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!
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.
I recommend Fennec by F-Droid, a FOSS fork of Firefox out of the options listed. I would adjust the settings within the GUI, such as setting tracking protection to Strict, and install uBlock Origin.
IronFox is, sadly, somewhat extreme and not suitable for non-tech-savvy users and those who don’t want to deal with regular breakage.
Vanadium sadly lacks a proper content blocker integration.
I’m using this unofficial Helium build. It’s basically Vanadium + Helium patches with Extension support. Ublock Origin works like a charm.
From the linked GitHub webpage:
All builds are experimental, so unexpected issues may occur. Helium Browser for Android only attempts to improve security and privacy where possible. For better protection on Android, you should instead use GrapheneOS with Vanadium, which additionally integrates patches into Android System WebView and provides significant kernel and memory management hardening on the OS level.
I wouldn’t recommend browsers developed by a single person and in an experimental state-part of the reason why I don’t recommend Cromite.
The original Vanadium is great, but the lack of proper content-blocker integration is a big privacy trade-off, in my opinion. Vanadium only provides a per-domain blocker solution, which is based on the very small set of EasyList.
A good Chromium-based alternative would be Brave, as it has a good content blocker that attempts to recreate the full feature set of uBlock Origin.
I get your point. But if you check the source you’ll notice that they don’t add any code themselves, they simply take Chromium and apply patches from Vanadium (Helium is commented for now) and build an apk. Yes, they call it experimental. Use at your own risk. I have had a very good experience so far - but you may disagree. However, there may be other people like me out there who think it’s a good value proposition.
A discussion like this is exactly the reason I love this sub. I am learning more and more every day. Thanks to both of you guys.
Edge: It has native privacy tools others don’t, sane default settings that can be changed, a curated extension store that is more effective than mv3, it still supports uBlock Origin, it’s not from some shady company like Mozilla or fly by night F-Droid garbage. F-Droid won’t even notify you if an app is abandoned, not updated as fast as elsewhere or give ratings from users.
Edge? From microslop?? You realize how laughable it is to call Mozilla shady while recommending MICROSOFT in a privacy community??
You must be ragebaiting
Sorry, do you have an actual argument? Even LiGNUxers often know Mozilla is shady af. Decades ago told us they can only exist because of our donations while using those donations for politics while making bank off Google. The only more scandalous browser I’m aware of is Brave. -But go ahead with your lol, teehee type responses if that’s your bag.
Not worth engaging with ragebait
IronFox is not formerly Mull Browser; it uses a different basis (Phoenix instead of Arkenfox), is maintained by different people, etc.
Thank you for correcting me on that :) I’ll remember it.
Vanadium on grapheneOS and using a privacy-preserving VPN.
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
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.
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.
What’s your threat vector? From whom do you want to be concealed?
Mostly big corporate, big tech, and the US gov’t and its intelligence services. I am already in the process of migrating my digital environment towards Linux + self-hosting, but browsing remains a challenge to me.
Basically: I don’t want my devices location, metadata and telemetry to be tracked by anyone.
You could use a VPN and then make sure that your fingerprint is common. But if the VPN is compromised you will reveal your browsing behaviour. You also stand out when you use it.
I do like Fennec since it’s available on F-Droid and updated, ublock origin mandatory in any case.
Why not Librefox? As far as I recall it’s basically hardened Firefox.
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.
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.
Yeah, I am a long time Vivaldi user myself. Up until now at least. I am quite happy with it, but from what I read, it has it deficits.
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.
