- cross-posted to:
- tech@kbin.social
- cross-posted to:
- tech@kbin.social
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Just use Firefox.
Firefox + uBlock Origin + arkenfox user.js gives you privacy, security and anti-tracking. The only way to fly IMO.
And a Pi Hole for good measure.
A dns blocker cannot do anything more than ublock. It is nice for other apps though.
It works very well on browser and outside the browser. So if your software/hardware is phoning home, it will pick it up.
White list firewall. Because this is the real reason everyone has a right to ad block. Ads are hidden links to other websites. It’s like walking through a gauntlet of pick pockets bribing the credit card company just to make it to the checkout at your local grocery store, or some asshole you invite into your home that goes to the bathroom, opens a window, and lets a dozen random people in your home if they pay a dollar for the access. The entire system is based on stalking people. It is criminal.
What does Arkenfox do? I’ll definitely add it if it’s beneficial.
It changes many default Firefox preferences in
about:configto be as private as possible. The main selling point is resist fingerprinting (RFP). I highly suggest reading the wiki. It can break some websites, but you can configure it to fit your needs.Sounds interesting. I’ll definetely check it out. Thanks!
Why not add Snowflake while we’re at it?
Is this applicable for Firefox mobile?
According to the GitHub page the user.js is for desktop only but ublock should still work.
I bounced between the two for years, i guess i am going back to Firefox full time.
Same. I had no idea about brave and I started using it full time on all my devices like a month ago. Guess I’m going back to Firefox. Which was fine.
Firefox and mozilla aren’t your friend.
They like to play the “user and privacy friendly” company. Meanwhile they are hemoraging users, and laying off staff needed to actually build a great browser.
Mozilla ceo pay increase + layoffs in 2020:
In 2018 she received a total of $2,458,350 in compensation from Mozilla, which represents a 400% payrise since 2008. On the same period, Firefox marketshare was down 85%. When asked about her salary she stated “I learned that my pay was about an 80% discount to market. Meaning that competitive roles elsewhere were paying about 5 times as much. That’s too big a discount to ask people and their families to commit to.”
In 2020, after returning to the position of CEO, her salary had risen to over $3 million. In the same year the Mozilla Corporation laid off approximately 250 employees due to shrinking revenues. Baker blamed this on the Coronavirus pandemic.
They don’t need to be my friend to be better than the chromium browsers though, so I don’t know what this has to do with anything
What’s the alternative though, we have Chrome and Firefox as choices. Chrome is far worse than some issues with Firefox around CEO pay.
I’ve switched on Desktop a year ago. Also with Android. But Firefox on Android has an odd bug that I cannot get rid of. Pages are really slow to load on initial render. I’ve noticed it gets stuck on the SSL cert verification step, sometimes around 5 to 10 seconds before it starts painting the page.
I’ve tried disabling all add-ons, logging out of Firefox sync, disabling the built in HTTPS everywhere, and literally any custom settings I’ve added. But I can’t get past this issue and seemingly no one else has it.
Chrome doesn’t present this issue.
Same issue here! I thought I was alone. It annoys me to no end and weirder still, issue doesn’t present itself with Firefox for Windows running behind the same IP.
Firefox Focus also doesn’t seem to present the issue. Just the primary Firefox browser for Android. And honestly, often enough that it’s nearly unusable.
If you ever figure it out, please let me know.
I don’t have that issue on Mull, so maybe try that?
I’ve never encountered this, which makes me realise I’ve been running Firefox beta for ages (with zero issues). Perhaps try that just in case it helps?
+1 for that issue, you are not alone :)
You’re not alone, I’ve been using Firefox on Android for two years now, and I’ve had this problem from the beginning. The first time I launch Firefox and load a page it stops a quarter of the progression bar for ten seconds, and then loads fine. Once pas that everything works perfectly. It’s very annoying and I don’t know why this happens.
With brave I never see any pc or YouTube ads. With Firefox even with ublock origin I can’t get rid of those damn ads. That’s what keeps me on brave
I don’t know why you’re getting ads… I run Firefox + uBlock just fine.
But I also run NoScript and AdBlockPlus. Maybe try those?
(Yes I know NoScript with uBlock is pretty redundant. Doesn’t really bother me to allow scripts on both to unbreak things. I like the double lock.)
You should not run multiple ad blockers. uBO won’t be able to defuse anti-adblocker scripts if it has another ad blocker interfering.
OTOH NoScript should be fine
No ads on YT with Firefox + uBlock, not sure why your setup isn’t working.
Doesn’t Firefox do telemetry and other shady shit out of the box? Ofc you can turn it off but I don’t get the fanaticism over this browser.
Yeah it’s not perfect out of the box but after turning off telemetry and adding some add-ons like ublock origin and such it’s one of the best short of going full on tor/mullvad. And still less fanaticism than brave lol
Unrelated, but why is it that so many kbin users seem to keep a dedicated reducing account? Relatively frequently, an account that reduces a post or comment has no recent posts or comments but heavy initial usage a ~month ago as jpgr above. It’s weird.
I downvoted because it was a lazy comment not providing further elaboration. If anything, the fact that such a comment is highly upvoted shows that this community is not mature yet.
That I’m not engaging in online discussion doesn’t automatically mean this is a bot or “dedicated reducing” account. Please restrain yourself from judging strangers on the internet.
In a space dominated by people endlessly sharing opinions and articles and memes, it’s just extremely peculiar to find accounts like yours so frequently downvoting while absent other activities even if it’s relatively mundane. Take, for instance, the upvotes on nothingwise’s comment where 1/5 are blank accounts. The novelty of the information sets off alarm bells, so I apologize if I was mistaken. I’m not trying to start a witch-hunt or JAQ off so I’ll leave it at that.
I think those existed on Reddit too. It’s just that you could never actually confirm they existed.
Which was why they existed, as alts to upvote a user’s own posts and downvote opposing ones.
Except now we’re on kbin, we can see them.
I use chrome on my mobile device… Is that bad?
Might as well take shits with the door unlocked; same level of exposing yourself.
And ads. Ads everywhere.
Just use Firefox. Mozilla isn’t good but it’s not evil
Just moved from Brave to Firefox when that “AI training” story came out. I think it’s faster than brave now
On mac? Love safari? But also want good adblock? Use Orion! It’s safari, but with support for chrome and Firefox extensions! Fuck yeah!
I always loved safari, and always got weird looks for it as a web developer (but after a month or two they love me for it because I always find non-chrome bugs because those peasants only use chrome), but that browser is so damn good guys… on mac, that is. Not sure if it even exists yet for linux/win.
The ceo is a bigoted asshole, Brave is chromium, it was initially funded by Peter Thiel and they’re literally just trying to make their own adsense network.
The self-proclaimed privacy focused browser is tracking your browsing and want to serve you personalized ads, and I think they want to use that tracking data for AI training as well, meaning other people can potentially access it.
And lets not forget about their crypto currency that you can earn by turning on special ads. Which they seemingly unironically called it “Basic Attent Tokens”…
TL;DR: The company is basically a sham company trying to usher in a dystopia. Where you’ll get paid for staring at ads, while having all your data stolen and sold back to you.
The fact that their founder wants to ban gay marriage is enough reason for me to avoid it like the plague.
He fucking what?
He made a thousand dollar donation in support of proposition 8, a constitutional amendment in California that strips gay people of the right to marry. He then proceeded to argue that such a donation does not make him a bigot or an enemy of LGBTQ+ people, because he’s a delusional piece of filth.
This effectively prevented gay people from marrying in California from 2008 to 2013 until the fascists that supported it were finally done trying to argue how this doesn’t violate the US constitution.
So yeah, may he, his browser, and any pathethic excuse that pretends to be human being who supported this abomination rot in the deepest depths forever.
From his Blog post where he defends stripping same-sex couples of their equal right to marry.
“I refrain from putting my personal beliefs in others’ way. I hope for the same in return.”
I have absolutely no idea how Brave got the reputation it has. It’s business model is disgusting and extortionate, it’s like paying for warez. Been clear as day since day one.
Yeah, fuck this guy.
First, I have been online for almost 30 years. I’ve led an open source project for 14 years. I speak regularly at conferences around the world, and socialize with members of the Mozilla, JavaScript, and other web developer communities. I challenge anyone to cite an incident where I displayed hatred, or ever treated someone less than respectfully because of group affinity or individual identity.
So I hid my hatred from everyone for 30 years successfully. Now that everyone finds out that I donated to a cause to strip them of rights everyone wants to say I’m hateful? Give me one example where I displayed hatred…how about the time you donated to strip people of their rights? That might be a big one for me.
Is there proof he donated? Was it specifically a donation against gay marriage? Has he donated to other causes as well?
Anytime I see a lynch mob forming, I always get a bit skeptical of the details. Context matters as well.
This guy could be a grade A sack of shit, but I haven’t seen many links to proof, just people regurgitating the same stuff over and over.
Edit: I probably should have researched on my own before posting but here is what I’ve read so far: he donated back in 2008 (haven’t found a link of a source that proves it, but I’ve also not found anything refuting the claim, not even his blog posts). He did post this back in 2014 when the hubbub started: https://web.archive.org/web/20200708202554/https://brendaneich.com/2014/03/inclusiveness-at-mozilla/
Maybe the bar is lower now after the trump tenure, but that post seems to show some genuine self awareness and growth. I know my views about the world have grown, changed, matured, and become much more nuanced since 2008. Is it possible he has as well?
Has he done or said anything shitty since that single donation?
Edit 2: I just saw some of his tweets on masks and saying Dr fauci lies https://twitter.com/BrendanEich/status/1337496169690230784. Bleh.
I know I’m jumping to conclusions but I’m starting to see some indicators of what kind of politics he’s continued to have.
I had this whole spiel queued up on how we need to let people be able to redeem themselves. He’s not the poster boy for that cause so I’ll hold off.
Proof aside form him admitting that he did it?
The issue is that Eich doesn’t appear to think it’s wrong for the state to strip same-sex couples of their equal right to marry. This is clear when you read the blog posts he wrote and how he words this, in addition to the fact that he simply never apologized.
Take his community-and-diversity blog post. He says “So I do not insist that anyone agree with me on a great many things, including political issues, and I refrain from putting my personal beliefs in others’ way in all matters Mozilla, JS, and Web. I hope for the same in return.” Note that he says he won’t force his personal beliefs on others “in all matters Mozilla, JS, and Web”. In other words, he can still force his personal beliefs on others outside of those contexts.
Keep in mind, it’s one thing to think its wrong for same-sex couples to start families but to also live and let live, it another thing to spend money so that the state will enforce that opinion on others.
If he had simply apologized for fueling the state’s stripping of same-sex couples equal right to marry, this would have likely all blown over. He did everything but take responsibility for that mistake, likely because he thinks stripping same-sex couples of their equal right to marry is desirable.
At one point they were scummy enough to automatically add their referral codes to any Amazon link you see. Lots of people today still mindlessly recommend Brave, and that’s what’s wrong in general with the “but the UX is so nice” mentality.
Lots of people today still mindlessly recommend Brave
It starts to feel astroturfed at a certain point. The last week or so has been crazy.
I would bet my left nut they astroturf
They’re cryptocurrency scammers; do you expect them not to hustle?
At one point they were scummy enough to automatically add their referral codes to any Amazon link you see.
To be clear, that means Brave is ① invading their users’ privacy, and ② stealing money from web publishers.
The point of referral codes is to reward web publishers for referring users to a product; leading to the user buying a product that they otherwise wouldn’t.
Your browser isn’t introducing you to a product. For it to insert referral codes for the browser vendor’s benefit is stealing money.
Its almost like UX is one of the most important things for a user of any given program. 🥴
If you really dig into the whole ordeal it was a software error, not some malicious idea to steal links from creators.
How exactly does one accidentally insert affiliate data on links? At some point someone wrote that code, which is malicious in itself, even if the activation was accidental.
It’s also strange that it happened twice, first with amazon links, then they started injecting affiliate data for crypto platforms instead.
The fact that its main 2 gimmicks are a shitty ad blocker and integrated cryptocurrency should be enough of a red flag, honestly. Just use Firefox, people!
I downloaded it just yesterday, and I uninstalled it after reading this article. Back to Firefox for me!
Removed by mod
Firefox doesn’t block ads on my iPad. Only reason I still use brave
You can install add-ons, at least on the android version. One of them is Ublock!
Firefox is significantly slower though…
Not really that significant when you’re using it, I promise. I’m usually all for speed, but FF has better functionality than the competition.
Speed is significant though. “Functionality” (whatever you mean by that) is less important.
Built-in features are much better, respects privacy (compared to Google), add-ons have more possibilities, etc.
This article is useless trash. There is no real technical argument here except “founder bad”.
I do have reasons for not using Brave, but it’s to do with the annoying defaults and the crypto integration. They default whitelist Google, LinkedIn, and Facebook garbage that I have to go and toggle off.
Given the level of effort and extensions like Facebook container on Firefox, I just prefer the better experience for me. This bullshit about getting on identity politics agendas I find abhorrent and repulsive. This author’s a stupid fuckhead.
Did you read the whole thing and you’re just okay with them quietly pulling sponsored links for FTX?
Not sure about OP,
I read the whole thing and it doesn’t really bother me because I’d never touch their coin crap. The whole we’ll pay you to browse smells like a pyramid scheme.
Downsides:
CEO is an ass: check
They’ll sell my traffic: check
They’ve added a half assed insecure tor implementation: check
They’ve replaced ads on websites with their own to an illegal level: check
They’re trying to use crypto currency to fund themselves and did that to a level that got them charged by the FTC: check
Once their crypto plans fails, they’ll probably either sell more of my data or fold up: check
Upsides:
Runs all my chrome plugins
Tight IPFS integration without running Kubo
Decent P2P bookmark/history syncing to unlimited nodes without making an account
Very solid anti-fingerprinting when combined with privacy badger.
Small enough that selling my data will have less reach than Google or Microsoft selling my data
Blocks youtube ads, even on mobile (while they still can)
Your reasons are discussed in the post. Did you just read the first section and then get mad?
This really sums up everything I felt while reading it.
I’m still using it and Firefox in lieu of Chrome
Brave + Privacy badger has the only working fingerprint reduction (https://coveryourtracks.eff.org/) I can find. So I know brave is tracking me, but all the sites I visit had a hard time doing so if I don’t log in.
I use IPFS quite a bit and I really like that it’s integrated without me having to install Kubo everywhere. I tried the companion in FF but it still opens ipfs:// in brave.
The CEO is a piece of crap. That seems pretty average IMO.
They’ll sell my data. Anyone that can fingerprint me will do the same. I have one smallish company selling my data instead of google or Microsoft.
They have previously done shitty things and they have put in too many fake features in the name of privacy like a half assed TOR implementation.
I’m not against trying other things. but every time someone says OMG BRAVE IS THE WORST. It ends up with a very slight Utility > Evil function for me.
How was your day?
They aren’t.
The author also makes a much more compelling argument than you on their position, and the article supports the argument with verifiable fact and links.
Only one side of the equation uses the phrase “identity politics”, and it’s the broken flailing, desperate side - Gay people are going to get married, trans people exist and interracial couples are going to walk down your main Street holding hands and smiling. You need to accept these basic facts about your fellow human beings.
One of my best friends is gay and married, and I fully support their right to do so and be recognized as a couple. I just don’t see how the politics of a founder need to have any bearing on how I use the product. Conservatives like using iPhones and liberals still like their Chik-Fil-A food and Marvel entertainment despite Perlmutter moving huge amounts of money for conservative support. It’s hypocritical for people to froth at the mouth over Brendan Eich while they still order from Amazon, shop at Walmart, and patron many other conservative companies. Identity politics in consumerism is ridiculous, and pandering to the virtue signaling helps no one. “Founder bad” arguments are pathetic, as are the constant reminders that we need to shop X for social causes.
So the CEO is a raging alt-righter. Glad I never used his product then.
Firefox is king 👑
That or DuckDuckGo’s new browser.
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Today I learned that people take it VERY PERSONALLY when you criticize their chosen browser. 😂
“If someone recommends Brave to you, you should ignore them, because they are wrong.”
I stopped reading here. If you would like to present objective technical arguments, please try not to sound like a 5 year old “I’m right, you’re wrong, blah blah”.
Use Brave or use Firefox. They both work great for privacy, but I find Brave is easier to configure to be private.
Thanks. Whenever I raised the issue of homophobia or his general support of right-wing causes that threaten people’s privacy (see the aftermath of Roe v. Wade for example), I got downvoted, be it on the PrivacyGuides sub where they adore the browser, or right here just weeks ago.
I use Brave as a backup browser. My main one is Firefox.
You can turn off the crypto stuff. You don’t have to use Brave Shields (in browser ad blocker). It can be turned off. Now you can use uBlock Origin or another ad blocker.
About the CEO, I can’t see nothing about his beliefs reflecting in his work. Looks like he kept them separated. I’m not for said beliefs.
That you can is besides the point. You shouldn’t need to. If the first thing I need to think about after installing it is “well, let’s see what garbage is in here that I need to turn off”, then any trust I would have for it has already gone out the window. Especially important odor a browser where that is kind of the main differentiating aspect.
Idk if I’m doing something different but for me, the crypto stuff seems to be opt in.
Like you have to create a wallet it seems, they don’t make one for you.
The article (and these comments) are rife with half-truths and pitchforks. (And I use Firefox).
Beside**
It still has to be feature rich and work or of the box. I haven’t been back to Firefox in a few years, but it was pretty dumpy by comparison to brave. I’ll look again but the key feature of a browser to me isn’t “it’s not Google, it’s Foss, and I don’t have to disable stuff”.
I’m gonna hope you’re a fellow Linux user if that’s the perspective you take.
I wasn’t arguing for Firefox or FOSS. It just seems to me that if your selling point is trust and privacy (at least it is what I see people citing as Brave’s Big Thing), you should be as transparent and irreproachable in that regard as possible. Having said this, of course, good features can be enough for the trade-off to be worth it (this is true of pretty much every piece of software out there, Chrome included), depending t each user finds more important.
By that logic, Firefox would be in the same boat. After initially installing, you have to turn off data collection in the settings and disable Pocket in the config.
By using his product you’re contributing to his political views. You know that though, don’t you…
By that logic. You can’t use nothing who going against your beliefs. That’s impossible, because you can’t know every company beliefs.
But you can make changes once damning information is discovered or attempt to research products and services to try and minimize your own impact on others suffering.
Why use a product that pays a bad actor tho?
There are other options, free options.
Why was appointing Eich as CEO so controversial? It’s because he donated $1,000 in support of California’s Proposition 8 in 2008, which was a proposed amendment to California’s state constitution to ban same-sex marriage.
Besides this I cannot find another good reason not to use brave. Nobody point to a specific line of code that ruins privacy, not enough reasons.
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I’ve been using brave for over a year. I can’t remember the last time I saw an ad on my screen. Now there might very well have been some But I have no memory of it.
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Their carrot-on-a-stick routine with the BAT they fail to pay is enough for me to have switched.
False advertising is false.
They block the website’s own ads, but inject their own instead. So the user still gets ads, but the profits go to Brave. I know that if the site’s owner is aware of that and goes through the process of registering with Brave they get a share of the profits, but this should really be opt-in. As it is, the whole scheme is shady as fuck.
They do point out a couple of instances of questionable if not outright scummy things (e.g. the affiliate codes situation) but the article mostly gives off “stop using brave, I’ve decided it’s cancelled” vibes.
I stopped using it because it was kinda shitty. Some page elements in my webapps just didn’t display or work correctly. Firefox is the more polished experience now. But it is kinda nice not having to morally justify your choice of browser, too.
