Pleading ignorance here and genuine questions. Is anyone, within the context of browsers able to define privacy and what it is that FF does that is superior to other say, Chromium based browsers? And what the real world effects are of not using FF for the purpose of privacy? Either reply or point to sources on the Web would be much appreciated.
As I understand it, you can make a Chromium browser just as privacy friendly as Firefox. I use Vivaldi on my home PC and mobile which is strongly privacy focused and has a ton of small QoL features neither Chrome nor Firefox has (I use both at work, prefer FF over Chrome). (Going off the tangent here) for example, it's incredibly easy to re-open recently closed tabs in Vivaldi with just two clicks—a feature I use all the time—as the recently closed tabs list is very obvious and easy to access in the tab bar itself without the need to futz around in the menus to find browsing history. The customizable speed dial, sidebar menu for things like bookmarks and downloads are really nice and the download manager in Vivaldi is IMO better than FF, too.
The bigger problem is Google having defacto monopoly over browser market and thus having too much influence over how web standards work and how the user can browse the web (I'm old enough to remember "This web page is best viewed on Internet Explorer" messages on websites). The move to manifest v3 to curb content blockers is one such example.
Thanks for your reply. I am a Vivaldi user myself currently after trying numerous browsers over the years. I was trying to reconcile in my mind what am I giving up in terms of privacy for my choice. I do tend to lean on and learn from other more knowledgeable myself. I do have a few privacy related extensions installed. But you touch on something there that extends further than personal privacy but Googles influence on web standards, good one.
Chrome is run by an ad company with a vested interest in your data and has been outspoken about banning adblockers in the past.
Firefox is a completely open source project run by a non-profit organisation who accepts donations to cover costs.
Other Chromium-based browsers can generally be fine but the overuse of chromium reinforces web standards that are hard to reproduce. A web browser is a fairly complex beast these days even for the best programmers. Just see XMPP for an example of where things could lead to.
While it’s true that Firefox receives some of those donations from Google for being the default search engine, they have no influence over decisions made by the Firefox team whatsoever. That’s the short version of it.
@1Transient During a time where I temporarily used Reddit (around 2018), I would repost my memes from Instagram to some subreddits. One of the mods got upset at the Instagram watermark and banned me from the subreddit. Pretty hypocritical considering some of that subreddit’s most upvoted posts were Twitter screenshots.
I love to see all this fantastic innovation but it’s a shame that most of it is confined to desktop/laptop computers. 95% of my YouTube consumption is on my phone, iPad, and Roku. Those platforms just aren’t extensible in the same ways. It’s too bad because I’m least likely to sit at my gaming PC watching videos.
I will mention that if you go premium, ads are removed on all devices.
Vanced used to be the way to go, but the project isn’t being maintained anymore.
Instead, I’d recommend ReVanced. It can be pretty simple to setup. All you need is Vanced MicroG, ReVanced Manager, and a download of the recommended version of the YouTube app from APKMirror. Currently, the recommended version is v18.23.35. (ReVanced Manager will tell you what the recommended version is every time you go to patch YouTube.)
Install Vanced MicroG first. Then install and open ReVanced Manager. Open the “Patch” tab, “Select an application”, then select “Storage” and navigate to where the YouTube app you downloaded is located. Then “Select patches”, making sure to include the MicroG patch. Then select “Patch”, then “Install”. You’re done!
Bonus tip: After the patch process is complete, before you tap “Install”, tap the three-dot menu in the upper-right and select “Export” to export the patched APK in case you run into trouble with the installation itself. That way, you don’t have to rerun the whole patching process, and you have a backup.
Edit: It seems !revanced has a guide you can follow, too, in their Master Post.
Can you install Android apps on the Roku? SmartTubeNext is amazing on Android TV as it has most of these extensions integrated. On the Nvidia Shield TV is works like a charm.
You have to side-load it and then it self-updates. I’ve used this guide techmogulchannel.com/tutorial-how-to-install-smar…. Do note that SmartTubeNext doesn’t support HDR on the Shield but that’s fine. If you really want it, just keep both the official Youtube app and SmartTube and switch if you want to watch something in HDR.
I use newpipe x sponsorblock on my phone. I have my subscriptions imported and I actually like that I can retain a feed without having to be signed into a google account.
For iPad I got safari with adguard and sponsorblock installed and airplay that to the TV. Does Roku support airplay? So now I get not only blocked ads but segments I want blocked like being asking to like, subscribe, intros, outros, recaps, and sponsored segments.
If you just want to watch youtube on the iPad just use a piped instance which has sponsorblock built in. !piped
I mean I get the whole post isn’t super serious but for real, I doubt that getting rid of Hitler-Hitler would have stopped the rise of fascism and nazis. There would have just been another leader who might have caused even greater damage.
IMO much better. It’s Apple product. You give your data to them anyway while using macOS or iOS so that’s one argument: no need to share your data with anyone else.
Apart of that they have built in tracking blockers and I think they fiddle with cookies because I get logged out from services more frequently than on other browsers that I use for web development.
Do you have proof of this? For example with the payment info on Apple Pay. It is all encrypted, not even the side I’m buying from sees my address or credit card info.
Apple’s whole marketing angle is based on privacy to differentiate themselves from Google and the others. If they get caught doing something stupid it seems like that would cost them more than they would make from the stupid stuff.
I don’t have specific data on Safari, but Apple choosing to do pretty much all ML stuff on device and leave it there bodes well for their general thoughts on privacy when compared to pretty much every other company that wants to pull all that data back so it can be used for other things.
Apple’s whole marketing angle is based on privacy to differentiate themselves from Google and the others. If they get caught doing something stupid it seems like that would cost them more than they would make from the stupid stuff.
Marketing angle, sure, but starting in 2019, Apple’s core MacOS product moved to selling users data to serve them better ads. They were only private for as long as they could attract new users with that. Now all they really have is “less privacy disrespecting than Windows 11 or ChromeOS”
Eh, other vendors have been known to cooperative with police and government officials and hand over user data without a warrant - any evidence that’s been the case with Apple?
Look in the system preferences app. There’s a whole section for opting out of Apple collecting advertising data about you. That’s the preferences app of the ENTIRE OS.
Meanwhile, Apple’s application APIs set advertisements as a core feature:
They may be letting you opt out for now, but this is an early phase of the enshittification cycle. First, they attracted users by promising privacy. Now they’re attracting advertisers by dangling in front of them an expanded user base. It won’t be long until Apple will make opting out more complicated and difficult because they think they can make more money selling more data to advertisers. They’ll do it slowly. Every time saying “they’re giving consumers more granular control over their privacy” when really they’re just “creating opt-outs for things you didn’t use to have to opt out of” or “creating opt-outs that used to be part of a larger opt out.” Someday will come “we’ve eliminated opt-outs” and eventually “here’s an advertising banner at the bottom of all default apps”
Well, at least it’s apparently all in one place instead of being scattered into several different apps’ settings like with Android. Android has its Privacy Dashboard, but, from what I’ve seen, it doesn’t begin to sufficiently cover privacy.
There’s really nothing wrong with it. The only thing that Firefox enthusiasts are concerned about is that you contribute to the Chromium monopoly by using Ungoogled Chromium.
I wouldn’t consider myself a Firefox enthusiast, but there is one other major thing I’m concerned about with Chromium, and that’s the Chrome Web Store’s massive malware problem. Practically every month there’s some story about a bunch of malware being found on the store. Even accounting for the smaller userbase Firefox-based browsers have, it’s incredibly rare to see such stories about AMO. When they do come out, Mozilla tends to lay down the banhammer faster than Google does. CWS also had a pretty big problem with survey scams in the past, though I’m not sure about now. And if you look through AMO, one major difference you will notice is a distinct lack of all those sketchy search hijacking new tab extensions that seem to pop up on CWS constantly. Simply put, it appears Google’s review process for extensions on CWS is practically non-existent, while Mozilla’s is much more stringent. ~Cherri
Nah, they have a big concern on that matter. Not collecting or selling your data is one of their main selling points lol. Also, while not completely open source, the main changes they do to the chromium base is open for everyone
Not collecting or selling your data is one of their main selling points lol.
And… how can we trust that claim?
Just use Librewolf. Problem solved. If you want some gimmicky stuff that Vivaldi provides, that’s fine. Just know that it’s not as private as Librewolf is. It’s default privacy measures are subpar at best.
of course not, it hasn’t been updated for FIFTEEN YEARS and definitely didn’t even get an engine upgrade in 2017 let alone a new version half a month ago and a hotfix last week
No effect, bevause youtube uses an outdated version of Shadow DOM, which only chromium based browsers have installed. It then makes browsers like Firefox and pre chromium edge start youtube terribly.
I switched from Chrome to Firefox somewhat recently. The experience really isn’t any different, except Firefox doesn’t use 110% of your CPU.
I have a ton of privacy extensions which causes a few issues when creating accounts by linking to your Google account (the pop-up is blocked) or opening redirect links to apps (I think it’s only Discord that I’ve had an issue with). I don’t consider those drawbacks because the browser is doing its job. Instead, I go copy and paste the link in Chrome.
All I’m wishing for on Android is for NewPipe or LibreTube to let me login to get my suggested front page. On desktop, Sponserblock is awesome, and I’ve been liking DeArrow.
uBlock Origin is simply a requirement on every single browser and should always be installed. I’d recommend going into the settings and enabling all the extra filters as well.
Sounds to me like the older version had issues. Pre-compiled or self probably had nothing to do with it. Now you just have the newer better version that you happened to compile yourself
What do you mean? Last year, I effectively had to stop using it because Google was testing a new blocking method in the UK - this resulted in constant buffering.
A recent update has resolved this issue, and the app is back to being the best version of YouTube available.
I’ll give it a try, will it let me access my already existing youtube login with my subscriptions and reccomendations? That’s really the only thing im missing
edit: weird, I installed it and choose a public server. I never logged into my YouTube yet it seems to be getting my YouTube recommendations somewhat? Nvm they just seem to be similar stuff to what I watch.
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