Firefox
A place to discuss the news and latest developments on the open-source browser Firefox
Not on mobile but on desktop Firefox Multi-Account Containers paired with Temporary Containers is a funcking godsend. Especially so when I'm doing web dev work.
Other that that uBlock is pretty high on the list as usuall.
Tab Snooze - allows you to close a tab and have it reappear at a chosen time later
Media URL Timestamper - automatically inserts the current timestamp of the YouTube/Twitch video you're watching and updates it in the history in case you accidentally close/navigate away from the page or go to a different time in the video
Feedbro - RSS reader with filtering capabilities
Redirector - auto-redirect specific URLs (for example, changing a YouTube Shorts url into a regular one, or changing Reddit links to always go to Old Reddit)
Undo Close Tab Button - allows you to restore recently closed tabs including the tab's history in the back button (max amount = browser.sessionstore.max_tabs_undo)
Violentmonkey - using userscripts that allow you to change things on websites.
- For Instagram - unmuting videos + setting their default volume
- For YouTube - disabling the subtitles/captions + disabling "autoplay next" for playlists + disabling autoplay of channels homepage video
- a way to disable specific keyboard shortcuts (you need to manually add the code as a new script). I use
/^(Key)?(End|I|O)|(Digit|Numpad)\d$/instead of/^(?:Digit|Numpad)\d$/(thanks to this post), to also disable the End/I/O keys in addition to the number keys.
- a way to disable specific keyboard shortcuts (you need to manually add the code as a new script). I use
- Note that, at least for Violentmonkey, if the userscript doesn't have the "://" part of the url in the @match line then you need to add it in the userscript settings after installing the script (for example, if the @match line of the script only has
*.youtube.com/*then put*://*.youtube.com/*in the "@match rules" line in the settings)
YouTube Comment Reader - allows you to search through the comments of a video (by clicking on the addon in the Extension menu and then clicking on the "YouTube Comment Reader" at the top or the "X Comments" at the bottom of the tooltip)
Page Shadow - allows you to use dark and light themes on sites that don't have the option to change it.
And if you're like me and you find that some YT videos feel too slow but 1.25x is too fast, then you can use Enhancer for YouTube's "Playback speed" feature to have smaller speed steps. Then you can hold ctrl and use the scrollwheel (while over the video) to change the video's speed by the amount you chose (I use 0.05 speed variation, mostly changing to 1.05x or 1.10x)
Undo close tab is already a feature in most browsers. Ctrl shift t (or cmd shift t).
(And OFC all the other great ones, Dark Reader, Chameleon, NoScript, AdBlocker Ultimate.)
whats the difference between adblocker ultimate and ublock origin?
I often use:
Not on mobile, but desktop:
• Enhancer for YouTube, I like it for having the “expand” making the screen bigger also cinema mode, toggling end cards off, boost volume — you can also take screenshots.
• uBlock Origin, of course
• SponsorBlock, which is a big extension that will auto skip sponsor readouts, selfpromos, and a lot of things YouTubers often do (sponsors, self promos, interaction reminders like liking and subscribing, intermissions, intros, previews, jokes, etc - you can choose to skip them or highlight them in the videos) it’s backed by community response, anyone with the extension can set up something to skip and share with everyone. Highly recommend if you’re tired of people pausing the video to talk about raycons or manscaped lol
Dark Reader: Especially late at night white page background just burns out my retinas, no idea how I ever managed before.
It seems to do weird things to some websites where for me it also leaves text dark/black
Sometimes it doesn't work, especially when it is a particularly weird colour palette, but it gets it right most of the time. In that case it does have the options to make some adjustments or just turn it of for that particular site.
Did you try to reduce the brightness of your monitor?
Sadly, even at the lowest brightness setting, with "extra dim" enabled, and the most intense blue blocking filter my phone will allow, most light colored backgrounds still illuminate the hell out of the room.
That isn't the same thing..
Ublock origin, Sponsor block, and NoScript
Sponsorblock's been epic! Props to the coder and the contributors.
NoScript
I've been faithful to firefox almost since it's been out thanks to this. I can't imagine being on the internet with everything on a website on by default
A few years back NoScript was often recommended. I used it for a while but I'm not sure I did it right.
First time you go to a new website do you go through the process of allowing some scripts to make it usable?
Pretty much, yeah.
Haven't seen anyone mention Decentraleyes yet. Serves CDN assets locally to avoid CDNs as a vector for tracking or fingerprinting.
For me, it's many of the ones people have already said, plus:
- StreetPass (seriously cool - collects the mastodon profile of any website you visit where someone has set up the special link to their profile)
- Video Speed Controller (gives you fine-grained control over video speed, e.g. watching video at 2.6x speed)
- Privacy redirect (automatically redirects to various services, e.g. from Twitter to Nitter - can select a random instance each time)
Consent-o-matic !
That's the same as Ublock Origin - Anoyances list, you don't need a separate addon for that.
Ublock Origin -> Settings -> External Filters -> Annoyances -> Tick all
Consent-o-Matic actually declines the cookies but that just hides the banner
I need to try consent I magic then because at least one website has had the banner blocked but didn't let me move the screen or anything.
It makes, say, Amazon links not a three-page bookwork
Use uBlock Origin's wiki / rules for this instead. Reduces an add-on and achieves the same/better results!
Some of my picks to add to all other comments
- Gesturefy: Mouse gesture addon. It can also run custom javascript. For example I have a script that makes copying text, links, buttons easier.
- Imagus mod: Hover zoom addon with up-to-date sieves that actually work. The sieve team is quite good.
- BetterViewer: Image viewer although some buttons don't work on firefox.
- Fastforward: circumvents annoying link shorteners
- Distill: Monitor webpage or feed for changes
I also have many ***monkey and stylus scripts.
Sorry to necro, but have you found/made a working Imagus sieve for Lemmy? I've been trying without luck for months.
Sorry I don't have one but I'm guessing it wouldn't be very simple as there are so many lemmy websites.
Chameleon. My user agent changes every 30 seconds. Makes attempts to track me basically useless.
Changing your user agent will not stop you being tracked. Browser fingerprinting can work with heaps of different signals, and is very difficult to block.
It means I'm being tracked for 30 seconds. So basically useless tracking.
Chameleon doesn't just change the user agent. It changes a bunch of stuff that's used to break fingerprinting. Of course you have a fingerprint, but it constantly changes so that the data they collect is so short lived that its useless to them and therefore very useful to me.
- Go here: https://fingerprint.com/demo/
- Note your fingerprint ID
- Wait whatever time you want
- Try again
- It's the same ID
You can try to fool it with a VPN, change country, etc but it doesn't work. Fingerprinting is very strong these days.
That website is marketing bullshit. It doesn't tell you if you fingerprint "ID" is unique. If can just spit out the same fingerprint for millions of users, and it looks impressive but its totally worthless as a fingerprint.
Try again with some service that isn't trying to sell you their product
https://abrahamjuliot.github.io/creepjs/index.html
Your extension might make you MORE finger-printable. Advanced fingerprinting scripts can detect lies told by extensions.
https://github.com/arkenfox/user.js/wiki/3.3-Overrides-%5BTo-RFP-or-Not%5D#-fingerprinting
If you're actually interested in reducing your fingerprint you should read the arkenfox guide which leverages built in features from firefox. You'll see very quickly that if someone wants to fingerprint you it's trivial and there's little you can do short of TOR.
more reading: https://www.privacyguides.org/en/desktop-browsers/?h=fingerprint#anti-fingerprinting
Again, they can fingerprint me. Buy their fingerprint is useless because it constantly changes.
You misunderstand. They're calculating a fingerprint that identifies you across sessions despite you changing up a bunch of values on your browser with an extension because that's all highly detectable. They know it's junk data they don't use it. It actually is worse because you stop blending in with the crowd.
You're better off blending in then trying to look unique with every visit. The latter is a flawed concept.
Read the arkenfox guide they get into it. Most extensions just reduce your ability to blend in to the crowd and thus should be avoided.
They don't. I'm telling you they don't. When I disable my ad blocker, the ads I see are not relevant to me. Many times they're not even in a language that I can speak.
They are not tracking me between sessions. Its obvious.
What you're saying makes sense, and its why Tor does what it does. But in practice, this works too.