Washington Post's Privacy Tip: Stop Using Chrome, Delete Meta Apps (and Yandex)
234 points
6 hours ago
| 20 comments
| tech.slashdot.org
| HN
xnx
5 hours ago
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Without the suggestion to install an adblocker, this is not credible advice.
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ninth_ant
5 hours ago
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A media outlet which depends on ad revenue as a primary income source is unlikely to suggest this.

Ditching these deeply invasive products remains a good idea, independent on any decision to use ad blockers or not.

The Meta/Yandex incident in particular is straight-up malware and everyone should remove their apps.

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alkonaut
53 minutes ago
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Getting privacy advice from an adtech funded outlet sounds like reading democracy advice from the Chinese ruling party or vegetarianism advice from lions to be honest.

It might be correct-and-incomplete but they just have no credibility on the topic.

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timewizard
4 hours ago
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> which depends on ad revenue

They're more tightly bound than that. They're dependent on Google Display Ads. Which really makes their whole diatribe that much more pathetic.

Any media company that decided to traffic the ads themselves, from their own servers, and inline with their own content, would effectively be immune from ad blocking.

> Ditching these deeply invasive products remains a good idea

While still allowing random third party javascript to run unchecked on a parent website.

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kulahan
3 hours ago
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> While still allowing random third party javascript to run unchecked on a parent website.

Lol, why are you commenting as if somehow allowing it to run negates the other good ideas in some way? Obviously some is better than none, and all is better than some, but each step takes more effort.

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jonhohle
40 minutes ago
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It’s odd that orgs like NYT don’t run their own ad services. I’m sure they have a dedicated department for ad sales for physical copies. They’re large enough that companies would work directly with them. And they would have at least some editorial control on what is displayed on their site.
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macNchz
27 minutes ago
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The NYT does have a direct-sold ads business and first-party data platform for targeting them: https://open.nytimes.com/to-serve-better-ads-we-built-our-ow...
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rjsw
23 minutes ago
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That used to be how print newspapers worked.
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godelski
2 hours ago
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The advice is fine, just incomplete.

It is better than nothing and definitely for the more "normies" advice. Let's start there and then we can get them onto adblock and other stuff.

Btw, the ArsTechnica article they link offers more advice[0]

[0] https://arstechnica.com/security/2025/06/meta-and-yandex-are...

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userbinator
3 hours ago
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The FBI recommends using an adblocker: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=41483581
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mingus88
4 hours ago
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They will not bite the hand that feeds them.

But I am glad they are pushing people toward other browsers because that is the biggest step. Once you have taken that step, installing the most popular extensions is trivial.

Guess what the highest rated extensions are?

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jfengel
5 hours ago
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Does the ad blocker prevent leaks of your information?

I know it blocks a use of your information against you (targeted ads). And any external source is a potential leak (e.g. the kinds of things that CORS is supposed to reduce).

But does an ad blocker specifically leak more, or just reduce the incentive to collect that information?

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demosthanos
4 hours ago
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A full-featured ad blocker (uBlock Origin original, not the neutered Lite version that runs on Chrome now) will intercept requests at the network level and prevent your browser from requesting the advertisers' JavaScript code. Your browser not only won't show the ads, it won't run the code that was supposed to show them or even send a request to the advertisers' servers.

This blocks most existing tracking methods. The only thing you're not protected from is first-party tracking by the site you're actually visiting, which is impossible to fully protect against.

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zahlman
3 hours ago
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>prevent your browser from requesting the advertisers' JavaScript code. Your browser not only won't show the ads, it won't run the code that was supposed to show them or even send a request to the advertisers' servers.

Incidentally, just blocking JavaScript with NoScript kills quite a lot of ads (obviously, not first-party ones if you've white-listed their JavaScript for site functionality; but I try to avoid that when there isn't real demonstrated value) without any need for an explicit ad blocker.

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kvdveer
3 hours ago
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NoScript is indeed very effective at blocking tracking, but it also breaks a lot of websites.

If that is an acceptable compromise, you could also try ditching the Internet altogether, as that not only blocks all online tracking, it also blocks a lot of fraud, misinformation and all kinds of harmful content.

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everdrive
56 minutes ago
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Except for non-negotiables (eg: bill paying, government websites, etc.) a website that fully breaks when blocking js is just a worthless site which is not worth my time.
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IgorPartola
2 hours ago
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That’s always my problem with NoScript being suggested. For some people who consume stuff off RSS feeds or static sites and Wikipedia that probably works. But for literally anything more than that you can’t do that.
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voytec
2 hours ago
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It's not about living like a caveman. You can enable 1st party JS without JS from 20 ad/tracking hosts.
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voytec
2 hours ago
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> NoScript is indeed very effective at blocking tracking, but it also breaks a lot of websites.

Sure, images may no be present without JS lazy-loading them. Accidentaly, NoScript also fixes a lot of websites. Publishers are often paywalling posts via JS and initial HTML is served with full articles.

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blacksmith_tb
3 hours ago
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1st-party would likely be prevented by disabling cookies? Obviously they could fingerprint every visitor on every request, but most just set an ID cookie and check it on subsequent pages I think, since that's good enough for tracking most people (who aren't actively trying not to be tracked). Of course, that breaks things that need a session (like a cart), but depending on what you want from a site, it could be fine.
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demosthanos
2 hours ago
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Those things help, yes. I say that it's impossible to fully block first party tracking because you must interact with the server in order to accomplish anything and those interactions can be tracked. But a third party can be cut entirely out of the loop.
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SoftTalker
1 hour ago
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There are ways to maintain a session without a cookie, but cookie is very convenient so that is mostly what is used.
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weaksauce
4 hours ago
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they don't load up the ads at all so they can't know your information in the first place at least from the ads themselves. if the website is sharing information directly there's nothing you can do outside of some kind of vpn and never logging on to any services.
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antithesizer
5 hours ago
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Yes they block tracking
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eastbound
2 hours ago
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I think there was a Defcon where they showed that some ad networks let the advertiser themselves provide the image/video. By targeting only people who first visited a given website, they know who you are. And by adding selectors on the ad, they extract your characteristics, including location.

It looks very stretched, but the real magic happens when this data is sold in bulk. It allows recouping who is where. Your target person may or may not be in each dataset, their location isn’t known like clockwork, but that allows determining where they work, where they sleep and who they’re with. One ad is useless as a datapoint, but recouping shows reliable patterns. And remember most people on iPhone still don’t have an adblocker.

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ryandrake
2 hours ago
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I would bet money that the techie they asked to put the list together included "use an adblocker." And then the higher-up who approves articles like this said "shit! wait... no, no, no, delete that one!!" These corporations are deeply deceptive.
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aucisson_masque
24 minutes ago
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What about the other app ? Now that this trick is known, either it’s completely fixed, including in system webview, or all the other usual spyware ,that the play store is full of, are going to use it to track their user.

Google still hasn’t fixed the issue of app being able to list all other installed app on your phone without requiring permission despite having been reported months ago. They didn’t even provide an answer.

I believe Google isn’t interested in Android user privacy in any way, even when it’s to their own benefit.

At this point either use iPhone, grapheneos or no phone at all.

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xnx
5 hours ago
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HelloUsername
4 hours ago
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> Source article

Thx. Even the source in the slashdot article links to msn...

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bitpush
4 hours ago
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Written by the same person who wrote Washington Post article.

All very confusing.

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boomboomsubban
3 hours ago
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MSN is all rehosted articles I believe. Several times I've searched major paper headlines to read the full story on MSN.

No idea what kind of deal these places have with Microsoft.

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not_a_bot_4sho
2 hours ago
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I like the MSN articles. My ad blocker cleans them up nicely, and they never ask me to subscribe.
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ThinkBeat
1 hour ago
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I dont yet understand this attack.

The WP article says:

"" Millions of websites contain a string of computer code from Meta that compiles your web activity. It might capture the income you report to the government, your application for a student loan and your online shopping. ""

If I read that correctly then they are capturing all https web content you access in clear text and uploads it all to Meta? Then Meta

I thought the exploit was used to track where you visited, not the full data of each webpage.

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bink
42 minutes ago
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It does sound fantastical. A piece of code that can violate the same origin policy would be a huge vulnerability. Meta could be working with other sites to share data on users via code running on both sites, but snooping on tax data without the IRS helping? Unlikely.

I can only assume they're suggesting that companies like Intuit and H&R Block are sharing this data with Meta, but that seems like a huge violation of privacy and with tax data it might even be illegal.

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helph67
1 hour ago
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Thirty months old but I'm guessing they haven't improved! https://www.techradar.com/news/nearly-half-of-all-online-tra...
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meroes
3 hours ago
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Hmm how can I use being forced to use Chrome for work, for me tax wise…

If I’m a contractor forced to use Chrome and mobile devices, can I deduct a separate work phone?

I really hate having it my iPhone, at least maybe I can claw something back this way?

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0_____0
2 hours ago
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I believe it is good form to keep work and personal machines completely separate, including phones. If you ever have to hand over your devices for discovery in a law suit I think you will come to the same conclusion.
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Xorakios
1 hour ago
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I very much agree. Retired now but I used to have a separate phone for each major client for HIPAA compliance but it's good advice everywhere (and $50 year-old android phones and $15/month Tracfone accounts aren't just for criminals!)
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m-localhost
2 hours ago
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Zen Browser (FF) on Win and Firefox on iOS (for sync) works well for me. Edge for all M365 related stuff. Still use Chrome for web dev. Not sure what to move on in that regard...
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t-writescode
2 hours ago
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I'm a relatively new web dev and I've been quite happy with Firefox's Web Dev tools. What does Chrome's dev tools give someone that Firefox's doesn't? I can edit css on the fly, see where a css rule is being overwritten, debug javascript, etc.
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arealaccount
2 hours ago
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FF dev tools just don’t work sometimes, notably with iframes, sometimes with source maps, and other edge case types things.

I use FF for 99% of dev, open Chrome maybe once a quarter. It’s a better browser.

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nine_k
1 hour ago
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One an develop in FF, but has to test in Chrome. (Same with developing in Chrome and also testing in FF.)
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p0w3n3d
4 hours ago
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I've noticed that recent Chrome version does not allow me to download the pdf I'm viewing. I had to open it in Firefox. The Chrome browser only allowed me to save it to drive (cloud)
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Aurornis
3 hours ago
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I downloaded a PDF within updated Chrome earlier this morning without problems. I would be looking at your setup to see what makes it unique.
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Grazester
2 hours ago
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You can absolutely download PDFs on the all Chrome versions including the most recent. You need to do is set chrome to download them instead of open them.

I am a developer but have to deal with questions on this regularly from people's at my company due to the IT department being small.

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Legend2440
3 hours ago
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Seems weird. I'm in Chrome right now and I can right-click on PDFs and click save as.
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gosub100
3 minutes ago
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I have the opposite problem: I want to simply render the pdfs so I can, you know, read them. not download them like they are data to be fed into another app.
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charcircuit
3 hours ago
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Did you try finding a print button?
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Henchman21
3 hours ago
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To… save? I get that you can print to a file and it’ll save it that way of course, but damn that strikes me as really confusing for non-techies
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cosmicgadget
3 hours ago
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Save or export would make more sense but printing to pdf has been the way to do it forever.
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kulahan
3 hours ago
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This is how I get around that same issue, but it truly is a hacky workaround.
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thrill
3 hours ago
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right-click save-as?
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thadk
2 hours ago
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Anyone have tips on how to avoid having the WhatsApp app on your phone?
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baobun
1 hour ago
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Give your WA contacts alternative contact method. Uninstall. Stop using WhatsApp.
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tdiff
2 hours ago
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Use telegram
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jhbadger
3 hours ago
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And stop using Alexa (of course Bezos' paper wouldn't say that!)
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keernan
46 minutes ago
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If we truly lived in a democracy which 'obeyed' the overwhelming will of the people, there would be laws with 'horrific' penalties for any effort to track devices or people online.
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dlachausse
5 hours ago
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Safari reports that it blocked 16 trackers on WaPos home page. So it’s probably best to avoid them for privacy too.
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bn-l
5 hours ago
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What is the alternative to chrome that doesn’t crash or is not noticeably slower?
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wussboy
4 hours ago
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Full time Firefox user. I run hundreds of tabs for days on end and need to restart it every week or so. Well worth it to not use Chrome. Need to open a site in Chrome about once a month
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abhinavk
4 hours ago
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The upcoming version has "Unload tabs" built in to the context menu. That should result in restarts limited to updates.
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HelloMcFly
2 hours ago
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I use the Auto Discard Tabs plug-in, just lets tabs time-out after a set amount of time
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SoftTalker
1 hour ago
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I've used Firefox for years and it very rarely crashes. Individual tabs will crash occasionally, but rarely the entire browser.
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mrweasel
4 hours ago
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Firefox? Weird question. I haven't even installed Chrome in the past 7 years. Firefox is fast (but I obviously don't know if Chrome is faster) and it never crashes.
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ramon156
4 hours ago
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What's wrong with FireFox?

And if you're not a fan of FireFox, Ladybird is becoming a thing in 2026

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NexRebular
4 hours ago
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I use Vivaldi[1]. Also has built-in ad-blocker although I'm not sure how good it is compared to Ublock or others.

[1] https://vivaldi.com/

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dijksterhuis
3 hours ago
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seconded. been loving vivaldi since i switched.
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wyattblue
5 hours ago
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Brave Browser: https://brave.com/
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GolfPopper
4 hours ago
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guywithahat
3 hours ago
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I mean those aren't real controversies though, it's more like "we added a VPN feature and included the VPN, but have now removed it". A real controversy would be like Mozilla who was pushing for censorship and silencing "bad actors" in the years after the first Trump election.
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duxup
4 hours ago
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I use firefox full time, it works great for me.
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azinman2
5 hours ago
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I feel like people sleep on safari, especially on Macs.
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Aurornis
3 hours ago
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I continually try, but Safari is the only browser where I routinely experience crashes once or twice a month. There are also some random incompatibilities with certain websites (related to the CORS issue as mentioned in another comment) that force me back into another browser anyway.
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hk1337
4 hours ago
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JavaScript Chrome developers did a good job of convincing people that Safari is the new IE.

I love Safari on macOS. I love the pinch/zoom with the tabs. I love that private browsing mode, at least seems to, keep things contained to the tab they started with. e.g. if I open facebook in a private tab then open new tab and go to facebook, it’s going to make me login.

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Uehreka
2 hours ago
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Chrome’s developers didn’t have to say anything. Anyone who’s been trying to build on the latest web features (for me, particularly WebGL, WebRTC, WebGPU and IndexedDB) over the past decade has been bitten by Safari over and over again. They usually come around after being raked over the coals by the web dev community, but they’re still usually years behind.

When “Safari is the new IE” was first published, they absolutely were. They’ve gotten a bit better since then, but all the same it was hilarious to see people who used to rail against IE for flaunting web standards (cough John Gruber cough) suddenly start saying that web standards were a bogus racket once Apple decided to stop keeping up with them.

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bitpush
4 hours ago
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You're drinking Apple kool-aid if you think Safari isn't holding web back.

Lots of anti-google people dislike Safari. Safari isn't the only non-google option you know.

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kstrauser
3 hours ago
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Safari is far from perfect, but I’m glad they don’t implement everything Chrome does. Many of the complaints come down to “Safari doesn’t even support RunBitcoinMinerInBackground.js. It sucks!”

And on the plus side, it’s vastly better at power efficiency, meaning I can use my laptop longer without being plugged in.

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arccy
3 hours ago
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sure if you want to live a life stuck in the App Store and Play Store walled gardens... having a decent web browser is the way towards a truly open web
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hk1337
3 hours ago
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Apple is slow to adopt new features, sure but Google bulldozes features to be first to market so it can implemented the way they want it implemented.
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gcau
1 hour ago
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>Google bulldozes features to be first to market so it can implemented the way they want it implemented

Can you give an example of this?

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giraffe_lady
4 hours ago
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Significantly better battery life too. Like hours.
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hungryhobbit
3 hours ago
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Developers don't convince anyone of anything! They just build stuff according to standards (which are inevitably set not by standards orgs, but by the most popular browsers), and then they expect all browsers to follow those standards and "just work".

When a browser like Safari fails to adhere to those standards, sites will break ... but you can't expect developers (of most sites; I'm not talking about the top 100 or anything) to test in every possible browser ... and then change their code to accommodate them. Certainly not in ones with single-digit percentages of market share, that require their own OS to test (like Safari).

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kstrauser
3 hours ago
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Wikipedia says Safari’s their #2 browser, with 17% traffic share: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Usage_share_of_web_browsers

Web devs ignore Safari at their own risk, lest 100% of iPhone users be unable to use their site.

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someNameIG
1 hour ago
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If Apple wanted more web devs to support Safari they should port it to Linux and Windows. The web is supposed to be an open standard, you shouldn't need a devices and software from a specific manufacturer to develop for it (I say that posting from a Mac).
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hxtk
4 hours ago
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I tend to use Safari on my mac, but I will say that it evaluates CORS slightly differently than other browsers so that sometimes I have to disable CORS protection to get a site to work that works fine in Chrome or Firefox, and it's the only browser I've used where I expect to have it crash hard with a SEGFAULT or something every once in a while.
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voytec
3 hours ago
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Zen Browser works well for me. It's a Firefox fork but privacy-focused whereas Mozilla recently became an ad company and published hostile TOS changes. No issues I had when I was evaluating LibreWolf.
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0134340
3 hours ago
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Well, for the past twenty years, Firefox has been a good alternative browser to Chrome, IE, etc.
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cosmicgadget
3 hours ago
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Any browser that lets you block javascript? It is weird how we now call browsers fast because they can quickly render the most cancerous content.
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JumpCrisscross
4 hours ago
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I’m using Firefox and Kagi’s Orion browser [1] on my Mac and Safari on iOS.

[1] https://kagi.com/orion/

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m-localhost
3 hours ago
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Is it easier to build a browser for MacOS? Arc was Mac only for the longest time, until they released a crippled Windows version. DuckDuckGo browser started Mac only.
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JumpCrisscross
2 hours ago
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> Is it easier to build a browser for MacOS?

Financially, probably. Apple customers represent a disproportionate share of global consumer disposable income.

Technically, I guess Unix-like, BrowserEngineKit and WebKit (Orion uses this) help. Good question, hope someone knowledgeable chimes in!

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slaw
5 hours ago
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Firefox + uBlock Origin
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secondcoming
4 hours ago
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Firefox. It's been my default browser for years but now I'm noticing sites that don't work properly with it. I'm not sure why.

It also has a really annoying 'feature' that its update process will sometimes force you to restart the browser.

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brazzy
4 hours ago
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Firefox.
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haiku2077
4 hours ago
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Doesn't crash? Firefox/Mullvad Browser is fine.

Not slower? Safari or Orion.

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dismalaf
4 hours ago
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I like Vivaldi myself.
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guywithahat
3 hours ago
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I really like Brave, blocks youtube ads and generally just works where other chrome alternatives don't https://brave.com/download/
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ronnier
3 hours ago
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I'm pretty worried about the security of Brave and stopped using it. I'd like to be wrong. But years old patches missing in Chromium not ported over until recently makes me nervous (referring to a recently addressed long time websocket bug in Brave). What else is missing? It just seems to risky to use for me.
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leereeves
5 hours ago
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I hope people can get a "Stop Using Chrome" movement going, like we did with Internet Explorer long ago.
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userbinator
3 hours ago
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Maybe even a "start using Internet Explorer again" movement ;-)

For all the hate it got, IE was nowhere near as privacy-invasive as any of the "modern" browsers now, even Firefox. If you configured it to open with a blank page, it would quietly do so and make zero unsolicited network requests.

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SoftTalker
1 hour ago
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Well IE (Edge) is Chrome now under the covers.
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timewizard
4 hours ago
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Chrome is fine.

Letting an advertising company own it is not.

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duxup
4 hours ago
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I feel like that's like saying "it's fine, except for the bad part that you can't avoid" ;)
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turtletontine
3 hours ago
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The future of Google as Chrome’s owner is genuinely in question now due to Google’s antitrust losses, in case you weren’t aware.

There’s a few different cases, one recent one Google has lost and is now in the “remedy” phase. Meaning the court has officially decided Google did bad, and is now considering what to make Google do about it. And splitting up Google into separate Chrome, search, etc companies is completely on the table.

Some reading:

https://www.theverge.com/23869483/us-v-google-search-antitru...

https://www.thebignewsletter.com/p/google-found-guilty-of-mo...

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righthand
4 hours ago
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Idk, isn't that how we got Chrome? Isn't this inviting someone else to be the new Internet abuse daddy?
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ljlolel
4 hours ago
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Sounds like something written by a Google employee. Mozilla is a non-profit
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dc396
4 hours ago
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Might want to look at who provides most of the funds for Mozilla.
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ljlolel
15 minutes ago
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Not for long
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0x_rs
4 hours ago
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No, that was Firefox. Chrome's spread was fueled by literal malware or spyware bundling it to get some of Google's sweet money and some of the most aggressive advertisement campaigns for any online product ever.
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righthand
2 hours ago
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Was it Firefox? I remember Firefox existing at the time but I don't think it's ever really had dominant market share, perhaps when it was Netscape? I do remember the IE campaign went on quite a long time to where eventually Chrome showed up to the party and people shifted over as well as shifted their family and friends over. You don't see that kind of active effort for Firefox ever.
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ndriscoll
2 hours ago
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According to Wikipedia, Firefox share peaked around 31%. It was very much taking over and gaining share from IE before chrome appeared.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Usage_share_of_web_browsers#Ol...

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ChrisArchitect
2 hours ago
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ajsnigrutin
2 hours ago
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For most people in the west, using yandex and chinese alternatives would be better than local ones, because neither china nor russia has any auhority over you, while your local agencies do.
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ck2
3 hours ago
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TiredOfLife
3 hours ago
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Washington Post also called Ukraines attack on russian bombers "dirty"
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extra88
3 hours ago
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That's one opinion from one columnist. Also, the full phase was "dirty war," by which they seem to mean one dominated by covert operations by intelligence services rather than conventional forces, on both sides.
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cosmicgadget
3 hours ago
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Can you elaborate?
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jeffbee
3 hours ago
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It's sort of interesting that Brave was not affected by this because they already blocked the technique used by the Yandex app. I wonder if Brave devs were aware of that specific abuse, or if they just thought that localhost traffic was distasteful categorically.
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NHQ
3 hours ago
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Web browsers should become outmoded soon. It was fine for bootstrapping the web, but now to keep up a browser must emulate the operating system and more in a single app. This pressure is the centralizing factor in browser dominance. Ditch the features, drop the spy protocol (http), just get the files.
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zahlman
3 hours ago
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> the spy protocol (http)

I'm afraid I can't guess your reasoning.

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NHQ
2 hours ago
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How do i turn it off?
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zahlman
14 minutes ago
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Turn what off? HTTP is how you receive the web page in the first place. It is not, in itself, causing data to be sent from your computer to others. That happens either because of a script on the page or because you request a web page (i.e. the browser sends headers).
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thethimble
3 hours ago
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What will the alternative to web browsers be after they become "outmoded"?
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consumer451
2 hours ago
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I can't speak for the user who you are responding to, but an AI maxi might believe that an AI powered interface will take over all information retrieval.
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