Hey everybody. I’m somewhat new to the field of privacy, but I am eager to learn. Right now I am wondering what mobile web browser to use for everyday activities. I’m running GrapheneOS. Options that often come to mind:
- Tor
- Firefox Focus (= Firefox Klar in German)
- IronFox (formerly Mull Browser)
- Cromite
- Vanadium
I feel like I simply don’t know enough about the underlaying mechanisms to elaborate which might be better and which might be worse. Feel free to teach me!
I also use Vanadium on GrapheneOS
The lack of nice ad-blocking has me favor things like Iceraven, but for pure privacy it can’t be beaten
Firefox Focus with AdGuard DNS
Right now I use IronFox for browsing and Vanadium for websites I stay logged into. But the best one depends on your threat model.
curl via Termux
On my phone I currently have the standard eOS browser, IronFox and Fennec installed. Only Fennec came with a new tracker after install, so that is going out again. Have used IronFox for at least the last year until I recently bought a FairPhone with eOS, so can recommend that as a daily driver.
IronFox and Vanadium.
I recently switched from regular Firefox to Ironfox. So far, I didn’t notice anything different, which is probably a good thing because that means everything still works as expected.
Why not Librefox? As far as I recall it’s basically hardened Firefox.
I think you meant librewolf ? And if so, I believe it is desktop only.
There is LibreLynx Lite on F-Droid, but it is very bare bones. Do not recommend, especially while IronFox exists.
Yeh I meant that one, corrected, thanks!
i’d just use ironfox with ublock origin
Considering that already. Do you experience any problems or limitations with that? Like being flagged as a bot, or sites returning errors?
Edit: thank you for the suggestion!
i haven’t really used ironfox, i use iceraven. i actually also use numatrix alongside ublock origin.
i do see more captchas compared to common browsers like google chrome.
I tried Tor for a while but it was too clunky and when used in conjunction with a search engine like Mojeek, was unusable. Whatever it was doing in the background made it impossible to search, with most failing due to suspected bot activity.
Using Ironfox now and its a bit better. I agree, the underlying stuff is complex so maybe I dont have as much protection with Ironfox than Tor, but I dont know enough about that to know enough about it, if you get me.
So I read what people are saying in posts like this and make a call based on that. I’m happy that I’m better protected than Chrome etc. so that is enough for now.
Its really SO complex the whole privacy (umbrella term) area, boggles my brain, but I’m thankful for people on here that know more than I do. Appreciate y’all.
I tried Tor for a while but it was too clunky and when used in conjunction with a search engine like Mojeek, was unusable. Whatever it was doing in the background made it impossible to search, with most failing due to suspected bot activity.
Yes, this is the point: Search engines are harvesting YOU and YOUR SEARCH TERMS! TOR prevents that, and they don’t like it.
OTOH, DDG Search and DDG(Onion): https://duckduckgogg42xjoc72x3sjasowoarfbgcmv/ et al., almost always works for me. Startpage and Startpage(Onion), too, but Mojeek and Brave Search show results less often.
I made up my mind years ago to stick to TOR Browser and TOR VPN network for anonymity, privacy, and security regardless of poor response times. Today, I feel that that choice has been vindicated. TOR response times are no worse than they ever were, but response times viewing heavily ad-ridden sites with “normal” browsers have caught up. TOR blocks receiving a lot of ads and tracker folderal that “normal” pages spew out to all comers. It’s just that a handful of search engines — and many and yet more Web sites — will not serve content to TOR’s VPN network. But — You know what? — screw them!
I will admit to using the Chromium browser to retrieve must-have content from sites whose Web-hosting providers block the TOR network because — believe it or not — some of those sites don’t support Firefox. It’s deja vu all over again for those of us who lived through the Netscape Browser Wars.
Not everyone has the technical insight level of an IT professional. Thats why I love this community. Most people give you really solid advice. Thanks to everyone at this point!
Use Vanadium. On android, any Firefox based is lacking either in the sandbox or fingerprinting mitigation, plus extentions make you more fingerprintable and can possibly track you. Even on desktop they’re behind. Chromium based is much more optimized and secure.
I saw on GrapheneOS forum Vanadium is the better option, with Brave a second alternative. Also tor browser on android is not officially from the tor project and suffers from firefox android implementation. Browsers are extremely complex, they’re made to run external code in the wild securely. Quite an endeavor.
Firefox mobile (so I can sync between my devices) with extensions installed like Privacy Badger and uBlock Origin.
Otherwise: Firefox Klar, Waterfox to sync all my work bookmarks between devices, Vanadium if I need anything google or chromium specific, and Tor.
I got tired of having two different profiles in GrapheneOS (a secondary with Google logged in), now I log in to my google account via Vanadium if I need to do anything like check GMail or Google Voice messages. I just live with never logging in to google maps, so I can’t save places or plan trips with friends in a streamlined manner. I work around it, screenshot the place in maps (logged out) or copypasta into an encrypted note taking app.
Search Portals: Searxng, 4Get, Qwant, Startpage, DuckDuckGo
Thanks for the advice, and thanks for the mentioning if 4Get. I just read about it. Awesome project.
I use Fennec becaue it was the only Firefox fork that played nice with all my extensions
Vivaldi has been a good middle ground for me. Privacy respecting but still has features I want. It’s not perfect, but nothing is.
I do like Fennec since it’s available on F-Droid and updated, ublock origin mandatory in any case.
