I am from Germany and it is just sad how many people use these apps from shit companies without thinking, when suitable alternatives exist everywhere. Just use Firefox, it will work for 99,9% without any flaw. I would love to ditch WhatsApp, but could only convinge a few people to change to Signal. It is as easy as downloading a new app to prevent supporting Meta, but that’s too much effort for many :-(
Glad I don’t use chrome anymore. Though unfortunately everyone else I know still does.
Use firefox
And if you don’t like Firefox, use one of the Firefox forks. Some of them are very Chrome-like.
They’re too strict, unless you have one that’s usable by default?
“Too strict” how? I don’t know what’s “usable” for you.
Fingerprinting resistance is either too strict or none at all
Cookies are removed when the browser is closed, and iirc history isn’t saved by default. It just makes it a pain for regular users
It’s been a while since I used it, but Librewolf had a habit of showing the bitwarden extension’s window at the wrong size.
I was able to fix this by disabling a “resist fingerprinting” setting, but it’s annoying to have to do stuff like this in the first place. I really wanted to have an exceptions list that included certain websites for fingerprinting resistance, but I never found a clear way to do it.
There are a few other examples of settings that I had to tweak in order to make the experience as good as Firefox.
This: fingerprinting resistance is either too strict or none at all
Which ones do you mean?
FireDragon, Zen Browser, and LibreWolf. Zen feels like a streamlined Chrome.
Ah right. But none of them are true forks, really. They still rely on the Firefox project to port features in etc.
or even better, use librewolf.
I’m not really sure it’s better tbh
Everyone should ditch chrome
My fucking organization refuses to support anything but Chrome. I hate it so much.
Brave user here. Never looked back.
I think the Brave CEO recently said some Trumpy shit (in case you’re at all curious for the downvoting).
I wish more people were like you. Not everyone can keep up with everyone’s beefs (this one not so much) but it really grinds my gears when I see seemingly polite, on topic, engaging or contributing comments with no replies but still geyting down voted. Especially on a forum as thirsty as Lemmy users are for more user involvement.
It makes me think there are too many people in the world conditioned to be preset to hate thst the fact a person doesn’t know they’re supposed to hate something is enough grounds to be shunned and hated on. Lol. It’s cool to see someone jump in and say:Hey homie, we don’t hate you we hate a person who is unrelated to the topic of the thread or the context of your comment but we do hate them enough to hate on you
Edit: the parenthesis comment was meant to imply hating Trump monkeys is glaringly obvious. My comment was about lemmy etiquette and wasn’t about why or why not OP was getting downvoted.
It’s gotta be some kind of sheep brain activation; crowd following behavior. It can be very annoying sometimes.
Sometimes you’re just voicing a neutral opinion and it gets destroyed. And by neutral I mean it’s not controversial or anything, like racism, it could just be something not exactly everyone would agree with.
I wish people would use the down vote as Reddit once intended it to mean: off topic and not contributing to the discussion, or perhaps rude, etc. Not “I don’t agree with this”. You should explain why you don’t agree with something, or up vote a comment that already explains it.
I noticed they recently marked it deprecated or unsupported (i forget the wording) and tried to get me to remove it. I think it was even disabled automatically. I kinda saw this coming.
Chrome hasn’t been my main browser in a while but I kept it as a backup and because Firefox doesn’t support PWAs and I didn’t want to mess with the extension. Turns out, the extension only takes about 3 minutes to get set up and now Chrome has been uninstalled. And on a random Tuesday, who knew?
Vivaldi’s built in adblocker still works fine.
Yeah, I’m using Vivaldi too and getting concerned about UBO’s lifespan…
I also have pfBlockerNG running in my firewall, which blocks a load too, but not looking forwards to the future…
I removed all adblock extensions a while ago, and I am now running with the built in adblock alone. It works great for me. Also, it won’t be deprecated: https://vivaldi.com/blog/manifest-v3-update-vivaldi-is-future-proofed-with-its-built-in-functionality/
I have used firefox from like 2005 to 2024. I am now using brave and I am quite happy with it. I just disabled all this useless cryptobro crap that it comes with. I tried most of the chromium based browsers and this is by far the one that better fits my needs. It has an adblocker that works well, it has a sync option that is not on google servers and supposedly they dont have that insane telemetry that chrome has. And yes an adblocker is tottally needed and will probably be allways needed. I do run a network adblocker with pihole and nextDNS. I haven’t seen a single add in years and do not miss them at all. I rather ahve a half broken page than some random website trying to sell me satisfiers and blue pills.
Are you sure? In Brave browser it’s all nice and dandy.
Going to guess that’s based on your region rather than your browser
Probably not a popular choice, but my VPN comes with an ad blocker which works great.
I’m still using Nord VPN as I got an insane deal a few years ago. Now it has something called Threat Protection which blocks all ads whether on my desktop browsers or on mobile.
✨Edit to add: Yeah down vote me. Nord was a blackfriday deal from 3 years ago. Much has changed since then.
I travel full time and I’m now in the market for a new VPN provider. I don’t have my own router… I don’t even have a home.
Instead of just down voting, perhaps come with some constructive ideas or suggestions, thank you! ✨
Nord VPN
lmao
Like I said it will be unpopular, but it’s about to expire anyway.
A more helpful response would be to recommend an alternative
Mullvad VPN
Much appreciated, thank you!
Always my recommendation as well
Why is that lmao
GL-AX1800 router with mullvad wireguard vpn config and adguard
I travel full time, so I don’t have my own internet connection.
That’s a travel router, meant specifically for people in your situation.
Appreciated, however I’m down to a 45 liter carry on bag now and I literally have no space to carry my own router around.
Understood. For what it’s worth, this is another one of their products that’s quite small:
https://www.gl-inet.com/products/gl-mt3000/
It supports several VPN services out of the box.
Thanks for the link.
In all my travels, in all the cafés, libraries, hotels and co-working spaces I’ve used around the world, never have I seen anyone pull out their own router.
I’m not dismissing it’s potential or usefulness, I just think that for me to avoid adverts and to connect to a few streaming services from weird locations it might be a bit overkill.
Sure thing! It can absolutely all be done from your phone; this is just another method if you have multiple devices.
You can just use a free adblocking DNS for that.
A browser adblocker is better for a few tricky ads.
I use proton vpn but you’ll get downvoted no matter what if you don’t use the vpn the bandwagon likes.
This kind is behaviour is a major downfall on platforms like this.
So, um, which VPN does the bandwagon like?
Mullvad. Its only real downside is its lack of port forwarding and it passes all the Lemmy purity tests. You will never be downvoted for recommending it.
Lack of port-forwarding is a deal-breaker, unfortunately.
Yeah it’s one of the reasons I prefer Proton. Not many VPNs offer that functionality now, unfortunately.
💯 This is absolutely true. I’ll look at Proton. Thank you so much
Many chromium browser have built-in adblockers and some of them are on-par with uBO. These are not extensions, so Google can’t really do anything about them. Not worried in the slightest.
Name one that is remotely on par with uBlock and is open source.
Shields.
EDIT: Let’s both save our time: "Brave bad, CEO evil, Chromium, cryptoooo, etc… ". I don’t care. Mozilla isn’t less shitty at all and Firefox is mediocre (source: have been a FF user/advocate from 2002 to 2021).
I’m not interesting in debating.
You’re not interested in debating because you’re scared of being shown how wrong you are. Don’t say anything if you don’t wish to debate anyone, it’s an open forum, in case you forgot. You don’t dictate the rules.
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If you don’t care you shouldn’t care to tell others about it either.
As soon as you tell others, others will tell you.
Brave bad, CEO evil, Chromium, cryptoooo, etc… Bullshit browser.
Brave bad, CEO evil, Chromium, cryptoooo, etc… Bullshit browser.
You people are so dumb, predictable and obtuse… Welcome to my blocklist :-)
Welcome to my blocklist :-)
Wow there’s so many awesome people here :O
Cringe.
Blocked.
laughs in Firefox
Cries in only Chrome and Edge at work 😢
If you had uBlock origin already, you may have gotten a message through Chrome that it was no longer supported, so it’s been disabled, and gives you the option to remove it. I noticed you don’t have to remove it, and it can be re-enabled. However, I need someone smarter with adblockers than I to say if this is actually helpful and not hazardous.
People are saying manifest v2 (the old API that ublock uses) will be gone soon, which I think should effectively make ublock unusable whatever you do unless you stop updating chrome maybe (which could open you up to a ton of security issues) ? Not sure, don’t care since I’ve ditched chrome long ago
Good to know, thanks.
Download a Firefox based browser from the Microsoft store?
some “infosec” systems tags firefox as a “vulnerability” risk
ahem tenable ahem
Store is disabled
Wellp, time to get a new job.
I can’t install anything. I’m lucky I can install uBlock Origin because I worked out later most extensions are disabled too. But I guess it’s only matter of time until that disappears.
Tell your IT.
Yeah. What company wouldn’t allow it?
When I was working for an ad exchange, everyone had adblock installed in their browsers, I found that quite ironic.
I would argue it’s a security issue not to have any ad blocking. Many scams online start with popups or fake ads.
So if you get the opportunity to talk to IT that’s what I would mention.
A good IT is blocking ads at a company-level. Browser extensions wouldn’t matter, and in fact, shouldn’t be allowed for the same reason.
You can only catch so much at the edge and DNS level. Browser extension catches the stragglers that get through. But we’ve mitigated virtually all browser induced malware possibilities by just moving to cloud-based internet isolation. It’s similar to what the DoD uses, if anyone’s familiar with their use case: https://www.bylight.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/CBII_2020-2025.pdf
Even with CBII ads still make the internet cancerous to even look at
I’m not always working in the office, and they’ve asked us to connect to VPN only if we need access to the internal network. Email and Teams work without VPN, but now you want me to log in for web access? A browser blocker is better imo.
(Although they have since taken down their PSA woth no explanation)
I used to develop ads (non intrusive things for home depot or go RVing) and i used ad blockers. When testing, i would just run private browsing with plugins disabled…
Yeah. What company wouldn’t allow it?
My IT department uninstalled it from my work laptop, and told me not to reinstall it because - and I quote: “The only browser IT officially supports is Google Chrome.”
What makes this doubly stupid is that I’m a web developer. I literally can’t test my stuff on another browser…
Officially only Edge is supported, but Chrome is tolerated. It’s a full MS environment.
Same here. The worst thing is in their justification of disallowing Firefox they listed that it was not an enterprise application. I get that it might be extra effort to support it but don’t list something factually untrue as a lame cop out for why you don’t want to.
Was told it wouldn’t be allowed because you couldn’t restrict it using GPO… Until I told them they could absolutely apply those restrictions using GPO and even provided the ADMX templates.
Click on every single ad and banner, click “I agree” on every pop-up. Make that computer hate it’s life!
uBlock Origin Lite does work, but it’s predefined lists only. You can’t use the element zapper 🙁
lame
How To Get Fired 101
My condoleances
Download Firefox portable
At large organizations you’re generally not allowed to download much of anything without it passing through IT security and management first. If it’s a no, it will probably stay a no.
I work for a non-profit and they are way more lenient about what we would like to install as long as the job gets done.
Then you have bad opsec and security holes.
This matters more for some industries than others. But this attitude lets a malicious employee install basically whatever they want in service of “the job” and you won’t even know you’re being breached until after it’s all over.
Well, we still have to get approval. But it just seems like they don’t mind as much. For example, I don’t know how many companies out there would be fine with installations of AutoHotkey and LibreOffice.
Just remember,it’s easier to ask for forgiveness than permission!
Just to be clear, I mean it’s literally managed at the Group Policy level (in Windows server environments at least) and no amount of asking will suddenly give your user account permissions to be able to save files of any kind.
You generally literally cannot download it without going through IT to get them to approve of and give your account access first.
Ya I forgot I have escalated device privileges and an admin account, which I definitely would have used for installing anything. Although I believe I can also skirt the rules using winget on a user account. That will probably get you in trouble however!
Download Firefox portable
https://portableapps.com/apps/internet/firefox_portable
Link for convenience.
I would have run already.
Edge extension store still has it I think. Use it until Edge removes it as well. Then tell the IT to use Firefox highlighting the importance of adblocking.
I don’t like my chances of swaying IT. The organisation is too big and I’ll get told I should be using Edge which is the only officially supported browser.
I just downloaded the Kagi Orion browser and I can install extensions from both Chrome and Firefox web stores!
Nice!
Is there any firefox based browser on android where I can have easy gestures for the arrow buttons? All the firefox versions I can find require me to do this in two clicks which for the way I browse is a pain in the arse. Can I fix this somehow?
I haven’t tried it, but Iceraven has a lot of extensions available compared to Firefox. Maybe there is one to do exactly what you need?
You mean swiping left up go back? Works fine for me in regular FF on Android…
Doesn’t work for me. I don’t have “plain” android but a specific type that’s compatible with my eink screen.
Chromium gestures work fine though.
No feature for it that I know of. They may be thinking of the swipe to change tabs support?
https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/use-gestures-in-firefox-android
Unknown, i can use gestures on my phone which work in Firefox. Maybe it’s is a phone problem.
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Chrome is no longer available in my Start menu.
Been a loooong time
But my time is finally near…
Yeah, I switched to Firefox when this whole Manifest V3 thing was announced, I only still have Chrome installed because it’s better for PDFs than Firefox and once in a great while i run into a site that doesn’t work right on Firefox.
better for PDFs
Sumatra!
I actually really like Firefox for reading pdf’s, how is it in chrome? I’ve never actually tried chrome for that because I was still using okular back when I still had chrome installed on anything.
The main issue I have with Firefox is that some pdfs have this side-by-side layout (especially rpg pdfs) that Firefox respects and I keep having to turn it off every time I load a new one. Chrome doesn’t respect it and shows it a page at a time like I want. My eyes don’t work too good so side by side the text is just too small.
Or in my app drawer
or in ~/.local/share/applications
Google is not an IT company. It’s an advertising company. Surprised Pikachu, it blocks ad blockers.
It’s been an ad company for a long time, though, and blocking ad blockers is new.
Yeah it’s always been an ad company. And you are correct, blocking apps is new, welcome to the last stage in the ad-blocking arms race. Glad I degoogled my digital life a decade ago.
Hey, can you tell a little bit about your stack, what apps and services do you use? Also on phone? I guess in a decade you could work that out pretty well.
Because they are at the end of their growth phase and have entered their squeeze until dead phase.
Yes, but enshittification doesn’t happen all at once. And this is a textbook example of the actual meaning of enshittification.
if ads were normal and unobtrusive. We wouldn’t need ad blockers. Instead we get an almost unusable internet where ads take up more and more real estate. I had been running an ad blocker for so many years that when a friend (who doesn’t use an ad blocker) showed me a website, the unfiltered experience was horrifying.
uBO is not just an ad blocker, its almost a firewall against malware and a tracking filter
Im old enough to remember the internet before ads, and with ads became a thing and you had to make sure to keep your speakers low/off all the time less some screaming loud ad popped up somewhere to burst your eardrums at 2am.
There were so many obnoxious, visual cancer ads.
Then they became actual digital cancer by being injection points for viruses and malware, and thus adblockers became a necessity.
And they remain a necessity to this day, for the same reason as they were 20+ years ago.
and yet the ad servers want to blame the end user for adblocking.
not their absolute refusal to moderate or police any of the content they deliver.
and yet the ad servers want to blame the end user for adblocking. not their absolute refusal to moderate or police any of the content they deliver.
This is the American way. You try to shit blame elsewhere so noone puts the onus on you to improve so you can keep a larger portion of the profit. “Fuck you I got mine” should be printed on our money lol
CONGRATULATIONS, YOU WON!!!
I was about to comment something similar but you said it before I did. Sometimes I’ll mistakenly open YouTube with Chrome and then I realize I messed up because I have to sit through three, sometimes one-minute long ads just to watch a twenty second video. I’ll typically just nope out and switch to Firefox. The worst thing is they’re unskippable and I swear for some of them the ad actually pauses if you switch to another tab or browser. I’m getting ads even on super old videos so I’m pretty sure it isn’t all to do with the channels themselves monetizing their videos.
3 one minute long adds are better than those 2 hour long prageru racist propaganda videos trying to masquerade as “Educational” content
I’d be okay with sites showing me unintrusive non targeted ads, but since it’s all or nothing I choose nothing.
some some youtubers that had setup like that, it was so cringey. its from idiocracy
I love this movie but honestly it’s getting to the point where I can’t even watch it without getting upset.
What movie is that?
Idiocracy
Movie turning into a documentary in real time.
Crazy how it wound up being so optimistic. President Camacho wasn’t exactly wise, but he was at least trying to help, gave people smarter than himself a chance, and changed his mind when presented with evidence.
Listen scro, Imm just tryin to keep the people from gettin deaded
I only made it through like one season of Handmaid’s Tale, it was too real.
Instead we get an almost unusable internet where ads take up more and more real estate.
Its even worse than just hurting usability. Lots of ad networks are not policing their advertising customers and malicious payloads have been injected from ads. So allowing ads is a security risk because of the lack of security at the various ad networks.
It’s even worse when you consider the entire point of advertising is to deliver a targeted payload at a very specific demographic. So you can target IT folks of a specific company, etc.
I went to help out a friend, a few years ago, he runs vanilla Edge, I can’t believe anyone actually uses the internet like that.
