I have been thinking about switching to brave for better fingerprinting protection
Brave fork without crypto crap?
3 years ago by WeLoveCastingSpelz to c/privacyguides
bionicjoey 21 points 3 years ago
Almost all of my Linux devices have both chromium-browser and Firefox installed. Firefox is my default, but there are some apps out there that work a lot better in something chromium-based.
stonemilker 9 points 3 years ago
Haven't used Ungoogled Chromium in a couple years, but I've seen some criticisms of it even compared to regular Chrome: https://qua3k.github.io/ungoogled/
animist 6 points 3 years ago
Thank you for sharing this, I was unaware. I wonder if any of this has been addressed recently as the linked article is two years old (not demeaning its value, just wondering if the devs saw the article and decided to improve ungoogled-chromium).
rmicielski 2 points 3 years ago
No one is going to develop exploits only for a browser with certain default security options disabled (especially these made at compile time using toolchain). Binary exploitation is hard, and extremely not worth the effort in this case.
naoseiquemsou 13 points 3 years ago
But they still contribute to google's monopoly over web standards.
WeLoveCastingSpelz 9 points 3 years ago
I already use Firefox but brave is just better at fingerprinting protection
underscores 11 points 3 years ago
There's CanvasBlocker for Firefox that can do fingerprint protection.
underscores 3 points 3 years ago
It depends. Many addons have effects that can be tested for and fingerprinted, but it's not always straight forward. There's a way to detect any specific chrome extension, but doesn't work on firefox because it uses unique extension ids per person.
With addons like CanvasBlocker, they generate random values for a bunch of apis like canvas. So each time you will look unique, but it changes every time so you're not easily tracked. I'd assume it's similar to what Brave does, but I haven't looked into the details. Some stuff isn't randomized by default, so they can get info like timezone and languages, but probably not enough to give you a unique identity.
BigTechBlows 2 points 3 years ago path: 0 629229 632015, hotness: undefined, score: 2, children: 0
fenndev 36 points 3 years ago
Why not use Librewolf? Fork of Firefox, hardened and resists fingerprinting. Scores pretty damn well on https://privacytests.org and pairs well with Mull on Android.
AFAIK there are no actively developed Brave forks.
WeLoveCastingSpelz 9 points 3 years ago
I use librewolf on my work laptop it removes all cookies every time you close it, this wouldn't be a problem on mobile as I already set my phone browser(fennec) to do that but on my personal computer it crosses the border from I can deal with it to too inconvenient
andrew0 9 points 3 years ago
I also recommend Librewolf. It's very good at what it does. They also have a list of recommended addons to enhance your privacy.
privacyfalcon9899 18 points 3 years ago
Just switch off brave rewards and sponsored content. And, your fork is ready.
Makeshift 14 points 3 years ago
I agree the crypto stuff is super annoying, but it's a really nice and clean browser after you disable all that and tweak the settings (which you'd probably want to go through and configure with a new browser anyway)
Lid 5 points 3 years ago
even as a crypto user & dev, brave's crypto shit is annoying af, it's inferior by far to what everyone else uses & they push it on ur face & make u have to remove it.
i'd rather just use firefox or even microsoft edge, even for crypto stuff
deafboy 6 points 3 years ago
So much this. I've seen countless of spite forks. Very few of them merged the updates.
Even large projects like Electron can't keep up with chromium, and then there is downstream crap like Discord that can't even keep up witch Electron.
WeLoveCastingSpelz 1 point 3 years ago
That's what I have been doing
webghost0101 0 points 3 years ago
Why not both? Firefox for sites you login. Brave configured with auto delete cookies for a fast fresh empty internet every time.
webghost0101 0 points 3 years ago
Literally all browsers can do that but do you really want to logins everywhere every single time?
Thats what using 2 browsers can solve. I can use brave fully anonymously. While still being logged in on lemmy and others on firefox,
I am also using an auto accept all cookies script to remove all the cookie banners for every site. As they are deleted every instance anyway. I would never use that on the same browser i enter personal information.
EarlTurlet 8 points 3 years ago
Except on Android, unfortunately. The overflow menu is full of all of those features right at the bottom -- prime thumb real estate.
zlatiah 5 points 3 years ago
If fingerprint protection is what I want, LibreWolf comes with a very sensible default as compared to stock Firefox. If I am familiar enough with about.config and stuff then hardened Firefox can reach bonkers levels of privacy as well
If a Chromium-based browser is required that has Brave's level of privacy protection but none of the crypto nonsense... Yeah I'm not aware of any as of right now. Maybe once the Duckduckgo Browser becomes available?
WeLoveCastingSpelz 2 points 3 years ago
well all the signs are pointing to librewolf I prefer gecko engine to chrominum, gonna give it a try
TWeaK 5 points 3 years ago
Bromite used to be great, but unfortunately the dev seems to have abandoned it.
I've seen people talking about Mull, Mulch, Fulguris and a couple others. I think Mulch is tied to a specific Android ROM, and the others are Firefox forks.
WeLoveCastingSpelz 4 points 3 years ago
I use fennec as my regular browser on android and mulch as the webview implementation
fenndev 2 points 3 years ago
As a heads up, I believe Fennec is the old codebase for Firefox and it's no longer being actively maintained AFAIK.
Unless, of course, you're using the Fennec Browser built by F-Droid, which is confusingly based on the new Fenix codebase.
WeLoveCastingSpelz 3 points 3 years ago
I use the one from fdroid it does get updated often enough
dadbeard 3 points 3 years ago
It's here now https://github.com/uazo/bromite-buildtools
TWeaK 1 point 3 years ago
I literally saw a link in a thread on the OG's github earlier today, sounds like this will be my new switch.
Although I'm still going to give Mulch a try, with a ROM that has it integrated into webview.
Medalist 2 points 3 years ago
DivestOS is the only Android ROM I know of that integrates the Mulch webview. But Tad (DivestOS dev) also builds standalone binaries of Mulch that can be installed independently- just add their repo into f-droid or something like droidify and you're good to go. Link: https://divestos.org/fdroid/official
pootriarch 3 points 3 years ago
i left a big comment regarding this in another thread, TL;DR combination of brave on desktop and a lot of non-brave things on android, privacy browser + mull + DDG
pootriarch 6 points 3 years ago
i agree, but my unpopular opinion is that mozilla has also proven this repeatedly, with nothing and nobody being universally better. privacy people love firefox, but i spend a lot of time with each major version's release notes figuring out how to undo the new telemetry (increasing integration with pocket, firefox suggest, location that won't turn off).
my threat model is 'they're all evil, including mozilla', so there are additional rings around everything
manny_stillwagon 2 points 3 years ago
LibreWolf is a nice upgrade in that regard. A Firefox fork where they remove a ton of that nonsense and improve some privacy settings.
FYI, they are also on Lemmy.
dngray 2 points 3 years ago
Mulch is tied to a specific Android ROM
Yes, that's because it requires webview to be patched, it's the same reason that Vanadium is only available for GrapheneOS. They do use some of Vanadium's patches though.
ch1cken 5 points 3 years ago
well, brave's crypto is opt in anyways, it wont be used unless you manually enable it yourself
Firefox paired with arkenfox's userjs, or librewolf which basically configures all of that for you, are also good options.
Vertelleus 5 points 3 years ago
Looks like Brave is the best for privacy over all.
https://privacytests.org/
combustible_lemon_engineer 8 points 3 years ago
That site and testing is run by a Brave employee, right? I'd be very skeptical of Brave's high scores.
WeLoveCastingSpelz 2 points 3 years ago
yup thats the reason I wanna switch to it but damn wish there was a good fork that removed the bloat
Clocker108 4 points 3 years ago
Maybe you can try ungoogled-chromium
MarioBarisa 4 points 3 years ago
At that point just use Firefox / Librewolf, os just turn off all of the brave rewards crap ( crypto )...
imrichyouknow 3 points 3 years ago
To me, Brave or DuckDuckGo are as malicious as Google
imrichyouknow 6 points 3 years ago
They are less invasive on the privacy front, but they also push their products much harder down user's throat due to less revenue from less accurate ads, just look at DDG's frontpage.
I also found them self-censoring towards IPs from China, albeit this could be the direct result of using Bing's search results.
It's much easier to compare it with something like SearXNG which has the same core principle, without ads, without censorships, without invasive marketing.
Brunette6256 3 points 3 years ago
The mulvad browser?
WeLoveCastingSpelz 4 points 3 years ago
The solution I chooses is using that along with hardened Firefox
deFrisselle 3 points 3 years ago
Never noticed the crypto stuff Don't use it Also, I use Vivaldi
privacyfalcon9899 1 point 3 years ago path: 0 659262, hotness: undefined, score: 1, children: 0
Castor 0 points 3 years ago
Never trust anything that comes anywhere near crypto. Firefox with the Electronic Frontier Foundation's privacy badger plugin and a good adblocker is the way to go. https://privacybadger.org/
privacyguides
@lemmy.one
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In the digital age, protecting your personal information might seem like an impossible task. We’re here to help.
This is a community for sharing news about privacy, posting information about cool privacy tools and services, and getting advice about your privacy journey.
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Check out our website at privacyguides.org before asking your questions here. We've tried answering the common questions and recommendations there!
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privacyguides
@lemmy.one
18764
647
3
In the digital age, protecting your personal information might seem like an impossible task. We’re here to help.
This is a community for sharing news about privacy, posting information about cool privacy tools and services, and getting advice about your privacy journey.
You can subscribe to this community from any Kbin or Lemmy instance:
Check out our website at privacyguides.org before asking your questions here. We've tried answering the common questions and recommendations there!
Want to get involved? The website is open-source on GitHub, and your help would be appreciated!
This community is the "official" Privacy Guides community on Lemmy, which can be verified here. Other "Privacy Guides" communities on other Lemmy servers are not moderated by this team or associated with the website.
Moderation Rules:
- We prefer posting about open-source software whenever possible.
- This is not the place for self-promotion if you are not listed on privacyguides.org. If you want to be listed, make a suggestion on our forum first.
- No soliciting engagement: Don't ask for upvotes, follows, etc.
- Surveys, Fundraising, and Petitions must be pre-approved by the mod team.
- Be civil, no violence, hate speech. Assume people here are posting in good faith.
- Don't repost topics which have already been covered here.
- News posts must be related to privacy and security, and your post title must match the article headline exactly. Do not editorialize titles, you can post your opinions in the post body or a comment.
- Memes/images/video posts that could be summarized as text explanations should not be posted. Infographics and conference talks from reputable sources are acceptable.
- No help vampires: This is not a tech support subreddit, don't abuse our community's willingness to help. Questions related to privacy, security or privacy/security related software and their configurations are acceptable.
- No misinformation: Extraordinary claims must be matched with evidence.
- Do not post about VPNs or cryptocurrencies which are not listed on privacyguides.org. See Rule 2 for info on adding new recommendations to the website.
- General guides or software lists are not permitted. Original sources and research about specific topics are allowed as long as they are high quality and factual. We are not providing a platform for poorly-vetted, out-of-date or conflicting recommendations.
Additional Resources:
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So Chromium?
Just use Firefox, its the better browser anyways.
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