I want to switch to a more privacy focused browser, would like to hear what yall use currently and why.

Edit: I’m currently using edge.

Edit: Thanks everyone for your input. I have decided to go with floorp (a firefox fork) with betterfox. Here’s my decision process,

  1. Firefox based browser
    • To help with browser monopoly
    • I really like the sidebery extension
  2. I chose floorp instead of ff or other ff forks because of the ease of customization
    • I also tried zen browser but experienced a bug just from my short usage so I think it’s not mature enough for me currently, but I do like the project.
  3. Betterfox + extensions for better privacy settings
    • Ublock Origin
    • ClearURLs
    • Decentraleyes

Did not choose to go with LibreWolf, Mullvad etc because I’m worried about site breakages.

  • disgrunty@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    1
    ·
    7 天前

    In descending order of good privacy:

    • Tor (not necessary for the majority of use-cases)
    • Hardened Firefox (you can find tutorials for this with a quick Google)
    • Mullvad
    • Librewolf
    • Brave (yes there’s controversy about crypto and the founder being a dick, it’s still miles better than Chrome)
    • Everything else
    • Chrome itself (seriously, don’t use Chrome)

    My number 1 recommended plugin for privacy and getting rid of ads is always ✨ uBlock Origin ✨ (not uBlock, that’s not the one by the OG dev).

  • unknowing8343@discuss.tchncs.de
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    124
    arrow-down
    2
    ·
    9 天前

    I swear this question comes up everyday in Lemmy 😅.

    Firefox, I just use Firefox because, it works, it has enough privacy measures, and everyone is looking at the codebase, something that cannot be said about most (if not all) forks.

    • dethada@lemmy.zipOP
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      12
      arrow-down
      8
      ·
      9 天前

      Any issue with websites breaking? Since sites only care about chromium support nowadays

        • averyminya@beehaw.org
          link
          fedilink
          arrow-up
          1
          arrow-down
          1
          ·
          9 天前

          I have been encountering it more lately, but that’s because of the types of sites I was using.

          The ones that may not work tend to be; banking (usually okay though), work-related (ranging from applications to gig work to job specific), and then if you happen to run into something that requires chromium as a way to function, such as some specific extensions or most functional web music creation tools, like MIDI support.

          B-b-b-buuuuut I only use Firefox and all my stock and banking sites work fine on FF, those job sites that needed chromium can get by with Edge, and if you’re using web browsers for MIDI tools, really, what are you doing?

      • AZERTY@feddit.nl
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        9
        ·
        9 天前

        I’ve had a couple sites break but idk if that’s because of Firefox or because of my privacy add ons.

      • unknowing8343@discuss.tchncs.de
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        4
        ·
        9 天前

        The only broken thing is very specific stuff like Slack calls. In fact, it’s the only broken thing I’ve seen in a long while. Also fuck Slack.

      • wulf@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        4
        ·
        9 天前

        Vast majority of sites work for me (librewolf), but for the few that don’t I also have Vivaldi installed

      • dmtalon@infosec.pub
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        2
        ·
        9 天前

        The pay bill button on my capital one CC account doesn’t work on Firefox. Once a month I have to use a chromium based browser.

      • Two2Tango@lemmy.ca
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        2
        ·
        9 天前

        Domino’s pizza website is super flakey on Firefox (on mobile) but it will work if you refresh enough times

      • Eager Eagle@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        2
        arrow-down
        1
        ·
        edit-2
        9 天前

        valid question, idk why would people downvote it

        broken websites on desktop are rare and not nearly enough to drive a browser change, but they usually fall into two categories:

        1. websites that “break” on purpose for no good reason when they detect it’s not chromium. Either avoid the site or change the user agent.

        2. websites that degrade some functionalities because they rely on newer features or on how things appear on chromium. They’re usually CSS breakages and do not affect browsing that much.

        Support for manifest v2 greatly outweighs these potential issues imo.

      • darkstar@sh.itjust.works
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        1
        ·
        8 天前

        I use Firefox, and have Brave installed incase I encounter a site that breaks. I havent had to use Brave yet because I never encountered any sites that break …

      • Hellstormy@lemmy.dbzer0.com
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        1
        ·
        9 天前

        I haven’t really had any problems with any sites yet. Except for Google Meet. For some reason it’s totally laggy and sluggish on Firefox but works perfectly on Chrome.

        Currently using Firefox since half a year for everyday stuff and work.

      • Blxter@lemmy.zip
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        1
        ·
        9 天前

        My car insurance does not work on Firefox. Bungie website does not work half the time. Maybe some others I can’t think of. It really sucks. I just have chrome installed for when something breaks really sucks.

    • EherNicht@feddit.org
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      3
      arrow-down
      18
      ·
      edit-2
      9 天前

      Please stop recommending vanilla Firefox. Although you could argue that it is less privacy invasive than Chrome, Edge or at leat fucking Opera, it still invades your privacy WITH DEFAULT SETTINGS. For a solid out-of-the-box Browser you can choose:

      • LibreWolf (Firefox fork that’s just plain good)
      • Mullvad (based on Firefox and created in collaboration with Tor Browser devs - if paired with VPN (e.g. Mullvad) anonymity can be archived)
      • Tor Browser (anonymity can be archived)
      • unknowing8343@discuss.tchncs.de
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        16
        arrow-down
        1
        ·
        9 天前

        I’m sorry but I won’t bother switching to a ultra-minor browser for having to toggle something in the settings once every 2 years after 500 articles pop up about it.

    • acockworkorange@mander.xyz
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      15
      arrow-down
      1
      ·
      9 天前

      How up to date is that info about Brave? Because their default search is brave-search, not Google as claimed.

      • JustMarkov@lemmy.ml
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        19
        ·
        9 天前

        Not 100% up to date, of course, but for the most part, it still applies. And furthermore, trusting a company with that kind of reputation is definetely not a good idea.

        • acockworkorange@mander.xyz
          link
          fedilink
          arrow-up
          5
          ·
          9 天前

          What is their reputation? Genuinely asking, I’ve been ignoring Brave since ever, but lately I thought I should evaluate it for broken sites that depend on chromium.

            • acockworkorange@mander.xyz
              link
              fedilink
              arrow-up
              4
              arrow-down
              3
              ·
              9 天前

              What the hell is wrong with tech bros and other people’s genitals? How hard is it not to be an asshole and leave people be?

              Thanks for the info.

            • TwilightKiddy@programming.dev
              link
              fedilink
              English
              arrow-up
              1
              arrow-down
              1
              ·
              8 天前

              People who promote crypto are usually scammers (they also usually promote their own currency), but in general it’s a very useful tool. Considering you have to give up an arm and a leg to use SWIFT nowadays, crypto offers a fast and cheap way to pay someone across the border. The price is that you need to know a thing or two about the technology, else you’ll pay the same or even more than with traditional methods.

      • SirDerpy@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        9
        arrow-down
        1
        ·
        9 天前

        I saw crypto from home screen to settings. While anecdotal, that made them very difficult to trust.

    • DetachablePianist@lemmy.ml
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      4
      ·
      9 天前

      Good choices. I too run Librewolf by default, with ungoogled Chromium standing by for the occassional asshat website intentionally designed to work exclusively on Chrome

    • kusivittula@sopuli.xyz
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      1
      ·
      9 天前

      i don’t use brave but i tried it once when i learned that it’s open source. google was not the default search and telemetry was off by default. also i don’t think it auto updates on linux because updates are handled by system updater.

    • Lemongrab@lemmy.one
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      2
      arrow-down
      1
      ·
      9 天前

      Cromite is a good brave alternative without crypto, built-in adblocking, secure defaults (better security hardening), and cross-platform (Linux, Windows, Android). Best experience is on Android. Cromite is an actively updated fork of Bromite, released by a former contributor of Bromite. Cromite also comes without any proprietary libraries on Android (unlike Brave, Mulch, or Vanadium).

  • Tolstoy@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    21
    ·
    9 天前

    Firefox with a handful of extensions, same on phone.

    Last time a site “needed” chromium based a user agent switch did the miracle…

  • XNX@slrpnk.net
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    16
    arrow-down
    1
    ·
    9 天前

    Zen browser. Its a browser that looks like arc browser but its based on Firefox and has tracking removed. Its really nice. They also have their own theme system to change how the browser looks and acts

    • jeff 👨‍💻@programming.dev
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      1
      ·
      9 天前

      Oh cool, I’ll have to switch. I’ve been using Arc for a few months now and really like it, but would rather move away from chromium. I’d been using Firefox for years before that

      • geoma@lemmy.ml
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        5
        arrow-down
        2
        ·
        9 天前

        The say zen is suspicious. Brand new and not really tested. Keep an eye on it.

  • floppakid@feddit.org
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    10
    ·
    9 天前

    Mullvad Browser when I’m on my Desktop, which is basically the Tor Browser but without the Tor network. The Mullvad Browser is instead designed to be used with a VPN.

    Vanadium when I’m on my phone, which is is a hardened variant of Chromium providing enhanced privacy and security, similar to how GrapheneOS compares to AOSP.

    And when I’m at work or using any other computer I try to mainly use Firefox.

  • youmaynotknow@lemmy.ml
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    10
    arrow-down
    1
    ·
    edit-2
    9 天前

    Librewolf for anything that does work, Brave for anything that works only on Chromium based, and Mullvad for all the crazy.

    On Android it’s Mull and Mulch.

    • Lemongrab@lemmy.one
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      6
      ·
      edit-2
      9 天前

      Instead of Mulch I would recommend Cromite. It is fully open source (free of proprietary dependencies unlike Brave and Mulch), has anti-fingerprinting (unlike Mulch), and has built-in ad-blocking. Browser comparison table made by the Developer of Mulch: https://divestos.org/pages/browsers

      • youmaynotknow@lemmy.ml
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        2
        ·
        9 天前

        In all honesty, I am not sure if you can sync, but I think I’ve seen librewolf and Mull being able to sign in to a Firefox account. I don’t sync anything unless I self-host, so I have my linkwarden for all my bookmarks needs.

        I’ve heard of a self-hosted alternative to Firefox accounts, but I would need to research that a bit.

      • Lemongrab@lemmy.one
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        1
        ·
        9 天前

        Use Mull (made by the DivestOS developer) on mobile. It is available through the dev’s f-droid repo. It is hardened Firefox mobile similar to Librewolf and supports sync because it is a Firefox mobile fork. It is also fully open source and doesnt come with proprietary dependencies (unlike standard Firefox mobile)

            • Possibly linux@lemmy.zip
              link
              fedilink
              English
              arrow-up
              2
              ·
              edit-2
              7 天前

              No one forgot about it. It just isn’t that big of a deal. You can turn it off pretty easily and it isn’t really forced. Still way better than Chrome or Edge as those browsers are designed to track you in order to show ads. I think the hate against Brave was blown way out of proportion. It is still better to use hardened Firefox but from a absolute defaults perspective Brave is better. As soon as you start hardening Firefox that changes of course especially with Manifest v3