How to harden fennec for privacy? (slrpnk.net)

submitted 2 weeks ago by countrypunk@slrpnk.net to c/privacy@lemmy.ml

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Now that Mull is no longer being supported, what are some recommendations to tweak fennec so that it matches Mull in terms of privacy and security?

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[-] Samsy@lemmy.ml 15 points 2 weeks ago

How about testing IronFox a "Fork" of Mull?

https://gitlab.com/ironfox-oss/IronFox

[-] tkw8@lemm.ee 12 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago)

Does anyone know about the team in this project? I’m concerned that development stalls after a little while when things get hard or they get tired of it.

For me, customizing a new browser is a heavy lift so I don’t usually jump headfirst into browsers without first knowing a little about the team’s background.

[-] Samsy@lemmy.ml 7 points 2 weeks ago

Idk. It's the second release and they pushed upstream firefox 134 and Phoenix.js instead of arkenfox which sounds really good.

Btw and nobody could resist that arcticion icon from IronFox...

[-] refurbishedrefurbisher@lemmy.sdf.org 7 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago)

The maintainer of IronFox and Phoenix.js are the same person.

See this git history: https://gitlab.com/ironfox-oss/IronFox/-/commits/dev?ref_type=HEADS

[-] Samsy@lemmy.ml 2 points 2 weeks ago

Oh yeah, makes sense, reminds me of how I discovered IronFox by searching content about phoenix.js

[-] Undertaker@feddit.org 3 points 2 weeks ago

They changed some fundamentale that werde used for and in Mull so I do not recommend it yet

[-] kixik@lemmy.ml 2 points 2 weeks ago

I'm interested on what changed that make it differ from Mull in a non recommended way. Are you referring to their 1st MR? where they outline:

Replaced Arkenfox & Brace preferences with ones from Phoenix 2025.01.06.1...
Added support for Google Safe Browsing (Safe Browsing is disabled by default and can be enabled by setting the following preferences to true in about:config)

I understand Mull was using arkenfox which is sort of the go-to reference, and now ironfox move to phoenix. The safe browsing is the same approach Librewolf follows, though I don't like their comment on a proxy. I don't like their choice of the brave search engine, but I always replace that with searxng tweaked a bit.

The MR doc doesn't look too terrible, but don't know about the changes themselves.

[-] countrypunk@slrpnk.net 0 points 2 weeks ago

I've heard of ironfox but it doesn't look easy to install on Android right now

[-] Samsy@lemmy.ml 9 points 2 weeks ago

I simply add the link posted before into obtainium

[-] refurbishedrefurbisher@lemmy.sdf.org 3 points 2 weeks ago

There's also an F-Droid repo

[-] Haystack@lemmy.world 8 points 2 weeks ago

There are apk files right there in the releases

[-] d0ntpan1c@lemmy.blahaj.zone 5 points 2 weeks ago

You can apply arkenfox or Betterfox to fennec in some somewhat hacky ways via adb (or less hacky if rooted)

[-] furrowsofar@beehaw.org 2 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago)

I am not sure any modified browser is that private since it is unique. Generally the whole point of a privacy browser is that you can use stock configuration.

[-] toastal@lemmy.ml 7 points 2 weeks ago

That is anonymity, not privacy.

[-] furrowsofar@beehaw.org 1 points 2 weeks ago

I would agrue that online there is no privacy without anonymity.

[-] lemmyarcade@lemmy.ml 2 points 2 weeks ago

Anyone got a quick comparison between Ironfox and Iceraven?

[-] swab148@lemm.ee 13 points 2 weeks ago

Super quick comparison: while both start with the letter "I", the rest of their letters are different

[-] SplashJackson@lemmy.ca 2 points 2 weeks ago

Finally someone getting down to the real nitty-gritty

[-] Distributed@lemmy.world 2 points 2 weeks ago

I don't think fennec has received an update for v134 as of yet and there were multiple CVEs patched in v134. Iron fox has, it is worth checking out.

[-] Beagle@discuss.tchncs.de 1 points 1 week ago

Just go through the settings and you will probably be able to judge urself what to change.

You can also choose to install an Content Blocker, like uBlock Origin + other extensions which might be beneficial depending on ur threat model.

You can optionally check out following:

ClearURLs (probably unecessary if use uBO with appropriate filters + ETP, but you can still used it in addition)
CanvasBlocker (slightly advanced), JShelter (advanced)
LocalCDN (fork of decentralised eyes)
Auto Referer
LibRedirect
NoScript

this post was submitted on 14 Jan 2025

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