Browsers have always been an arena for fighting and flaming over why your browser is the best and has the most features, while all others are inferior and unusable. I’ve never liked to fight those wars (not with browsers and not with code editors, another hotly debated topic), and I’ve never really understood how people get so religious about their tech choices.
So, first of all, use whatever you want and have fun with whatever you choose—there’s no need to be mad at someone else’s browser preference.
With that being said, browsers have indeed been all over the news lately, with the latest updates about Chrome introducing the new Manifest V3 and uBlock Origin being turned off for new Chrome versions. Privacy is once again a hot topic, and browser choices are back in the headlines. “Use Firefox,” they say. “No! Brave is the only browser that will save you!” Blah, blah, blah.
I won’t say anything about that because, well, I’m not into these wars, remember? I try to stay positive about my choices, and therefore, I’m using this post to show how I’m taking care of my privacy with Safari, my browser of choice. Is it perfect? Of course not. Can anything be privacy-perfect these days? Come on.
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9 Comments
freeone3000
I think the author might be misunderstanding the fingerprint test — having a unique fingerprint is bad, as it allows tracking of you by fingerprinting, without the need for cookies.
BenFranklin100
The article misses the probably one of the biggest advantage Firefox offers privacy-wise versus other browsers: Firefox Multi-Account Containers. Containers allow you to isolate different websites into separate browsing environments.
Recently Mozilla integrated their VPN service directly into the browser too and it is Container aware.
https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/protect-your-container-…
isodev
The post conveniently forgetting Apple has at least two “helps us improve” toggles on by default, using content from Safari and Spotlight searches to “improve their services”. Privacy is really “redefined” here.
jeff_tyrrill
Two little-appreciated privacy features in Safari not mentioned in the article:
Each private browsing tab has its own cookie / data bucket[1]; and
Private browsing tabs and windows are preserved across restarts. (This is optional and can be configured to forget them upon restart.)
These make it practical to use private browsing for nearly all browsing, which isn't really the case in other browsers, where private browsing is clearly designed as an occasional-use thing. (And of course if you use private browsing for most things, you can still open regular windows for sites where you want to stay logged in.)
[1] If a link or script in a tab opens a new tab or window, then they share the same cookie bucket. This preserves compatibility with sites that require such a flow.
layo
I achieved the same score by simply using Pi-hole.
Tested on Chrome for Android and Firefox with (and without) ublock Origin.
ementally
Not a good article with a lot of privacy theatre
adblock testing websites http://brave.com/blog/adblocker-testing-websites-harm-users/
fingerprinting test websites https://github.com/orgs/privacyguides/discussions/7#discussi…
Used useless extensions[1] for example "Privacy Badger"[2]
[1] https://github.com/arkenfox/user.js/wiki/4.1-Extensions
[2] https://github.com/arkenfox/user.js/wiki/4.1-Extensions#-don…
havaloc
Safari is too good in this regard, it deletes first party cookies after 7 days, so any site you haven't used in a week it acts like it's never seen you before and is completely signed out.
As far as I know, you can't change this setting.
fefe23
Hahaha holy moly they are linking to https://adblock.turtlecute.org/index.html to prove how great their adblocking is.
That site then says:
I found that the uBlock Origin extension breaks the final result. To fix it, add adblock.turtlecute.org as an exception in uBlock rules.
Exactly the kind of belly laugh I needed right now. That side also falsely "measures" that my ad blocker lets all kinds of sites through when in fact my setup lets absolute zero third party sites through. Hilarious!
I wonder how many people fall for sites like that.
rekabis
I am curious if Wipr protects against all four major fingerprinting types, or if it only protects against canvas fingerprinting.