updated rule list.
- zeruch 4y ago
  ...mostly yes, at least initially. I use uMatrix and NoScript and its a matter of configuring/'training' them over such that most browsing over a few days/weeks becomes quite fantastic. That said, one has to get used to making those configs every time a new site is browsed (or a previous site changes significantly what it does), but really, for some of us, the experience after the fact is well worth the investment, as browsing and reading become sane again.
potatoalienof13 4y ago
Librewolf also disables telemetry, as well as several other mozilla services.
- Proven 4y ago
- xcdzvyn 4y ago
  That can also be disabled in FireFox.
ac130kz 4y ago
Nope, you can simply port most of their config changes straight into your Firefox
xalava 4y ago
As you show, there is value in a Firefox configured out of the box. The only question is wether they can keep up with updates.
pornel 4y ago
Probably not. The irony is that when you disable default browser features, sites can use this fact as a fingerprinting input, and it only makes your browser more unique. I'd expect standard Firefox's protection + popular plugins to be good enough to reduce creepiness of everyday adtech. If you really don't like to be tracked, then the Tor browser may be a better bet. At least you'll look like every other Tor user, rather than stand out with your custom config and a niche-of-niches browser. https://xkcd.com/1105/ https://xkcd.com/1105/
Kaytaro 4y ago
Maybe if you're concerned about Mozilla pushing out an anti-privacy update, as they've been known to do.

by zahma 4y ago

gchamonlive 4y ago

Maybe for a zero-conf, out-of-the-box privacy-oriented firefox browsing environment, i.e. for convenience. One question. How does website availability fare with all these plugins and options active? Does it mangle or render sites unusable? And at what rate?

zahma 4y ago
When it comes to new sites, I have to usually reset noscript to allow the top level domain. Honestly I don’t know why I don’t just do that by default. At least half the websites don’t load at all without JS enabled. On the sites with more heavy tracking —- chegg comes to mind or some different clothing stores with lots of media, payment service scripts, and heavy ad tracking like tentree — the plug-ins definitely interfere to the point where I will sometimes use a second browser so that the website operates as intended. NoScript seems to be the culprit in most cases, and I suspect the interface doesn’t adequately display all the scripts attempting to load after the initial render. I’ve had some trouble with sites which communicate between themselves too. (Airlines do this a lot). All in all, I’d say my browsing experience is normal to the extent that I don’t do a lot of browsing to new sites. I’ve got a good running list for noscript, but any new sites with lots of dependencies and media to load usually requires a couple refreshed after an updated rule list.
zeruch 4y ago
...mostly yes, at least initially. I use uMatrix and NoScript and its a matter of configuring/'training' them over such that most browsing over a few days/weeks becomes quite fantastic. That said, one has to get used to making those configs every time a new site is browsed (or a previous site changes significantly what it does), but really, for some of us, the experience after the fact is well worth the investment, as browsing and reading become sane again.

potatoalienof13 4y ago

Librewolf also disables telemetry, as well as several other mozilla services.

Proven 4y ago
xcdzvyn 4y ago
That can also be disabled in FireFox.

ac130kz 4y ago

Nope, you can simply port most of their config changes straight into your Firefox

xalava 4y ago

As you show, there is value in a Firefox configured out of the box. The only question is wether they can keep up with updates.

pornel 4y ago

Probably not. The irony is that when you disable default browser features, sites can use this fact as a fingerprinting input, and it only makes your browser more unique. I'd expect standard Firefox's protection + popular plugins to be good enough to reduce creepiness of everyday adtech. If you really don't like to be tracked, then the Tor browser may be a better bet. At least you'll look like every other Tor user, rather than stand out with your custom config and a niche-of-niches browser. https://xkcd.com/1105/ https://xkcd.com/1105/

Kaytaro 4y ago

Maybe if you're concerned about Mozilla pushing out an anti-privacy update, as they've been known to do.