this post was submitted on 06 Oct 2023
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Privacy

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Warning to all Brave Browser Users

Blocking variations.brave.com which is used for A/B testing could potentially break Brave's functionalities. For me did Brave's "forgetful browsing" feature broke which seems to be disabled by default if you block this domain.

#brave #bravebrowser #privacy @privacy @privacyguides

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[–] [email protected] 54 points 1 year ago (4 children)

Firefox is safer and tbh, has probably the best UX and aesthetics out of anyone. Brave is garbage.

[–] [email protected] 27 points 1 year ago (2 children)

For incognito browsing I recommend Librewolf, a firefox fork. If you want anything more secure, you should start looking into tor

[–] MrPoopbutt 9 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Why is librewolf superior to our of the box Firefox? Or mullvad browser for that matter?

[–] [email protected] 12 points 1 year ago

It has included some privacy measures to resist fingerprinting like letterboxing and has more privacy focused search engines as default like searx. Also it takes out some firefox utilities like pocket which I don't really use

As for Mullwav browser I'm not really sure, it seems to be another reinforced firefox like librewolf

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (3 children)
[–] Linus_Torvalds 2 points 1 year ago

Btw, here is a detailed, technical review. It is in German, but with transtae and all the code, it should be understandable.

TLDR: It's good.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

i prefer to use librewolf as my everyday browser, while using mullvad as my browser for other things that dont require tor i like to keep things separated, personally

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

I'm not really sure, I haven't used it. In fairness, I only use librewolf for incognito searches, not as a daily driver

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago (2 children)

As a Firefox user, the only thing Brave does that I wish Firefox would copy is their fingerprinting resistance. I know Firefox does have fingerprinting resistance but it's nowhere near the same level as Brave.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago

Use privacy badger extension

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago (1 children)

No. Firefox with RFP, Arkenfox user.js, Librewolf or Tor-Browser unifies your fingerprint. Its universal among users. Brave scrambles it, while some may say that is actually not a real fingerprint and can be detected, making you stand out extremely

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Just to be clear, are you saying Firefox with fingerprinting resistance used in conjunction with Arkenfox user.js provides fingerprint unification, similar to what Tor browser does? I'll have to check that out.

I think both approaches are valid tbh. Having a unique fingerprint obviously uniquely identified you, but if it's randomised then your browsing sessions can't (in theory) be linked.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Yes. Arkenfox to my knowledge is 1:1 Tor configs. Librewolf is similar to arkenfox, no real differences afaik.

For regular browsing though, this means that everything is always deleted. So if you may change some configs, you mayyy be fingerprintable.

Good thing though, different from Tor-Browser is, that it deletes everything without using the private browsing mode. This means, that it has way more capabilities, and saving session for example has no fingerprinting effect really, as favicons and cache can be cleared.

The problem with randomized UserAgent is afaik, that in firefox it cant really fake a complete, real browser, fonts and all. So it would be very nice 90% of the time, but big tracking sites would know exactly who you are

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

I'll look into this. Thank you for the information.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

So if you may change some configs, you mayyy be fingerprintable.

You are fingerprintable either way unless you go all out. Going full on Arkenfox/Librewolf mode (with all settings enabled that decrease convenience) you can at most fool naive fingerprinting. For the more advanced one you need Tor.

And even for naive fingerprinting, unless you use Tor or a VPN (which you would have to trust) your IP alone + the fact that you use FF (which a few % of people worldwide do) along with some other basic info about your PC will make you very unique.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

A good VPN is a must of course.

[–] [email protected] -2 points 1 year ago (1 children)

The Chameleon extension could solve some of the fingerprinting issues as it can randomize the browser and OS info that is sent.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago

If anyone who downvotes wants to jump in and explain why instead of doing drive-bys that would be appreciated. I don't see any reason why this browser extension wouldn't be an effective tool if it does what it says.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Brave is just a shill for Google mothership. Firefox is leading privacy and security through browsers.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 year ago

Firefox has a weaker sandbox than chromium and less mature site isolation and therefore has lower security. privacy is a different story, but remember you're only as private as you are secure so Firefox is inherently not that private assuming a malicious site escapes the sandbox.

I'm fully against chrome's growing monopoly as well as Google surveillance capitalism but let's not be so dramatic with the "google mother ship" nonsense.

using chromium as a base does not equal data being sent back to Google, just like using Android as a base doesn't inherently send data back to Google.

[–] [email protected] -1 points 1 year ago

i disagree ahola looks better but i still use iceraven on my phone and firefox on pc