If you value privacy, ditch Chrome and switch to Firefox now

Technology@lemmy.world – 3177 points – 12 months ago

With the number of people concerned about privacy, it is a wonder why chrome is even popular.

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The whole Reddit debacle has really made me rethink all my services. I recently installed duck duck go and still getting used to it, so not quite sure if I'm ready to make another drastic change.

I used to love Firefox in 2006 or so, but got Chrome when it was released and forgot about Firefox. I think I'll open a tab in my chrome browser for the Firefox page now...this is how I remind myself to delve deeper into stuff later. Thanks for the inspiration, everyone. Google has irked me ever since removing the Don't Be Evil mantra.

Firefox has a super simple way to import everything from your Chrome install. And from what I can tell it has every feature plus more. Was very easy for me to switch. I was actually inspired to try it as my daily driver since Chrome hogs an uncomfortable amount of RAM on my laptop

There was one extension I used in Chrome that I haven't found a Firefox replacement for, but I stopped trying to look a while ago and just live without it.

Was a specific kind of cookie manager: you could whitelist a set of websites to keep their cookies. Everything else would be deleted when you told the extension to do so.

Too many websites need cookies that stick around indefinitely. But I also don't want to delete everything everytime I close Firefox, because I may want to keep a website around for a few days without wanting to bother adding it to a whitelist.

Most Chrome extensions can easily be run in Firefox. Simply download the CRX and upload an copy to addons.mozilla.org as an unlisted extension and within a few hours the extension should be approved and ready to install in Firefox.

Firefox has strong support for the extension cookie management APIs: https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Mozilla/Add-ons/WebExtensions/API/cookies

I think this might be what you are searching for. I've used it a few times and it does everything it promises imho: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/cookie-autodelete

You can do that in the browser settings in bOTH FF and chrome

I want something more complex than a basic whitelist and blacklist. I already use that in Firefox and it helps somewhat but not wholly. I want to manage specifically when it happens and in accordance to said lists. I haven't found anything that handles that in the settings.

You can do that in the browser settings in both FF and chrome

Reddit being enshittified is what motivated me to switch back to Android. I don't want to continue using a a locked ecosystem only for apple to one day say: "Welp, no more adblocks 😜 Oh you use VLC? Dude that's for pirates only. Signal? That's for terrorists. Standard Notes? What evil plans are you hiding? Banned Banned and Banned."

I used iPhones because everyone else was using them so I kinds fell for the peer pressure thinking "Hmm... what are the odds that Apple become evil? Probably don't have to worry about it." The Reddit shitshow just triggered a fear in me that made me rethink about my life decisions. Apple's locked ecosystem suddenly looked terrifying to me, and I just wanna nope out. So I got an Android phone and gave the iPhone to someone. I love my apks and don't need to worry about Google-Play shennanigans.

True. It takes a big chance to switch browsers for some. And there may be learning curves, but being intentional about our internet and app use goes a long way to saving headaches in the future. The early investment (ie learning a more open source and free, even FOSS software) will help mitigate loss in case a profit driven company changes or “pivots” to a new direction.

The best time to start with a new browser is when you get a new device. Since you have to re enter your logins or re enable your pw manager anyway, it's just a convenient time. That's when I switched, about 1 year ago when I upgraded phones.

Duckduckgo app tracking blocker is my new jam too. Which I leaned about here on lemmy about 1 weeks ago when I joined

If you use a password manager like bitwarden, there’s no need to enter all your logins. I guess that’s why I’m a bit browser agnostic. I use different browsers for different purposes. And I don’t have to worry about remembering my passwords with bitwarden.

Maybe this is silly but I worry about the security of password managers. Is Bitwarden very secure and reliable (im assuming yes in your estimation)?

The difference between ddg and Firefox for me is that Firefox is a genuinely good product, whereas ddg is noticeably worse than Google. Still trying to find a good search alternative.

I recently learned that ddg is a meta search engine which pulls from Bing search, which is probably why it sucks.

Tried out brave search engine (uses it's own search algorithm) and the results have been better. Probably slightly weaker than google.

I do all my personal browsing on Firefox now. I'm still using chrome, but strictly for work stuff. It's nice to keep those activities separate, especially since many apps I use for work still discriminate against Firefox.

If you like the chrome feel, you should check out a browser called brave. It’s built off of chromium (read as: looks like chrome) and can run all the extensions you like, but is built to be privacy minded.