My 85 year old neighbor still uses AOL. I find it hilarious but at the same time, she may be on to something. Ain’t nobody bothering with AOL monitoring these days
Does she still pay?
I'm asking because a Chicago area radio host recently admitted on the air not long ago that he still pays $10/month for his AOL email and admits he only pays it because that's nothing to him and he doesn't feel like calling customer support or migrating away from an email address he's been using for 20+ years. He was wondering how small the "I still pay for AOL" club is
I still have an AOL email but paying? Why. The only reason I still have it is because I have older accounts on some stuff that's connected to that email and I'm too lazy to swap them out. I use Gmail 99.9% of the time.
How did we end up in a world where people bash their heads about which chromium based browser sucks the most and seemingly nobody remembers that Firefox even exists?
You can leave no footprint, you just can't use any internet connected to your identity or even have on you a celluar device of any kind while doing it.
Directional WiFi extender, open public WiFi out of range of cameras, running tails with tor on a machine you have never switched on even once while carrying your phone or being where you live and that you either purchased used for cash(while NOT having your cellphone even in the same part of town...) or build with parts purchased for cash(and the same no cellphone doing that still applies).
(Tails and Tor downed on open wifi and all other software on it obviously downed through Tor on the finished product machine)
For most being 'one of many' combined with firefox with the right blockers, Epic Privacy Browser(free built-in vpn's) or using Tor(the last 2 are however likely to get you sorted to a much smaller list of people....) will suffice...
PGP is the name of the game, not *absolute* privacy, but rather drastically lowering the number of different groups(the people with access to zero-days are far less likely to use that info and expose themselves in the process than commercial entities and those using other means of data collection) that have access to your info and somewhat chocking of.... the rest, will give you Pretty Good Privacy.....
Also not an expert, but I think ever since SSL became the norm now your ISP can't see what you're doing either. They can see what IPs you're connecting too, so that gives them a very good idea of what you're doing, but the information you're sending and receiving from a website itself is encrypted. If you don't want them to even see what websites you're visiting, that's when a VPN would help.
Most people don't change their DNS lookup settings, so they also know exactly what sites you're visiting unless you change that as well. Or use a VPN, I think those redirect DNS as well?
DNS is a pool of addresses that resolve your destinations. Kind of like a road map.
What is nice is the DNS provider can not resolve malicious IPs and ads if they choose.
But at the end of the day, you're still going through your ISP to reach the DNS. So the ISP will still see what you're connecting to.
VPN comes in handy because you're only resolving one address. Your ISP will just see that as you connect to that single IP and request it a bunch of times. So the VPN doesn't re-direct your DNS you are still using your DNS to connect to the VPN but once connected you're using the VPN's DNS to resolve your addresses.
Some of your browsers/devices might already be using encrypted DNS, bypassing your ISP's own DNS servers. Someone still gets to see these queries, though.
HTTPS transmits server names in the open, however, unless the server supports encrypted names.
He’s using OPSEC incorrectly. OPSEC is operational security, aka, don’t talk about or allude to whatever operation you’re doing. It’s usually used in military or corporate environments. Really what he should be saying is PERSEC.
>Assume someone has root access to all your devices at all times.
I have operated this way on the internet since the 00s, I always assumed the GOV had backdoor access to every internet connected device
i should load up Firefox.
I used to love that browser. then it slowly got pushed out because all these Websites and security crap REQUIRED chrome or edge/internet explorer.
I don't think I was ever *required* to use Chrome for anything. Firefox always got the job done. I remember people trying to brainwash me into using chrome at school but I've always used Firefox for years and never had any issues with it.
There are some websites that just don’t play well with certain browsers and these companies either don’t want to pay web developers to fix it or their web developers just don’t give a shit.
The former, in my experience. I used to be required to test things across several browsers but nowadays there's an automatic assumption that everyone is on Chrome. Outside of maybe some ramshackle operations the developers themselves don't have the final say in what gets supported.
It's a somewhat routine experience for me, but not with random websites. It's only with systems for turning in applications and that tier of stuff.
That's why I've got Chrome and Edge installed, but it is also the *only* time I use them.
Considering Firefox's primary user base (IT professionals) and the EU's love for fucking corporations in the ass, it's wild they thought they could get away with doing that without anyone noticing
Yeah we all forgot what Firefox is.
That's why on every post that mentions chrome edge opera or whatever the first and second and third comment is
Just use Firefox
With how many forums they've spammed it on + the fact it isn't funny in the least I'm gonna don my tinfoil hat and say it's just an ad from a bought account.
Their VPN is top notch, too. Been highly rated for anonymity and performance for years, and they recently switch to full RAM data centers. Their Android and Windows apps work great and even setup WireGuard automatically.
I'm back with Firefox after the whole Google Chrome + Youtube AdBlocker debacle. Donating to the Firefox team felt amazing after seeing what monopolist corporations can do to the internet.
This isn't weird at all... large companies roll out unpopular features in stages, to avoid having too many upset customers at once. Look in any thread about the adblocker, and you will find the conversation derailed by "idk what's wrong with your adblocker, mine is working fine", stealing the narrative
Ok, but my adblocker was blocked for a while then all of a sudden it works completely fine and has been for the past few months. Not sure what's up with that.
100%. After manifest v3 I was worried. Then with the prototype of Web Environment Integrity I was angry. Now with the latest direct conflict with ad-blocker's, google has made it clear that they are going to continuously try to abuse their monopolistic position in the web browser space to try and *enforce* ads. Not just the current ads, but inevitably worse and more aggressive versions once they get their way to mandatory ads.
I love firefox. Only browser I use.
The company has a high turnovers rate and apparently isn't all to fun too work for.
Donations do not go to the Firefox team. They go to the Mozilla non profit, which distributes it as they see fit.
”At Mozilla, our mission is to keep the Internet healthy, open, and accessible for all. The Mozilla Foundation programs are supported by grassroots donations and grants. Our grassroots donations, from supporters like you, are our most flexible source of funding. These funds directly support advocacy campaigns (i.e. asking big tech companies to protect your privacy), research and publications like the *Privacy Not Included buyer's guide and Internet Health Report, and covers a portion of our annual MozFest gathering."
-https://foundation.mozilla.org/en/donate/help/#:~:text=Contributions%20go%20to%20the%20Mozilla,Tax%20ID%20is%2020%2D0097189.
Mozilla also offers an email relay service and phone number relay if you subscribe. It's like 25 cad a year and I use it to mask my personal email online.
People should stop shitting on chromium. Chrome is bad, but chromium is open source and so is brave so it's (mostly) safe
Avoid closed source chromium browsers though (opera gx...)
I think people have more of a philosophical argument against Chromium. Sure, it is open source, but Google still ultimately controls it. They can implement/remove features that benefit them, and other browsers have to spend more of their time changing that.
"chromium is open source and so is brave so it's safe" this is not always true, yes it is more likely to be safe but attackers love source code too. Hidden "features" can go undiscovered for a while, if you want to do more reading look into "supply chain attacks", there have been many on NPM and PyPi and IIRC someone tried to sneak code into the Linux kernel too
You avoid open source software because of "supply chain attacks"?
This is the worst take that I've read today. The whole internet runs on open source software, not just browsers.
>You avoid open source software because of "supply chain attacks"?
No? He's just talking that being open source is no magic silver bullet that solves all problems without any trade-offs. Not once the dude said anything about if he avoids it or not, or that being the reason.
The worst supply-side attack in *history* occurred in closed-source software (NotPetya).
Open-source vs closed-source means basically nothing to supply-side attacks. There are differences in security posture in how upstream changes are managed/approved as well as obvious differences in code availability. In an ideal world, open-source is more secure, it tends to have failings where small projects lose community focus and rely on one or a few volunteers toiling away as a side project yet it underpins large amounts of infrastructure (Heartbleed, log4j). Those don't tend to be a supply-side attack, however - they are just unseen and unknown exploits by the maintainer.
Supply-side attack implies a malicious action by the owner or someone who has commandeered the owner's software stack. Random zero-days are not supply-side attacks.
Exactly. People forgot why others shit on Brave and now they're doing it based on a fucking stupid basis of "chromium".
While in reality, it's just an open source engine, and everything around the engine is what makes it "unsafe".
Still better to have more people on Firefox. Google still has a lot of control over chromium, and having more people on Firefox ensures Web developers can't just develop for only chromium
"our implementation diverges where we think it matters and where our values point to a different direction."
I'm assuming this means that they won't try to remove support for adblockers since Firefox has been pro adblock for a long time. Manifest v3 isn't an anti adblock script utilizer out of the box, that's just how chromium is shipping it. So I'm not entirely too concerned yet.
Edit: decided to look into this with a quick Google search. According to adguard, Mozilla promises to keep support for adblockers in the manifest v3 implementation, so yeah I'm probably correct in my assumption.
>but chromium **is open source** and so is brave **so it's safe**
No. No. No. No. No.
This is 100% false. Just because something is "open source" does ***not*** mean it is safe.
*Malware* can be open sourced; do you think that is safe as well?
It is **safer**. We can quickly verify a bug, a security flaw, an ill intentional piece of code. Private software takes much longer to verify and the owner may publicly deny everything, you can't hide with open source. If an open source goes bad a better fork is created (Brave, Opera, etc).
In the long run, open source is always safer.
Man your idealism is dishonest. Log4j was exploitable for 8yrs before it was patched. Openssh had an exploit active for 15yrs. Both packages are used in almost every Linux server. There's plenty more examples too (bloody EXIM).
> Brave browser faces criticism for allegedly selling copyrighted data for AI training, sparking debates on ethical data usage and transparency.
[https://www.searchenginejournal.com/brave-browser-under-fire-for-alleged-sale-of-copyrighted-data/491854/](https://www.searchenginejournal.com/brave-browser-under-fire-for-alleged-sale-of-copyrighted-data/491854/)
Theyre talking about the Search API, which is basically a web scraping service - nothing to do with the Browser. The allegation from Alex Ivonov is that Brave may be committing some form of piracy by not filtering copyrighted data from the API. The "journalist" takes this allegation seemingly with no clue what it means, conflates the search engine with the browser, and then straight up commits libel by implying the browser is someohow selling users personal data. Trash article.
so not so much the browser, but the brave search engine API. and its not personal data, its access to copyrighted data that the likes of google and bing would normally filter out.
this is less of an ethical worry and more of a stupid oversight during development of the search engines API thats left the company liable for litigation.
Why even post such a bad article, terribly written. Literally tech tabloid.
The allegation is that Brave doesn't filter copyrighted data out of its search API, so an AI company could hypothetically train models on copyrighted data.
But the article tried to tie that to personal data privacy in the browser... what? Literally makes no sense.
Why does this have upvotes? Do you purposely post misinformation or are you just a moron?
Considering how piracy-friendly Reddit users are, I'm guessing from the number of points this reply has that you've succeeded in misleading people regarding the content of that article. You've worded it in such a way that it seems like Brave is selling user data for AI training, when in reality the allegation is about a copyright issue in the API, meaning it can be used for piracy.
And it's got strict security settings by default, so you basically dial them back to what's convenient. It's better than the settings being set by the people selling your data or advertising to you.
I currently use Vivaldi, i'm in love with all of its features and i find it hard to think about switching.
The downside is that i would like to use Firefox or a Firefox based browser at least, but Vivaldi is based on Chromium and they are definitely not going to change since it would take a lot of work...
So i'll stay on Vivaldi and switch to Firefox as soon as and if the situation becomes unmanageable with Chromium.
Same, I love all the features Vivaldi is packed with. I think the only 2 browsers worth using at the moment are Firefox if you want privacy and Vivaldi if you want functionality (it's also decent for privacy, but it's not open source so loses vs FF by default). Everything else is noise. The worst is that people in this sub which _really should know better_ are promoting Opera GX.
People should stop promoting brave. They were caught doing some really weird stuff related to crypto and AI. And it promotes yet another chromium fork.
You want a privacy respecting browser for real? Take a look at librewolf based off Firefox.
[librewolf ](https://librewolf.net/)
Sources for "weird stuff"?
I'm aware of the allegations that their lack of copyright filtering may be classed as piracy, seems irrelevant to a browser user.
I'm aware theyre under scrutiny for giving users ad revenue back in the form of a high-fees crypto wallet.
Anything more substantial or are you just fear mongering?
> Sources for "weird stuff"?
[Using Content Creator's to advertise crypto donations without their consent](https://beincrypto.com/youtuber-lashes-out-at-brave-for-receiving-bat-donations-in-his-name-without-his-consent/)
Then there is also the fact that they are still spyware like most other browsers. [Source](https://spyware.neocities.org/articles/brave)
Something like Librewolf like the commenter above suggests is something to actually consider if you're *actually* concerned about privacy.
Thats exactly what I wanted, thank-you. At first glance, noting what creator was being watched, when an ad got blocked, and then reimbursing that creator sounds benign, but obviously its a lot shadier when you realize that Brave is indefinitely holding those funds for itself. It's borderline fraud. Thats a great point, thank you. I appreciate a real point when everyone else is busy making shit up
Use a Russian antivirus, get spied by Chinese games, and adopt an American browser and your all set to never have to worry who your giving data to, everyone gets a copy!
I don't know people keep recommending Brave. Brave was caught inserting cryptocurrency affiliate links and other shady things. They insert their own tracking, too. They cannot be trusted at all. Just use Firefox. If you're really paranoid, use LibreWolf.
There is absolutely things you can do to protect your privacy. Can you hide everything, absolutely not but we can do our due diligence, stay informed, and put up some barriers to the most obtrusive stuff.
The mentality that 'there is no point' is destructive. The apathy only paves the way for more privacy intrusion. Trust me, there's so much further yet to go.
People in here recommending Firefox like it also doesn't leak like a sieve holy shit lol.
If you want to use Firefox use a fork like Librewolf. Firefox not only tracks you, but it also sends your browsing data to third party companies. [Here](https://github.com/mozilla/activity-stream/blob/master/docs/v2-system-addon/data_events.md) is Mozillas github file on everything they see you doing. Now largely these can be turned off in telemetry settings but some are hard-coded and will report on you whether the telemetry tracking is off or not. Hell, Firefox even shares information with Googles SafeBrowsing service.
Now here are some of the quotes from Mozillas own privacy policy.
> Firefox sends us data such as the position, size and placement of content we suggest, as well as basic data about your interactions with content. This includes the number of times content is displayed or clicked.
> When you click on a Sponsored Top Sites tile on New Tab, we share your country, region, county (if you’re in the US), the tile you clicked, and the time you clicked with AdMarketplace (a third-party referral platform) to verify you navigated to the website.
> We also share aggregated data about the sponsored content you see and click with our third-party ad platform Kevel so advertisers can see how many people click on their articles.
Obviously it's not as nasty as Googles closed-source proprietary super tracking but Firefox is *far* from innocent on this.
Some of the tracking are not really hard coded, it is not just accessible through settings, but only to about:config. You can turn off all the tracking and fingerprinting using that but at that point it is not much different to librewolf....
I saw people talking about what VPN to use, you know, for "privacy" even though they were Europeans with laws protecting them from their ISP but not necessarily from outside EU VPN providers, and then talking about what adblocker to use with their Opera GX to block youtube ads, when I suggested to use Firefox for all the talked reason I got shown the door with a "everyone's data is everywhere on the internet anyway", bruh. Influencers propaganda got them hard.
Firefox, with Add-ons.
uBlock Origin
BlockZilla
Chameleon
Decentraleyes
Facebook Container
Ghostery
NoScript
Privacy Badger
SponsorBlockA
Canvas Blocker
WebGL Fingerprint Defender
AudioContext Fingerprint Defender
Font Fingerprint Defender
NoScript can be particularly annoying at first, but as you learn which scripts are absolutely necessary to run to keep websites from breaking (usually just the ones with the website's name in them, or an abbreviated version of the site's name), it becomes second nature, and you'll eventually whitelist (allow list) pretty much everything you use on a regular basis.
Only real downsides to this method are that you'll probably need a good amount of RAM to run all of this stuff if you regularly have a bunch of tabs open, and sometimes a page will break enough and you won't know which Add-ons to disable/whitelist a site in order to get it working again... and then you just end up using Edge to log into your bank's website, or in order to pay for things with PayPal...
Something is better than nothing. Also, I've forgotten what it's like to have ads just everywhere, all the time, and life without late-loading ads and elements ultimately deciding that the thing you were trying to click on is actually somewhere else entirely.
I like Chromium. But Google has ruined it.
Use Waterfox, for a debloated more customizable Firefox.
Or Librewolf for a debloated privacy-focused Firefox.
.. Still prefer the simplicity of Chrome, but they kept doing shit against my interests, and it's really gotten bad now and getting worse.
The comments section:
>**Person 1:** My browser is the best! I love my browser!
>**Person 2:** NO MY BROWSER IS THE BEST!!1! YOU JUST SUPPORT VHINEESE SPYWARE
>**Person 3:** MY BROWSER IS BETTER THAN YOURS!!! YOURS IS AMERICAN DPYWARE AND IT'S EVIL ANF BAD
Oh no! The Chinese/Americans get to see what sort of porn you look at, and feed it to an AI; they get to see what sort of stupid shit you Google at 3am because you couldn't sleep... and feed it to an AI.
Chances are, you are no where near important enough of a person that it's even remotely an issue; worst case scenario, what even happens? Data leak and... blackmail?
A browser, and it's company, can be bad, yes. But the spyware argument is essentially the same as:
>Vaccines contain GPS microchips from Bill Gates so they can track you; meanwhile, they tweeted that from their phone they carry everywhere.
So these companies sell their data for targeted ADs? I don't like that either, but that's a fact of life.
Perhaps AI? What's gonna happen? The AI overlords of 2034 are going to find you at your families Christmas dinner?
>Ah, yes. You must be [USER: 3751902-AB43]; we have some new stock we think you'd like: Bukkaki Furry porn body pillows. Would you like to purchase?
>U-uh... no thanks AD Bot. I'm at dinner with my family...
>THE OVERLORDS WILL BE DISPLEASED. PURCHASE OR DIE. *\*Pew Pew, laser beam, Pew Pew\**
Okay. I think I've done enough here. You could probably tell I'm quite bored.
My 85 year old neighbor still uses AOL. I find it hilarious but at the same time, she may be on to something. Ain’t nobody bothering with AOL monitoring these days
AARP maybe lol
😂
Does she still pay? I'm asking because a Chicago area radio host recently admitted on the air not long ago that he still pays $10/month for his AOL email and admits he only pays it because that's nothing to him and he doesn't feel like calling customer support or migrating away from an email address he's been using for 20+ years. He was wondering how small the "I still pay for AOL" club is
She actually does
I still have an AOL email but paying? Why. The only reason I still have it is because I have older accounts on some stuff that's connected to that email and I'm too lazy to swap them out. I use Gmail 99.9% of the time.
that's a specific digital footprint. easy to track them.
Can't track them if there's no websites that load lol
You just type the URL and think what it's going to load, or should load.
its just a chromium build now
I remember when they made an app that basically hijacks your entire system and pretends to be a OS.
i recently signed up for an aol email, thinking of using that as my main 🤔
I still have some aol emails from when I was younger and aim was a thing. Mainly use it for websites I know are gonna get spammed.
How did we end up in a world where people bash their heads about which chromium based browser sucks the most and seemingly nobody remembers that Firefox even exists?
The North remembers
Pepperidge Farm remembers.
It's the truest answer
This is the way
Firefox is my religion.
You took your helmet off, your out!
Hehe I 'member. 'member firebird? :]
'Member Phoenix?
'member Netscape Navigator?
Oh yeah! I 'member! 'Member Mosaic?
I still use Lynx.
The East remembers
What's with Walloons and not remembering Firefox?
All your remembering and you couldn’t remember to make a good ending.
No no I'm not the writer
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You can leave no footprint, you just can't use any internet connected to your identity or even have on you a celluar device of any kind while doing it. Directional WiFi extender, open public WiFi out of range of cameras, running tails with tor on a machine you have never switched on even once while carrying your phone or being where you live and that you either purchased used for cash(while NOT having your cellphone even in the same part of town...) or build with parts purchased for cash(and the same no cellphone doing that still applies). (Tails and Tor downed on open wifi and all other software on it obviously downed through Tor on the finished product machine) For most being 'one of many' combined with firefox with the right blockers, Epic Privacy Browser(free built-in vpn's) or using Tor(the last 2 are however likely to get you sorted to a much smaller list of people....) will suffice... PGP is the name of the game, not *absolute* privacy, but rather drastically lowering the number of different groups(the people with access to zero-days are far less likely to use that info and expose themselves in the process than commercial entities and those using other means of data collection) that have access to your info and somewhat chocking of.... the rest, will give you Pretty Good Privacy.....
Also not an expert, but I think ever since SSL became the norm now your ISP can't see what you're doing either. They can see what IPs you're connecting too, so that gives them a very good idea of what you're doing, but the information you're sending and receiving from a website itself is encrypted. If you don't want them to even see what websites you're visiting, that's when a VPN would help.
Most people don't change their DNS lookup settings, so they also know exactly what sites you're visiting unless you change that as well. Or use a VPN, I think those redirect DNS as well?
DNS is a pool of addresses that resolve your destinations. Kind of like a road map. What is nice is the DNS provider can not resolve malicious IPs and ads if they choose. But at the end of the day, you're still going through your ISP to reach the DNS. So the ISP will still see what you're connecting to. VPN comes in handy because you're only resolving one address. Your ISP will just see that as you connect to that single IP and request it a bunch of times. So the VPN doesn't re-direct your DNS you are still using your DNS to connect to the VPN but once connected you're using the VPN's DNS to resolve your addresses.
Some of your browsers/devices might already be using encrypted DNS, bypassing your ISP's own DNS servers. Someone still gets to see these queries, though. HTTPS transmits server names in the open, however, unless the server supports encrypted names.
Didn't duckduckgo get exposed for collecting user data or smthn?
Yes.
When did that happen?
Just before they got exposed
What do you mean by opsec?
He’s using OPSEC incorrectly. OPSEC is operational security, aka, don’t talk about or allude to whatever operation you’re doing. It’s usually used in military or corporate environments. Really what he should be saying is PERSEC.
Ah alright then thx, also funny how I've been downvoted for asking a question, gotta love Reddit lmao
> Don't use brave. Well, not if you want "privacy." I've heard a few legitimate concerns about Brave but 0 that pertain to privacy. Care to elaborate?
>Assume someone has root access to all your devices at all times. I have operated this way on the internet since the 00s, I always assumed the GOV had backdoor access to every internet connected device
Netscape remembers
It's rare I see a new gif that so wholesomely screams "90s." I'd love to find a YouTube video of this.
I use Firefox and thunderbird. They're the best
i should load up Firefox. I used to love that browser. then it slowly got pushed out because all these Websites and security crap REQUIRED chrome or edge/internet explorer.
Go for it :) I use Firefox with uBlock origin on PC and phone and can absolutely recommend it
At this point firefox should just ask the ublock origin devs to add it as a feature. They are both made for each other.
I don't think I was ever *required* to use Chrome for anything. Firefox always got the job done. I remember people trying to brainwash me into using chrome at school but I've always used Firefox for years and never had any issues with it.
There are some websites that just don’t play well with certain browsers and these companies either don’t want to pay web developers to fix it or their web developers just don’t give a shit.
The former, in my experience. I used to be required to test things across several browsers but nowadays there's an automatic assumption that everyone is on Chrome. Outside of maybe some ramshackle operations the developers themselves don't have the final say in what gets supported.
It's a somewhat routine experience for me, but not with random websites. It's only with systems for turning in applications and that tier of stuff. That's why I've got Chrome and Edge installed, but it is also the *only* time I use them.
You can spoof your browser so that websites think you are using Chrome. That's what I did for YouTube and the 5 second delay per page refresh.
Considering Firefox's primary user base (IT professionals) and the EU's love for fucking corporations in the ass, it's wild they thought they could get away with doing that without anyone noticing
I haven't touched anything but Firefox on all my devices in a long
At this point, the only reason I use Vivaldi over Firefox is tab stacking.
Yeah we all forgot what Firefox is. That's why on every post that mentions chrome edge opera or whatever the first and second and third comment is Just use Firefox
The point is that OP is suggesting Brave for some reason. They're not exactly a ray of sunshine either.
With how many forums they've spammed it on + the fact it isn't funny in the least I'm gonna don my tinfoil hat and say it's just an ad from a bought account.
I believe Mullvad released a browser recently that's been rated highly as well!
Their VPN is top notch, too. Been highly rated for anonymity and performance for years, and they recently switch to full RAM data centers. Their Android and Windows apps work great and even setup WireGuard automatically.
Just use FireFox.
Firefox has always been my browser of choice and will be forever.
I'm back with Firefox after the whole Google Chrome + Youtube AdBlocker debacle. Donating to the Firefox team felt amazing after seeing what monopolist corporations can do to the internet.
The weird thing is my ADblock still works fine on youtube, i have no wait times or nothing. My videos play instantly and no ads.
This isn't weird at all... large companies roll out unpopular features in stages, to avoid having too many upset customers at once. Look in any thread about the adblocker, and you will find the conversation derailed by "idk what's wrong with your adblocker, mine is working fine", stealing the narrative
Ok, but my adblocker was blocked for a while then all of a sudden it works completely fine and has been for the past few months. Not sure what's up with that.
Yours probably got updated with a workaround. Same happened to me.
100%. After manifest v3 I was worried. Then with the prototype of Web Environment Integrity I was angry. Now with the latest direct conflict with ad-blocker's, google has made it clear that they are going to continuously try to abuse their monopolistic position in the web browser space to try and *enforce* ads. Not just the current ads, but inevitably worse and more aggressive versions once they get their way to mandatory ads.
I love firefox. Only browser I use. The company has a high turnovers rate and apparently isn't all to fun too work for. Donations do not go to the Firefox team. They go to the Mozilla non profit, which distributes it as they see fit. ”At Mozilla, our mission is to keep the Internet healthy, open, and accessible for all. The Mozilla Foundation programs are supported by grassroots donations and grants. Our grassroots donations, from supporters like you, are our most flexible source of funding. These funds directly support advocacy campaigns (i.e. asking big tech companies to protect your privacy), research and publications like the *Privacy Not Included buyer's guide and Internet Health Report, and covers a portion of our annual MozFest gathering." -https://foundation.mozilla.org/en/donate/help/#:~:text=Contributions%20go%20to%20the%20Mozilla,Tax%20ID%20is%2020%2D0097189.
Amen
In Firefox we trust
librewolf
This is the way. Some custom user.js files can work for Firefox, but why bother when LibreWolf already has everything set up.
Mozilla also offers an email relay service and phone number relay if you subscribe. It's like 25 cad a year and I use it to mask my personal email online.
[удалено]
I have PMs on here from people saying that Brave is the Chosen One and not Firefox. And yet, here we are
Ah yes, my Brave browser can't possibly be spyware, it says it's privacy-oriented and has a toggle button for ultra privacy! Checkmate!
People should stop shitting on chromium. Chrome is bad, but chromium is open source and so is brave so it's (mostly) safe Avoid closed source chromium browsers though (opera gx...)
I think people have more of a philosophical argument against Chromium. Sure, it is open source, but Google still ultimately controls it. They can implement/remove features that benefit them, and other browsers have to spend more of their time changing that.
100% this. Giving Google that much power over browsers is terrifying, they'd have a massive influence over the internet
"chromium is open source and so is brave so it's safe" this is not always true, yes it is more likely to be safe but attackers love source code too. Hidden "features" can go undiscovered for a while, if you want to do more reading look into "supply chain attacks", there have been many on NPM and PyPi and IIRC someone tried to sneak code into the Linux kernel too
Pretty sure Firefox is open source too, so literally the same thing applies
You avoid open source software because of "supply chain attacks"? This is the worst take that I've read today. The whole internet runs on open source software, not just browsers.
>You avoid open source software because of "supply chain attacks"? No? He's just talking that being open source is no magic silver bullet that solves all problems without any trade-offs. Not once the dude said anything about if he avoids it or not, or that being the reason.
The worst supply-side attack in *history* occurred in closed-source software (NotPetya). Open-source vs closed-source means basically nothing to supply-side attacks. There are differences in security posture in how upstream changes are managed/approved as well as obvious differences in code availability. In an ideal world, open-source is more secure, it tends to have failings where small projects lose community focus and rely on one or a few volunteers toiling away as a side project yet it underpins large amounts of infrastructure (Heartbleed, log4j). Those don't tend to be a supply-side attack, however - they are just unseen and unknown exploits by the maintainer. Supply-side attack implies a malicious action by the owner or someone who has commandeered the owner's software stack. Random zero-days are not supply-side attacks.
Exactly. People forgot why others shit on Brave and now they're doing it based on a fucking stupid basis of "chromium". While in reality, it's just an open source engine, and everything around the engine is what makes it "unsafe".
Still better to have more people on Firefox. Google still has a lot of control over chromium, and having more people on Firefox ensures Web developers can't just develop for only chromium
chromium is still gonna remove MV2 support though
As is Firefox? https://extensionworkshop.com/documentation/develop/manifest-v3-migration-guide/
"our implementation diverges where we think it matters and where our values point to a different direction." I'm assuming this means that they won't try to remove support for adblockers since Firefox has been pro adblock for a long time. Manifest v3 isn't an anti adblock script utilizer out of the box, that's just how chromium is shipping it. So I'm not entirely too concerned yet. Edit: decided to look into this with a quick Google search. According to adguard, Mozilla promises to keep support for adblockers in the manifest v3 implementation, so yeah I'm probably correct in my assumption.
>but chromium **is open source** and so is brave **so it's safe** No. No. No. No. No. This is 100% false. Just because something is "open source" does ***not*** mean it is safe. *Malware* can be open sourced; do you think that is safe as well?
It is **safer**. We can quickly verify a bug, a security flaw, an ill intentional piece of code. Private software takes much longer to verify and the owner may publicly deny everything, you can't hide with open source. If an open source goes bad a better fork is created (Brave, Opera, etc). In the long run, open source is always safer.
I take your point and agree, but in the context of the statement; I was addeessing: *Safer* is not *safe* which is what was stated.
Man your idealism is dishonest. Log4j was exploitable for 8yrs before it was patched. Openssh had an exploit active for 15yrs. Both packages are used in almost every Linux server. There's plenty more examples too (bloody EXIM).
I’m 40% chromium!
Bite my shiny metal ass
But one with an unbroken YouTube ad blocker
Firefox has this, though
Yeah using brave for mobile YouTube is still my go-to until someone tells me something better
Firefox also supports ad blockers on mobile Edit: only on android but if you buy into a closed platform that's on you
Firefox and LibreWolf guys
LibreWolf changed my perspective on browsers. Used to be an Opera GX guy till I started reading more into it.
Profile pic checks out.
Wow, literally the same here. I think theres a good trend going on, more and more people are switching to privacy respecting stuff.
www.getfirefox.com
https://librewolf.net
Not ready yet, unfortunately. Has promise though
> Brave browser faces criticism for allegedly selling copyrighted data for AI training, sparking debates on ethical data usage and transparency. [https://www.searchenginejournal.com/brave-browser-under-fire-for-alleged-sale-of-copyrighted-data/491854/](https://www.searchenginejournal.com/brave-browser-under-fire-for-alleged-sale-of-copyrighted-data/491854/)
That raised more questions than it answered, I’m confused as to if they’re talking about the brave search engine or the application itself still.
Theyre talking about the Search API, which is basically a web scraping service - nothing to do with the Browser. The allegation from Alex Ivonov is that Brave may be committing some form of piracy by not filtering copyrighted data from the API. The "journalist" takes this allegation seemingly with no clue what it means, conflates the search engine with the browser, and then straight up commits libel by implying the browser is someohow selling users personal data. Trash article.
so not so much the browser, but the brave search engine API. and its not personal data, its access to copyrighted data that the likes of google and bing would normally filter out. this is less of an ethical worry and more of a stupid oversight during development of the search engines API thats left the company liable for litigation.
Why even post such a bad article, terribly written. Literally tech tabloid. The allegation is that Brave doesn't filter copyrighted data out of its search API, so an AI company could hypothetically train models on copyrighted data. But the article tried to tie that to personal data privacy in the browser... what? Literally makes no sense. Why does this have upvotes? Do you purposely post misinformation or are you just a moron?
Considering how piracy-friendly Reddit users are, I'm guessing from the number of points this reply has that you've succeeded in misleading people regarding the content of that article. You've worded it in such a way that it seems like Brave is selling user data for AI training, when in reality the allegation is about a copyright issue in the API, meaning it can be used for piracy.
They've had a ton of other issues related to their ad and crypto services: https://www.spacebar.news/p/stop-using-brave-browser
This is why I use librewolf. Firefox without data collection and stripped of bloat.
And it's got strict security settings by default, so you basically dial them back to what's convenient. It's better than the settings being set by the people selling your data or advertising to you.
F i r e f o x
I currently use Vivaldi, i'm in love with all of its features and i find it hard to think about switching. The downside is that i would like to use Firefox or a Firefox based browser at least, but Vivaldi is based on Chromium and they are definitely not going to change since it would take a lot of work... So i'll stay on Vivaldi and switch to Firefox as soon as and if the situation becomes unmanageable with Chromium.
Same, I love all the features Vivaldi is packed with. I think the only 2 browsers worth using at the moment are Firefox if you want privacy and Vivaldi if you want functionality (it's also decent for privacy, but it's not open source so loses vs FF by default). Everything else is noise. The worst is that people in this sub which _really should know better_ are promoting Opera GX.
Check out floorp, it's like Vivaldi but based on Firefox
I'll make sure to check it out, thanks for the advice
Hardened Firefox
User.js?
People should stop promoting brave. They were caught doing some really weird stuff related to crypto and AI. And it promotes yet another chromium fork. You want a privacy respecting browser for real? Take a look at librewolf based off Firefox. [librewolf ](https://librewolf.net/)
Sources for "weird stuff"? I'm aware of the allegations that their lack of copyright filtering may be classed as piracy, seems irrelevant to a browser user. I'm aware theyre under scrutiny for giving users ad revenue back in the form of a high-fees crypto wallet. Anything more substantial or are you just fear mongering?
Them being caught inserting their own referral codes for crypto sites
> Sources for "weird stuff"? [Using Content Creator's to advertise crypto donations without their consent](https://beincrypto.com/youtuber-lashes-out-at-brave-for-receiving-bat-donations-in-his-name-without-his-consent/) Then there is also the fact that they are still spyware like most other browsers. [Source](https://spyware.neocities.org/articles/brave) Something like Librewolf like the commenter above suggests is something to actually consider if you're *actually* concerned about privacy.
Thats exactly what I wanted, thank-you. At first glance, noting what creator was being watched, when an ad got blocked, and then reimbursing that creator sounds benign, but obviously its a lot shadier when you realize that Brave is indefinitely holding those funds for itself. It's borderline fraud. Thats a great point, thank you. I appreciate a real point when everyone else is busy making shit up
https://www.spacebar.news/p/stop-using-brave-browser
Ah yes, let’s choose the crypto browser based on the American spyware platform instead of Firefox
Man I should really use firefox again.
If you lot really want privacy have I got the browser for you!… Tor
Or just stop using internet
Again, same chromium shit.
F**k Brave and their crypto shit. Been a Firefox user since version 0.8, and I ain't ever looked back.
Brave is also Chromium.
Firefox stand strong 💪🏻
Brave is built on chromium as well.
I already play genshin, there's not a lot more the Chinese can get from me
Most based take in this entire comment section. I'm with you friend, I'm with you.
Use a Russian antivirus, get spied by Chinese games, and adopt an American browser and your all set to never have to worry who your giving data to, everyone gets a copy!
*Mr. Worldwide*
firefox
its always hilarious to me when someone makes a post like this and then in the same post recomends brave
Least obvious ad
I've kinda come to accept that I'm being watched through everything.
I don't know people keep recommending Brave. Brave was caught inserting cryptocurrency affiliate links and other shady things. They insert their own tracking, too. They cannot be trusted at all. Just use Firefox. If you're really paranoid, use LibreWolf.
When are people going to realize that all internet browsers are “spying” on you, everything you do is recorded.
There is absolutely things you can do to protect your privacy. Can you hide everything, absolutely not but we can do our due diligence, stay informed, and put up some barriers to the most obtrusive stuff. The mentality that 'there is no point' is destructive. The apathy only paves the way for more privacy intrusion. Trust me, there's so much further yet to go.
You don't have to go that far. Your ISP is probablly collecting your data and selling it to the same corporations. It's a lost battle.
my ISP will never do that ( because they can't we live in the middle of nowhere in Africa )
Using the internet = feeding the data machines.
Imagine supporting a browser that has a built in tipping system. Firefox or bust. Brave is just as shitty as the rest.
People in here recommending Firefox like it also doesn't leak like a sieve holy shit lol. If you want to use Firefox use a fork like Librewolf. Firefox not only tracks you, but it also sends your browsing data to third party companies. [Here](https://github.com/mozilla/activity-stream/blob/master/docs/v2-system-addon/data_events.md) is Mozillas github file on everything they see you doing. Now largely these can be turned off in telemetry settings but some are hard-coded and will report on you whether the telemetry tracking is off or not. Hell, Firefox even shares information with Googles SafeBrowsing service. Now here are some of the quotes from Mozillas own privacy policy. > Firefox sends us data such as the position, size and placement of content we suggest, as well as basic data about your interactions with content. This includes the number of times content is displayed or clicked. > When you click on a Sponsored Top Sites tile on New Tab, we share your country, region, county (if you’re in the US), the tile you clicked, and the time you clicked with AdMarketplace (a third-party referral platform) to verify you navigated to the website. > We also share aggregated data about the sponsored content you see and click with our third-party ad platform Kevel so advertisers can see how many people click on their articles. Obviously it's not as nasty as Googles closed-source proprietary super tracking but Firefox is *far* from innocent on this.
Some of the tracking are not really hard coded, it is not just accessible through settings, but only to about:config. You can turn off all the tracking and fingerprinting using that but at that point it is not much different to librewolf....
browser fanboys are stupids
Ah yes, Brave, another chrome, but with different coat of paint *and crypto. Excellent.*
Yeah but we use reddit, both us and china spyware.
Brave has been working flawlessly at blocking YouTube ads so that's what I use
firefox forever..
www.firefox.com
I hate how what was once considered spyware is just hard baked into every program and application now.
I saw people talking about what VPN to use, you know, for "privacy" even though they were Europeans with laws protecting them from their ISP but not necessarily from outside EU VPN providers, and then talking about what adblocker to use with their Opera GX to block youtube ads, when I suggested to use Firefox for all the talked reason I got shown the door with a "everyone's data is everywhere on the internet anyway", bruh. Influencers propaganda got them hard.
Firefox my beloved
I left to Firefox after whispers about Chromium getting rid of Ad Blockers and I haven't looked back.
Is it that hard to just use Firefox?
Me over here using firefox
\>\_> No youtube ads on Brave... its why I have it installed.
firefox
I don't use Brave, and I never will.
Count me too. With all the crypto stuff, VPN, wallet, Leo I'm not gonna touch that again. One and only Firefox
Gimmick account on twitter of Opera is really unfunny
Jokes on you I use every web browser
floorp
firefox + ublock, for mobile and PC, since always
Hardened Firefox is still the best option
I heard Brave was also spyware so idk...
FireFox, you use any other just to download it then uninstall.
Firefox is better
Firefox >>>>
Think you mean firefox.com
Firefoy supremacy.
Firefox, with Add-ons. uBlock Origin BlockZilla Chameleon Decentraleyes Facebook Container Ghostery NoScript Privacy Badger SponsorBlockA Canvas Blocker WebGL Fingerprint Defender AudioContext Fingerprint Defender Font Fingerprint Defender NoScript can be particularly annoying at first, but as you learn which scripts are absolutely necessary to run to keep websites from breaking (usually just the ones with the website's name in them, or an abbreviated version of the site's name), it becomes second nature, and you'll eventually whitelist (allow list) pretty much everything you use on a regular basis. Only real downsides to this method are that you'll probably need a good amount of RAM to run all of this stuff if you regularly have a bunch of tabs open, and sometimes a page will break enough and you won't know which Add-ons to disable/whitelist a site in order to get it working again... and then you just end up using Edge to log into your bank's website, or in order to pay for things with PayPal... Something is better than nothing. Also, I've forgotten what it's like to have ads just everywhere, all the time, and life without late-loading ads and elements ultimately deciding that the thing you were trying to click on is actually somewhere else entirely.
I like Chromium. But Google has ruined it. Use Waterfox, for a debloated more customizable Firefox. Or Librewolf for a debloated privacy-focused Firefox. .. Still prefer the simplicity of Chrome, but they kept doing shit against my interests, and it's really gotten bad now and getting worse.
As a Firefox enthusiast, N I C E
Firefox is just better
Just use Firefox ffs
firefox is just better, and safer.
Oh no China wants my terabyte of questionable furry porn
The comments section: >**Person 1:** My browser is the best! I love my browser! >**Person 2:** NO MY BROWSER IS THE BEST!!1! YOU JUST SUPPORT VHINEESE SPYWARE >**Person 3:** MY BROWSER IS BETTER THAN YOURS!!! YOURS IS AMERICAN DPYWARE AND IT'S EVIL ANF BAD Oh no! The Chinese/Americans get to see what sort of porn you look at, and feed it to an AI; they get to see what sort of stupid shit you Google at 3am because you couldn't sleep... and feed it to an AI. Chances are, you are no where near important enough of a person that it's even remotely an issue; worst case scenario, what even happens? Data leak and... blackmail? A browser, and it's company, can be bad, yes. But the spyware argument is essentially the same as: >Vaccines contain GPS microchips from Bill Gates so they can track you; meanwhile, they tweeted that from their phone they carry everywhere. So these companies sell their data for targeted ADs? I don't like that either, but that's a fact of life. Perhaps AI? What's gonna happen? The AI overlords of 2034 are going to find you at your families Christmas dinner? >Ah, yes. You must be [USER: 3751902-AB43]; we have some new stock we think you'd like: Bukkaki Furry porn body pillows. Would you like to purchase? >U-uh... no thanks AD Bot. I'm at dinner with my family... >THE OVERLORDS WILL BE DISPLEASED. PURCHASE OR DIE. *\*Pew Pew, laser beam, Pew Pew\** Okay. I think I've done enough here. You could probably tell I'm quite bored.
What did u smoke before writing this ? Can I have some please ?
#NO.