So as the title mentions, I’m wondering how much is too much?
I am currently using Brave with the setting to:
Aggressively block trackers & ads
Only connect with HTTPS
Block fingerprinting
Block cross-site cookies
In addition to that, I have installed the following extensions:
uBlock Origin
Ghostery
Decentraleyes
DuckDuckGo Privacy Essentials
So my question is: Is this overkill? If so, what should/could be removed that may be redundant? I want as much coverage as possible, but not have things bloated.
The only privacy add-on you need is uBlock Origin with script blocking and advanced mode enabled, installed on Firefox. Better yet, LibreWolf, although a few websites will be broken by LibreWolf. There are no other privacy add-ons that are necessary beyond uBlock Origin.
I mean, you can install them if you want, but they won’t do anything.
Firefox isn’t as secure as Chromium browsers due to its internal sandboxing and site isolation being substantially weaker (especially on Linux). If you are on a Linux machine, I recommend you use Brave with no ad blocking extensions because first, it comes with an ad blocker by default. Also, the more extensions you have, your attack surface increases.
If you are on Windows, you should be using Microsoft Edge paired with UBO Lite as it offers the highest security and UBO Lite doesn’t have access to the site data. If you are concerned about the telemetry of using Edge, you can turn it off and if you’re still paranoid, you will have to switch to Linux at this point.
tor using ublock origin would be new to me. do you mean they now ship it by default or do you mean that you can install it like a regular firefox extension?
So. Since many people basically have no idea of anything, Quick explanation:
Never use different Content Blocker Extensions together. They break eah pther in functionality, uBO Dev and a Adguard Dev made a official post about this problem on Twitter (aka. X). So, remove DDG, definitly remove Ghostery, there privacy pratices are worse, Decentralized Eyes is outdated, use it’s fork LocalCDN instead, uBlock Origin is u
only necessary if you wanna use Features of it, which Brave Shields doesn’t have. uBO filters do work completly for Brave too, they both the the same syntax.
With a gurantee of 99% some things will break, and you can do everything with uBO others have + more Extensions makes you easily fingerprintable on Chromium browsers (Firefox too, but there is it hardery depending on the Extension), atleast some.
NoScript also prevents clickjacking, redirection attack (if I remember correctly, also I’m not sure that it’s the correct term), and few more things that I can’t remember right now… From what I’ve heard one can replace them both with uMatrix, haven’t tried it though.
Yes for the browser i agree, sadly apps have trackers and ads too. A dns can be useful if it’s system wide for all that stuff. Nextdns, adguard, rethinkdns or decloudus comes to mind
Brave is trash and its owned by an asshole. I use adblock browser in my phone and Firefox otherwise. Not sure about the owner or Dev or whatever, but it’s much better quality for blocking ads.
An answer to the more pertinent question of how much is too much, however? None. There’s no such thing as too much ad blocking.
Given that the US has almost zero privacy legislation, the politics of the owner/maker often hints at decisions that eventually make it into the software. Many of the reasons to avoid chrome and chromium are similar to this, though not about a specific person but about the values that google holds in fucking over standards. We see this reflected in some of the decisions of say social media platforms (even “free-as-in-beer” ones) and many companies.
In many cases, you’re still giving them money and/or power to continue fucking up open standards.
Why waste your time on lemmy/kbin or the fediverse? Reddit/X/Threads are free-as-in-beer so you don’t pay for them, there’s more content, and you don’t pay for them. You can skip all of the ads with adblockers and have a great time.
Never mind the American politics nonsense, Brave has a history of slightly dodgy behaviour. Replacing websites ads with their own, keeping donations meant for creators, hijacking referral links and adding in their own, a lot of cryptocurrency shenanigans, and that’s just what’s on Wikipedia!
I agree with you, that’s irrelevant. What’s not irrelevant is that it’s chromium as in based on chrome, the browser trying to add drm to internet pages. Please use Firefox instead
In 2008 he donated $1000 in support of California Proposition 8. I don’t know of anything else, at least publicly. Californians also voted and passed the amendment 52%/47%, it was thrown out by the courts.
More recently in 2020 he did say some of the typical conservative stuff about COVID lockdowns, mask mandates, calling Fouci a liar, etc.
Yes, because if the browser has no market share, there is no point in it continuing to exist and the company folds.
I don’t care if it’s free or costs money, the man gets paid if the product is successful. I don’t want to support him, therefore I don’t use the product. If enough people agree with me and do the same, the product dies & the man fails. Or at the very least the rest of the company kicks him out and the man still fails.
When you support software you support the company making it, allowing them to grow and profit. If someone does not want to financially support the actions of someone they disagree with, then that is fine.
pihole by itself does not remove all the ads and trackers, just ones that come from different hostnames than the site being accessed–which can be blocked by dns.
I don’t use it just because I’m not a fan of how chromium browsers work. They have had some controversies too around their crypto stuff and other things, but I’m not too familiar with them.
I’ve tested a few browsers using Eff’s Cover Your Tracks website. The best is TOR, but Brave with no extensions is second, it said it provided a randomized fingerprint. Tried it with Firefox with uBlock and it said my comp had a unique fingerprint. Mullvad browser faired slighty better, cant recall the score, but at least it wasn’t unique. I tried it with Librewolf also with a load of extensions and it was a poor score as well. So, imo, you don’t need extensions with Brave. I think my settings are the same as yours.
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less is more in this case, the best approach is:
UBlock Origin, NextDNS to filter the queries and Block Cookies cross sites
The only privacy add-on you need is uBlock Origin with script blocking and advanced mode enabled, installed on Firefox. Better yet, LibreWolf, although a few websites will be broken by LibreWolf. There are no other privacy add-ons that are necessary beyond uBlock Origin.
I mean, you can install them if you want, but they won’t do anything.
Use Firefox with ubo. Stop using chromium browsers.
After reading through this whole thread, that’s exactly what I’m doing.
Firefox isn’t as secure as Chromium browsers due to its internal sandboxing and site isolation being substantially weaker (especially on Linux). If you are on a Linux machine, I recommend you use Brave with no ad blocking extensions because first, it comes with an ad blocker by default. Also, the more extensions you have, your attack surface increases.
If you are on Windows, you should be using Microsoft Edge paired with UBO Lite as it offers the highest security and UBO Lite doesn’t have access to the site data. If you are concerned about the telemetry of using Edge, you can turn it off and if you’re still paranoid, you will have to switch to Linux at this point.
I do not need to try smth which I already did and others too. I’m also not talking about ky experiences or opinions, what I said are facts.
My rule for this is if tor uses it its pretty dam good aka No script + Ublock Orgin
tor using ublock origin would be new to me. do you mean they now ship it by default or do you mean that you can install it like a regular firefox extension?
Oh come to think of it you might be right I don’t use tor a lot lol
So. Since many people basically have no idea of anything, Quick explanation:
Never use different Content Blocker Extensions together. They break eah pther in functionality, uBO Dev and a Adguard Dev made a official post about this problem on Twitter (aka. X). So, remove DDG, definitly remove Ghostery, there privacy pratices are worse, Decentralized Eyes is outdated, use it’s fork LocalCDN instead, uBlock Origin is u only necessary if you wanna use Features of it, which Brave Shields doesn’t have. uBO filters do work completly for Brave too, they both the the same syntax.
you can use them together you just got to know how to fix stuff
With a gurantee of 99% some things will break, and you can do everything with uBO others have + more Extensions makes you easily fingerprintable on Chromium browsers (Firefox too, but there is it hardery depending on the Extension), atleast some.
hardly.Try it first before you talk
Never heard that Ublock and DDG isn’t good. Could you link the thread where this was found out?
https://twitter.com/gorhill/status/1033706103782170625
Thanks for the ref.
Np
You just need uBlock. The other add-ons are redundant.
uBlock origin + NoScript. Imo.
But uBlock also has javascript blocking functionality, so I’m not sure NoScript is needed
It blocks JavaScript altogether. NoScript is more fine tuned to allow the minimal amount of js to function.
NoScript also prevents clickjacking, redirection attack (if I remember correctly, also I’m not sure that it’s the correct term), and few more things that I can’t remember right now… From what I’ve heard one can replace them both with uMatrix, haven’t tried it though.
uMatrix is abandoned
I’m surprised no one has forked it yet, or at least none that I know of
Pretty sure uMatrix is integrated into uBlock now (at least 90% of the functionality is)
I had no idea, thanks.
Yes for the browser i agree, sadly apps have trackers and ads too. A dns can be useful if it’s system wide for all that stuff. Nextdns, adguard, rethinkdns or decloudus comes to mind
Yup. Overkill. But, thankfully extension removal is just a click away. More users should ask questions like this.
Brave is trash and its owned by an asshole. I use adblock browser in my phone and Firefox otherwise. Not sure about the owner or Dev or whatever, but it’s much better quality for blocking ads.
An answer to the more pertinent question of how much is too much, however? None. There’s no such thing as too much ad blocking.
Why is it trash?
And why are Americans obsessed with the politics of who makes a product?
Its a free, as in free beer, browser. By using it you are not donating money to the CEO.
Given that the US has almost zero privacy legislation, the politics of the owner/maker often hints at decisions that eventually make it into the software. Many of the reasons to avoid chrome and chromium are similar to this, though not about a specific person but about the values that google holds in fucking over standards. We see this reflected in some of the decisions of say social media platforms (even “free-as-in-beer” ones) and many companies.
In many cases, you’re still giving them money and/or power to continue fucking up open standards.
What money am I giving. I didn’t spend a singular cent.
What power am I giving. I didn’t vote for anything.
Who made you like this?
You sure about that?
Verily
Why waste your time on lemmy/kbin or the fediverse? Reddit/X/Threads are free-as-in-beer so you don’t pay for them, there’s more content, and you don’t pay for them. You can skip all of the ads with adblockers and have a great time.
I don’t get the point that you are trying to make
Never mind the American politics nonsense, Brave has a history of slightly dodgy behaviour. Replacing websites ads with their own, keeping donations meant for creators, hijacking referral links and adding in their own, a lot of cryptocurrency shenanigans, and that’s just what’s on Wikipedia!
I agree with you, that’s irrelevant. What’s not irrelevant is that it’s chromium as in based on chrome, the browser trying to add drm to internet pages. Please use Firefox instead
Someone correct me if I’m wrong, but I’m pretty sure he donated to (or still donates to?) homophobic action groups.
That’s more than enough reason to boycott something that person is in charge of, imo
In 2008 he donated $1000 in support of California Proposition 8. I don’t know of anything else, at least publicly. Californians also voted and passed the amendment 52%/47%, it was thrown out by the courts.
More recently in 2020 he did say some of the typical conservative stuff about COVID lockdowns, mask mandates, calling Fouci a liar, etc.
How does that affect the software.
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Wow he called me dork.
I’m offended
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I do not want success for that man, therefore I’m not going to give his project market share
Market share… Of something that can be had free? You are making less and less sense.
Yes, because if the browser has no market share, there is no point in it continuing to exist and the company folds.
I don’t care if it’s free or costs money, the man gets paid if the product is successful. I don’t want to support him, therefore I don’t use the product. If enough people agree with me and do the same, the product dies & the man fails. Or at the very least the rest of the company kicks him out and the man still fails.
Like this isn’t rocket science
This makes no sense.
How do you expect to convince a large group to stop using a product? Just by saying “he’s bad”?
Be honest with yourselves and admit it gives you a warm fuzzy feeling of “sticking up to the man” by doing… Nothing.
You see you are deluding yourselves in believing you are making a change, but it’s all in your head.
When you support software you support the company making it, allowing them to grow and profit. If someone does not want to financially support the actions of someone they disagree with, then that is fine.
Just one is too many. The goal is to blend in not stand out. Use Mullvad Browser and Tor Browser.
Are you really standing out when over a third of all internet users use adblockers? Source in German
Everyone needs to be using the same lists…
I use the extensions based on the Arkenfox user.js wiki. He describes what’s obsolete or redundant, etc. It’s a good quick read.
Ooh, I like this! Much appreciated.
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Honastpy at this point you should turn them all ofi and set up a pi hole
Pi hole is great for blocking ads from IoT devices like TVs or streaming boxes. But pi hope can’t block things like YouTube ads.
pihole by itself does not remove all the ads and trackers, just ones that come from different hostnames than the site being accessed–which can be blocked by dns.
a browser-based blocker is essential.
With brave you don’t need any of those addons.
On Firefox just uBlock is fine.
brave has its own ‘issues’ that should keep you far away from it.
I don’t use it just because I’m not a fan of how chromium browsers work. They have had some controversies too around their crypto stuff and other things, but I’m not too familiar with them.
I’ve tested a few browsers using Eff’s Cover Your Tracks website. The best is TOR, but Brave with no extensions is second, it said it provided a randomized fingerprint. Tried it with Firefox with uBlock and it said my comp had a unique fingerprint. Mullvad browser faired slighty better, cant recall the score, but at least it wasn’t unique. I tried it with Librewolf also with a load of extensions and it was a poor score as well. So, imo, you don’t need extensions with Brave. I think my settings are the same as yours.