[xubuntu-users] firefox & snap, persry ...onal settings folder ..

[Ralf Mardorf]

On Mon, 2023-01-02 at 13:17 -0500, Clarence Fender wrote:
> Regardless of what you do, do a duckduckgo search for securing FF.
> There are a few steps you can take to make FF a lot more secure and
> private.

Hi,

please don't suggest searching for it, but make specific suggestions.

To see what you still share with Google when using DDG with FF go to
about:config and search for google.

To see what common strings of information you send to the outside world
go to https://www.whatismybrowser.com/ or similar.

To see... It's never ending.

You will not only end up with a free as in beer activist's VPN that
doesn't collect the IP such as https://riseup.net/en/vpn and tons of
add-ons, even not with another web browser providing more privacy, you
will end up with not using a web browser at all or you try to use a safe
web browser that doesn't work with a lot of websites anymore.

You can monitor a lot with https://jshelter.org/ ,
https://www.wireshark.org/ etc., but you can not do much against the
oddities you'll much likely notice.

Even IceCat by default does send the string "Firefox on Linux". At the
end of last year on the FreeBSD questions mailing list was a thread
mentioning that the string "Firefox on FreeBSD" make some websites
refuse to work.

Don't get me wrong, if possible I care a lot about privacy, I even don't
own a mobile phone and my iPads aren't equipped with "cellular" at all,
I'm strictly using landline. For the iPads the router's WiFi is set up
to the minimum transmit power and my Linux machine and other devices are
connected by wire.

Today I made screenshots of my iPads, https://i.imgur.com/huSnbyZ.jpg ,
as you can see I tend to use FF and Perfect Browser (Pro). On Linux I'm
in favour of Waterfox. I also use other browser on the iPads and on
Linux, but those are the most used once.

Take a look at the "App Privacy" of Firefox
https://apps.apple.com/us/app/firefox-sicher-unterwegs/id989804926?platform=ipad
I doubt that it's much different for the Linux version.

Take a look at the "App Privacy" of Perfect Browser
https://apps.apple.com/app/apple-store/id1360915927
OTOH you can't trust such "AppPrivacy" claims, see
https://apps.apple.com/us/app/brave-private-web-browser/id1052879175?platform=ipad
and then use Google, DDG or what ever you like to read about Brendan
Eich, or trust others and/or my research
https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/ubuntu-users/2022-November/308766.html
https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/ubuntu-users/2022-November/308768.html

In a nutshell, using Firefox on Linux is ok. It's one of the browsers
I'm using, too. Related to privacy and annoyances consider to install
the uBlock Origin add-on and maybe something to "hide" your IP,
maybe https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/hide-my-ip-free/ to
e.g. watch YouTube content that is blocked for your country. In Germany
it's required to watch GEMA collecting society/mafia music.

Once upon a time I ungoggled about:config, but it's not worth the
effort.

IMO after installing Firefox it's useful to take a look at
about:preferences (not at about:config) and to install uBlock Origin
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/ublock-origin/ installing
something to hide the IP or a VPN aren't necessary. Nowadays I'm even
back to use the Google search engine most of the times.

I boycott Amazone and similar sharks, but not Ebay or Google. We cannot
get rid of everything that isn't perfect. I quasi don't use my "smart"
TV's Android web things, but to abandon Google doesn't make much sense
to me, even if you block analytics, under the hood Firefox still
interacts with Google.

That's just my opinion.

Regards,
Ralf