I’ve recently downloaded Librewolf and I am planning to transfer my data from Brave to it. I am a privacy aware user but I haven’t had much experience in using Firefox directly. I have Firefox installed but I have some other old things stored in it (accounts, cache, bookmarks etc.) that I do not want to disturb, nor do I want to use as my default browser. I thought Librewolf would offer a more private and better version of Firefox with a clean slate.
Are there some things to keep in mind while transferring my workflow from a Chromium based browser to a Firefox one? Are there some things to keep in mind specifically for Librewolf? Would I need to change my browsing habits?
Some points about my browser workflow to help you better judge what I may need :
- I have some accounts saved in my previous browser e.g. Google, Discord, Spotify etc. that I don’t use really much, but require them regardless
- I use uBlock Origin and SponsorBlock as the only extensions
- I mostly do light casual browsing e.g. searching for stuff in DDG, streaming video/audio, communication etc.
- I have been recently avoiding proprietary software and websites in favour of privacy-respecting alternatives and frontends, to the best of my abilities
- I occassionally use Tor for anonymously working in websites that I have logged onto in my main browser
- I have had Brave installed on my Android phone too, synced with my PC
- I installed Mull in my phone in the hope of pairing it with Librewolf while avoiding creating a Firefox account if possible
- I use Proton VPN (free tier) whenever I use my browser(s)
Sorry if I may be asking obvious questions or doing things blatantly wrong as a privacy respecting user.
I have some accounts saved in my previous browser e.g. Google, Discord, Spotify etc. that I don’t use really much, but require them regardless
I personally keep an entirely separate browser profile for Google, and another separate profile for Discord. Just further isolates things even more than Firefox/Librewolf already does, plus extensions and tweaks and such can be customized as needed per profile, etc. Profiles can be accessed through about:profiles in the browser FYI.
I use uBlock Origin and SponsorBlock as the only extensions
That’s pretty good. The only other extension I’d recommend is Skip Redirect, its pretty useful and improves privacy, also recommended by Arkenfox.
If you want a more private way to watch YouTube as well, you can try Piped. It proxies all connections to Google/YouTube (so never directly connects to them and their servers), plus removes ads, tracking, and telemetry. It also has SponsorBlock, Return YouTube Dislike, and more built-in, so would make the SponsorBlock extension unnecessary too. Piped does have its downsides, but I’d recommend trying it and seeing what you think.
If Piped isn’t for you, my recommendation is to just watch YouTube either logged out, or signed in with my suggestion above of using a separate profile if you really have to.
I installed Mull in my phone in the hope of pairing it with Librewolf while avoiding creating a Firefox account if possible
You will need a Firefox account for syncing. The good thing is the data synced is encrypted so not even Mozilla can see it, and Mozilla does generally have a good reputation with things like this, so I don’t think its a major concern.
Another general tip I can give is to set the browser to clear cookies and site data on close, and just make exceptions for sites you need to stay logged in to or set preferences on. This helps massively in preventing sites from tracking you and when, if, and how you use them, it also prevents unnecessary storage space being taken up on your drive, etc.
Yes, I did start using PIped and Invidious on my browser and installed Newpipe in my phone. Tho there are some drawbacks, it is much better than using Youtube directly after I heard about them planning to block adblockers and removing recommendations for signed in users with watch history off.
Great, then you probably don’t need SponsorBlock, to my knowledge the extension only works on YouTube’s official website.
Don’t know about NewPipe, but SponsorBlock is integrated into revanced!
Newpipe x Sponsorblock is a thing.
Also, is there a preferred way to create a Firefox account? I don’t want to enter my personal email, and adding a disposable email may lock me from this account if it asks for verification later on.
I’d recommend using SimpleLogin or Addy (formerly AnonAddy).
Woah, email aliases is the perfect solution for this! Thank you very much!
So, a lot of websites filter out known trash mail domains and won’t allow any of their email addresses for sign up. I don’t see that Simplelogin or Addy can circumvent that (beside using a custom domain which however will be linked to your name via the registrar).
How do you manage websites with such restrictions?
On simplelogin premium you can get your own subdomain from them. For example, you can have the subdomain @computer.simplelogin.com. In my experience these might work even when the domain is blocked for sign up
Ah, nice, will try that out. I guess the success rate depends on the way the sites filte email addresses.
Thanks for the reply!
I usually just create a burner Proton Mail account in that case, and keep note of its details and purpose in my Password Manager so I don’t forget.
That’s something I’m doing too. I wish there was a nicer way though.
Thanks for the reply!
I have some accounts saved in my previous browser e.g. Google, Discord, Spotify etc. that I don’t use really much, but require them regardless
This is where Firefox Containers come into play. Isolate the worst offers like Google, Amazon and Facebook into their own containers (one each), then the rest into another one or multiple. I keep a Shopping (Amazon), Personal (free Google), Work (paid Google), Facebook (all Meta apps), and a few others. I also use a cookie manager that is container aware in case I need to sanitize one container but not the others.
If he’s looking for a clean slate it’d be better to just make another profile rather than making containers.
Which cookie manager are you using?
I’m using Cookie Quick Manager but there are others with the same functionality.
What is the cookie manager ? Curious to know !
I’m using Cookie Quick Manager but there are others with the same functionality.
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It’s that setup container aware?
One thing nobody told me and really messed me up when scheduling meetings is that Librewolf sets your timezone to UTC.
Sounds like you already have a pretty good plan in place.
One extension you might consider is libredirect. Instead of manually copying a random youtube link, pasting into the url bar, and changing youtube to yewtu.be, you can just click the link and let libredirect do it for you. If the front-end gets 429’d, you just click the “switch instance” button until you find one that’s unblocked.
You might also like Simple Tab Groups, if you ever have trouble compartmentalizing a million open tabs. Might be disruptive to your workflow though.
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As has been suggested, Containers are excellent at keeping aggressive local storage isolated. Create a Container for each of your problematic must-haves.
As well as the two add-ons you already have, I’d recommend LocalCDN.
The only issue I’ve had using LW for a number of years is it struggles with CAPTCHAs but thats a small price to pay really.
A practical advise. A lot of websites refuse to open on Librewolf because of an OSCP related error, a lot. You can disable that in config if you don’t want to scratch your head every time.
