Ugh, here we go again – more browser privacy drama. This time it’s the fox on fire, Firefox, in the spotlight over Mozilla recently changing their Privacy Policy. You can read about this on the Ars Technica article that I’ve linked here.
Mozilla used to be a company that looked after your privacy and valued anonymity but those days are long gone, most likely due to corporate greed.
I remember using the web browser back in the day when it was called “Firebird” (pre Firefox 1.0), but had a name change due to name conflict with the database system of the same name.
I’m just going to be blunt with you. You have very limited privacy anyway on the internet. Majority of the time, websites know who you are as they’ll want to know your name and address for shipping goods to you. They’ll also want your email address to send you SPAM newsletters, etc.
I know I’m gonna rustle jimmies saying that, but it’s the truth. That said though, you should at least attempt to protect the limited privacy you have.
The solution?
Use a Firefox alternative like LibreWolf or Waterfox. They both have options to import your session data from Firefox.
I have used both and it is literally pure Firefox with minimal Mozilla crap – although I believe you can still use your Firefox Account with Waterfox if you desire.
I also use Bitwarden and xBrowserSync instead to sync my passwords and bookmarks between browsers along with uBlock Origin to block ads. AdGuard is also pretty damn solid for Firefox and Chrome-based browsers.
Alternatively, just continue using Firefox by accepting the drama and keep on browsing. Choice is yours.
Avoid google chrome too.
I would strongly advise to also avoid Google Chrome, if you’re going to use it instead of Firefox over this drama. Grab something like Brave Browser or Ungoogled Chromium.
The latter is more for power users since you need additional setup, but Brave just works. Opera GX and all those “Secure Browsers” that AVG/Avast/CCleaner/Panda/Norton/etc install are even worse than Google Chromes’ privacy abuse.
Heck, if you’re running Windows, use Microsoft Edge – it’s Microsoft poison but it less data hungry than Chrome when you turn off all the features it begs you to try out. And it’s part of Windows too, unless you’ve ripped it out.