As open source as Android is, it is very difficult to find a decent browser, let alone one that is privacy focused and also usable on daily.
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Almost all web searches point to site that shows stuff like : Chrome, Edge, Opera…etc. So this doesnt help.
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Play Store is full of shitty browsers. If you skip the usual DDG, Chrome, Edge, Opera…etc then you will see either:
a) browsers from random Chinese company (Via, UC Browser)
or b) browser that is coupled with other products, e.g. a video downloader with built in browser.
- After the recent fiasco with Firefox and their ToS, I saw a lot of posts saying IronFox / Water Fox is better. I’ve never heard of these Foxes variants before.
So I tried the following on Android:
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DDG: only good if you do basic search. It lacks a good adblocker. So very annoying if you are on a site with shit tons of popups.
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Brave: not a fan of the in your face AI tools. Overall it works ok though
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The Foxes variants: IronFox seems to be very good on privacy. It has its own DNS and most of the security is on by default. However, same as all Foxes, IronFox just doesnt play well on Android. There is a slight lag when you try to switch tabs.
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TOR: This would be the safest. But the poorest in terms of usability.
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Chrome w/o account or Chrome run from private space. Surprisingly, Chrome is still the one browser that runs the smoothest…
Any input is appreciated.
Firefox. They’re still great, people keep freaking out over extremely benign changes.
Android is not open source in its final form. The base is open source. First step to privacy is checking if you can use something like lineageos or graoheneos. They both include android open source project (aosp) as a base and build on top. Graphene only works on pixel phones and lineage has a variety of phones you can put it on. Dont install play services and use fdroid for most apps. Some apps you will need aurora (play store but anonymous) which is a last resort.
I use fennec on lineageos which works quite well. I have ublock (recommend) and noscript (optional because pretty drastic).
Let me know if you need more help.
I’ve been using Fennec and it works 99% of the times and on the rare occasion I need Chromium based browser I use Brave. I don’t have any issues with either.
Usually the same. Except Brave I use Vivaldi.
Same except my alt is chromite
Cromite 🤓
I use Cromite. It’s a more hardened fork of Bromite. Which itself is a hardened fork of Chromium.
The only thing I’ve found so far is that it likes to block the discussion threads on some websites. But other than that I’ve had no issues whatsoever.
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Firefox with Ublock Origin and NextDNS
I personally use Firefox still; and keep a fresh copy in a (Pixel only feature) Private Space (Basically an implementation of Android alternate user profile) as well. It works and accepts any privacy addons I throw at it.
Currently using:
- uBlock Origin
- Chameleon
- Privacy Badger1
- LocalCDN
- Decentraleyes1
- CanvasBlocker1
1 - May duplicate functions of other plug-ins; but provide additional protection layers and cover for the limitations of other addon(s)…
Being worried about addons adding to your fingerprint is something that I quite honestly find is not a significant issue usually…unless you’re explicitly doing something truly spooky if found out…then you should use Tor Browser ONLY.
Mullvad browser and Tor browser are the only serious options for privacy on the internet. Librewolf, cromite, Firefox, brave, etc will get you fingerprinted. If you care about security more than privacy, use a chromium based browser. Personally, I use Mullvad browser with Vpn (use only protonvpn, mullvad, or ivpn, they have had security and legal tests) it’s the best combo of fast and private.
For mobile, the options are more limited. Ironfox, Cromite, and Vanadium (GrapheneOs) are the best bets for daily use. Tor Browser is the only one that actually stops fingerprinting however, but it is difficult to recommend it as a daily driver, it’s more of a tool.
Source: I actually help code security software and test it in real world scenarios regularly
People should be aware that Tor is gonna be quite a bit slower and isn’t practical for things like streaming.
I use 3 browsers on my android devices. All 3 on all of them. That’s Firefox as the primary, and then Firefox Focus, and Firefox Nightly.
In the primary Firefox browser, I use uBlock Origin.
I have no lag - so why you talk about “all foxes” here, I don’t really know. Maybe you do know that Google, Like MS, Apple and others, always try to make it harder to use anything else, than their solution?
