What desktop browser should I use alongside Mullvad Browser?

Questions
21

No. But you can still use different browser profiles that act as different browsers instead of actually using different browsers.

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22

And what about only one browser and only one profiles ?
Maybe my question is stupid and that means I just don’t understand anything about privacy and security online :frowning:

23

Nah you’re fine.

Yes, you can totally use one browser profile for everything.

But I would indeed recommend changing your browser settings such that cookies and site data is deleted upon every quit and restart of the browser. You can whitelist/save select websites you want to stay signed in all day everyday as you want.

And like you said, you are using a VPN so that’s good. Make sure the kill switch is enabled.

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24

You can look at the recommendations for browsers and settings to change: Privacy Respecting Web Browsers for PC and Mac - Privacy Guides

I use and recommend Brave. You can use Mullvad Browser in conjunction with Brave if you like. I don’t think Firefox with or without arkenfox makes a lot of sense for most people anymore.

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25

This makes no sense if you don’t explain yourself in full as to how and why you have this highly opinionated view on the matter.

26

No, its not bad, if one browser meets your needs.

The people who use or advocate 2 or more browsers are usually doing so because they find value in optimizing each browser for a particular use case or they can’t settle on one browser to meet all their needs. But you can absolutely use one browser for all of your browsing (and you can still have most of the benefits of multiple browsers, by using browser profiles if you like).

And what about only one browser and only one profiles ?

Realistically, this is what most people do, and it’s a totally valid option. Though I’d encourage you to consider/experiment with profiles, they can be very useful and flexible.

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27

Even Privacy Guides recommends using Mullvad browser over Arkenfox for “advanced anti-fingerprinting.” So not only is Mullvad Browser better than Arkenfox in that regard, it’s also just nicer to have a pre-packaged browser that just works out of the box.

So if you want to use a Gecko browser, I would use Mullvad Browser; otherwise, use Brave. Firefox lacks many of the fingerprinting protections of both those options and lacks the advanced ad-blocking of Brave.

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28

All of what you said is valid - if your threat mode warrants it. Arkenfox DIY is not for everyone though and not everyone can do it even if they wanted to. If you have an easy to use guide, please share so I can learn.

But thanks for explaining.

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29

This is accurate, but it is also judging Arkenfox against a standard it wasn’t designed or meant for. Combatting advanced fingerprinting is mostly out of scope for the Arkenfox project, and not really achievable with most browsers (short of Tor and Mullvad Browsers).

You mention personally using Brave–Brave also falls short of protecting against advanced fingerprinting–presumably you still choose to use it because you feel that on the whole Brave is a good balance for you. It doesn’t offer the strongest privacy, but it also doesn’t come with the same usability tradeoffs/penalties that using Mullvad or Tor Browser fulltime entails. The premise is more or less the same with Arkenfox or Firefox + PG reccs.

it’s also just nicer to have a pre-packaged browser that just works out of the box.

IF the pre-packaged settings are a good fit for you/your goals, then yes, absolutely. If not, then another choice might make more sense.

Things like Letterboxing, RFP, and hard recommendation against installing extensions are things that make a lot of sense in the context of Mullvad Browser and Tor Browser’s design model, but are pain-points that many people would prefer not to have in a primary daily diver browser.

I think there is no single right choice here, just a set of tradeoffs, that people must weight for themselves, in the context of their own goals and threat model.

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30

if you lead a normal life you don’t have to do any big pull-ups

31

About that…

Compared librewolf.cfg with arkenfox user.js ¡ Issue #1809 ¡ arkenfox/user.js ¡ GitHub

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32

THanks. But esoteric Github threads go over my head.

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33

Are you saying Brave’s built-in ad-blocker is better than uBlockOrigin on Firefox?

34

No, uBlockOrigin is better, but it isn’t installed by default and requires configuration to truly be much better, which a lot of users aren’t willing to do. Brave having adblocking by default is also a benefit for the fingerprintability of Brave users since the default filter lists are the same for all users.

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35

@Runway - Not sure if anyone has posted this yet. I kinda skimmed through the thread quickly. Anyway, have a look at this:

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36

It’s completely frustrating when you clear your browsing history for privacy and then all those beautifully shaded, already-visited links disappear from Google or Brave search results. You end up clicking the same links over and over!

Is there any setting or add-on that can make this feature permanent? I’m looking for a way to keep my visited links marked, even after I’ve cleared my browsing data.

37

Both Firefox and the chrome’s let you keep your browsing history but delete other aspects of your profile, such as cookies and such.

38

Cheers!

I know, but for safety, you should set your browser to not save history.

Yesterday I found this Visited add-on in the Chrome Store. I need to test it, though.

39

You’d have to trade off saving your browser history with having URLs colored differently. If you are concerned that your browser history lands in evil hands, for sure.

I can’t imagine browser history is seen server-side. The history might get sync’d with your profile across devices if set up such.

I’d have to bet the “Visited” add-ons are doing just the same either by monitoring where you visit or accessing your history and coloring the page appropriately.

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40

You don’t need to use arkenfox with librewolf because the whole point of librewolf is that it has the “hardened” settings enabled by default. But I’d say try out which you like best or think about what your threat model is. Some sites break in librewolf & it’s slow on updates so keep that in mind.

1 Like