Every day, I get increasingly tired of all the tracking and data collecting on the web. It’s rare to stumble on a website that isn’t using some nasty tracking service. Worst, some websites use a bunch of them, each more pervasive than the other. Everywhere I browse, I have dozens or hundreds of eyes looking at my every move and recording it to do Satan knows what with that information.
The web wasn’t always like this. If you used the internet before the 2000s, as I did, you know how much better it was regarding privacy. And all the pages with tons of gifs just waiting to cause you an epilepsy attack and a guestbook. But I digress.
Some browsers nowadays have features to help tackle privacy issues. Firefox is one of them, but IMO, these features are not enough, even when paired with AdGuardHome, to get extra tracker-blocking capabilities. Brave appears to be better in this regard, but its CEO is a disgusting human being, so I wouldn’t feel comfortable using the browser knowing this.
The only two other open-source browsers that implement good privacy features, as far as I know, are Tor Browser and Librewolf. Both are forks of Firefox. Tor looks like the best one privacy-wise, but I’m forced to use the Tor network, which can be slow, and I want to avoid dealing with that. So, by default, Librewolf wins.
Right now, I’m using Librewolf from the Flathub repository. I had to make minor changes in the settings and install some extensions to go the extra mile, but overall it will help me regain some privacy online. Let’s see if I can use Librewolf for a whole month. The thing is, some settings meant to increase privacy can also break some websites. I have to ponder well on the trade-off.
Disclaimer: I use two analytics services on this blog, Swetrix, and GoatCounter. Both are open-source and privacy-friendly. Feel free to check both of their privacy policies.
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