One of the most important things you can do is enable ETP, (Enhanced Tracking Protection), set that to "Strict" and enable sanitizing on close:
We have instructions for that
The FBI now recommends using an ad blocker when searching the web
271–280 of 445 posts
Re: The FBI now recommends using an ad blocker when searching the web
#272I recommend using an ad-blocker while visiting that site :-/ Lately, I find myself using more and more plugins to make the "modern web" tolerable. To list a few: Channel Blocker (lets me block channels from search results on Youtube); uBlock Origin; Disconnect; F.B Purity; Consent-O-Matic (auto fill cookie consent forms); Kagi Search; PopUpOFF; Facebook Container; Privacy Badger; ClearURLs; Return YouTube Dislike Bas…
> Consent-O-Matic (auto fill cookie consent forms)
This will modify the browser fringerprint making you more unique.
I would not install so many extensions as you're trusting a huge number of organizations/people with privileged access to your browser. Anything that modifies CSS, Document Object Model (DOM) will make your browser stand out.
We wrote a blog post about this: https://blog.privacyguides.org/2021/12/01/firefox-privacy-20...
That includes any extensions that modify what is requested etc. See:
https://github.com/arkenfox/user.js/wiki/4.1-Extensions
See https://www.privacyguides.org/desktop-browsers/#firefox, you really don't need to do anything more than that.
> Facebook Container
etc, not needed unless you login to multiple Facebook accounts.
> Disconnect
Not needed, you should enable Firefox's ETP Enhanced Tracking Protection, this includes anything on that list. https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/enhanced-tracking-prote...
Re: The FBI now recommends using an ad blocker when searching the web
#273I recommend using an ad-blocker while visiting that site :-/ Lately, I find myself using more and more plugins to make the "modern web" tolerable. To list a few: Channel Blocker (lets me block channels from search results on Youtube); uBlock Origin; Disconnect; F.B Purity; Consent-O-Matic (auto fill cookie consent forms); Kagi Search; PopUpOFF; Facebook Container; Privacy Badger; ClearURLs; Return YouTube Dislike Bas…
>Lately, I find myself using more and more plugins to make the "modern web" tolerable.
Once upon a time, we used programs to guard against malware. AdAware, ccleaner, a whole bunch of them. I feel so old calling them "programs" here, instead of apps or extensions.
Re: The FBI now recommends using an ad blocker when searching the web
#274Earlier quoted context omitted.
While these are all good practices, killing DoH conclusively on your home network is more difficult than you've made it seem, as ultimately all you can really do is use domain blacklists at your firewall. It's no longer as straight forward as just control port 53 traffic, not like you can realistically shut down 443... Blocking DoH is largely whack-a-mole and I think is only going to get worse as this and similar tec…
DoH uses UDP, not TCP. Unless you're using HTTP3/QUIC, you can block port 443/UDP. And hey, maybe one day advertisements will be served directly via IP addresses, not domains:)
> DoH uses UDP, not TCP. Unless you're using HTTP3/QUIC, you can block port 443/UDP.
There's actually two protocols DNS over QUIC https://datatracker.ietf.org/doc/rfc9250/ which has a specific port 853. This can be blocked.
Then there is DNS over HTTP3 https://security.googleblog.com/2022/07/dns-over-http3-in-an...
Re: The FBI now recommends using an ad blocker when searching the web
#275Earlier quoted context omitted.
While these are all good practices, killing DoH conclusively on your home network is more difficult than you've made it seem, as ultimately all you can really do is use domain blacklists at your firewall. It's no longer as straight forward as just control port 53 traffic, not like you can realistically shut down 443... Blocking DoH is largely whack-a-mole and I think is only going to get worse as this and similar tec…
> killing DoH conclusively on your home network is more difficult than you've made it seem True. I had to install a system to MITM all my https traffic in order to block DoH requests.
> killing DoH conclusively on your home network is more difficult than you've made it seem
It's actually not too difficult if your users use Firefox. You can use enterprise policies https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/products/firefox-enterpris...
/* 0710: disable DNS-over-HTTPS (DoH) rollout [FF60+]
* 0=off by default, 2=TRR (Trusted Recursive Resolver) first, 3=TRR only, 5=explicitly off
* see "doh-rollout.home-region": USA 2019, Canada 2021, Russia/Ukraine 2022 [3]
* [1] https://hacks.mozilla.org/2018/05/a-cartoon-intro-to-dns-over-https/
* [2] https://wiki.mozilla.org/Security/DOH-resolver-policy
* [3] https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/firefox-dns-over-https
* [4] https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2020/12/dns-doh-and-odoh-oh-my-year-review-2020 ***/
// user_pref("network.trr.mode", 5);
Re: The FBI now recommends using an ad blocker when searching the web
#276Here are a few things I do to combat nasty websites: - blacklists entire domains using wildcards (using an "unbound" DNS resolver and forcing all traffic to my DNS resolver, preventing my browser to use DoH -- I can still then use DoH if I want, from unbound) - reject or drop a huge number of known bad actors, regularly updated: they go into gigantic "ip sets" firewall rules - (I came up with this one): use a little…
I don't do any of that stuff and don't think I am running into nasty websites. What is it supposed to do? I do uBlock origin with pretty standard lists and have a list of allowed persistent cookies. Are the uBlock lists doing all that work in the background?
You're on the right track, perhaps take a look at https://www.privacyguides.org/desktop-browsers/#firefox that's really all.
Re: The FBI now recommends using an ad blocker when searching the web
#277I recommend using an ad-blocker while visiting that site :-/ Lately, I find myself using more and more plugins to make the "modern web" tolerable. To list a few: Channel Blocker (lets me block channels from search results on Youtube); uBlock Origin; Disconnect; F.B Purity; Consent-O-Matic (auto fill cookie consent forms); Kagi Search; PopUpOFF; Facebook Container; Privacy Badger; ClearURLs; Return YouTube Dislike Bas…
Nice list.
I also like Awesome RSS to bring back Firefox's RSS feed finder, Old Reddit Reddirect (brings back old reddit), Search By Image, Theater Mode For Youtube, User-Agent Switcher, Youtube-shorts Blocker (you can still view them, but the layout is the same as a normal video), View Image Context Menu, Smart Referer (adds a bit of privacy)
Re: The FBI now recommends using an ad blocker when searching the web
#278This is interesting but it's old news. Both the linked article and the "FBI PSA" are dated late December of 2022.
Re: The FBI now recommends using an ad blocker when searching the web
#279There are a lot of great addons that improve browsing immensely. I'll dump mine:
* ublock origin: block ads
* uBlacklist: block domains from Google search results
* SponsorBlock: skip sponsored segments in youtube videos
* Thumbnail Rating Bar for YouTube™: show a rating bar along the bottom of each YouTube search result
* Firefox Multi-Account containers: Site storage segmentation
* Bypass Paywalls Clean: bypass site paywalls (mostly news)
* Clear URLs: clean tracking / referrals from URLs
* TTV LOL: block some Twitch ads
* ViolentMonkey: Greasemonkey scripts for further site customization
Re: The FBI now recommends using an ad blocker when searching the web
#280Or, in other words, FBI now recommends using Android :-) It's baffling how much better uBlock Origin + Firefox experience on Android is compared to any iOS ad blocker I have tried. They kind-of work but let half of the ads through.
Just be mindful that Firefox/Android doesn't have process isolation. https://www.privacyguides.org/mobile-browsers/#android
This is because the desktop browser uses the full "Gecko" renderer, but mobile uses "GeckoView", that doesn't have that implemented yet.