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.
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 on Waterfox for years and see no reason worth changing for.
I use IronFox and have no qualms. Vandium on graphene is also popular. Buy apart from that I can’t offer up much more
- Tor browser for anonymous/private regular browsing (without logging into personally-identifiable accounts)
- Vanadium (GrapheneOS’ Chromium-based browser, maybe it’s usable on non-GrapheneOS as well?) in combination with a good crap-blocking DNS server
- Brave is decent but has some bad default settings, can probably be configured to behave well (similar to regular Firefox)
- Firefox + forks are generally not that great (at least on Android?) because their sandboxing capabilities (and maybe other security features) are weaker compared to those of Chromium-based browsers. See also: https://grapheneos.org/usage#web-browsing
- Commercial browsers like Chrome, Edge, Opera, and so on all contain loads of on-by-default-spyware and should never be used
Compartmentalize, you don’t need to use the same browser for everything.
Fennec on Fdroid + uBlock Origin for Youtube, everyday browsing, through a VPN (split tunnel) to a privacy-friendly country
Chrome for the “normie” stuff, like banking, making purchases, taxes, government stuff, since those likely break on firefox-like browsers, and those are tied to identity anyways, no need to hide anything. Chrome goes through my real IP (cuz transactions would fail if make over a VPN)
Tor Browser for Lemmy (bypasses VPN, because using both VPN + Tor is practically unusable, too slow, just Tor is good enough)
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?
firefox/fennec with ublock origin
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
I was about to ask, wasn’t Mullvad discontinued a few months ago? But I’m thinking of the Mull browser, right?
Yeah Mull is a different project. Mullvad browser is better than Mull (now Ironfox) tho lol.
For those wondering, Mullvad is only good if you change nothing about the browser, if you do, then you will he easily fingerprinted. As the number of people who use Mullvad is already small as it is. You will br like a spotlight in the dark if you add other extensions.
People should be aware that Tor is gonna be quite a bit slower and isn’t practical for things like streaming.
I’m on IronFox on a cheap ~200$ Motorola phone and had no issues, runs like the old Mull used to
Brave with Orbot.
Vanadium along with Kagi Search engine and NextDNS is god tier
Firefox. They’re still great, people keep freaking out over extremely benign changes.
I find VIvaldi to be the most functional and its also my preferred desktop browser, It’s like brave but without the crypto non-sense, and much more focused on what users want rather than what will make them advertising money.
Librewolf on PC, or Tor, if you want to go full on; And Ironfox on Android. Use LibRedirect as a search provider and if you use Searxing, it will rotate all your searches to different instances every time.
Graphene os + vanadium
