Browser security and privacy — with the right extensions

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INTERNET By Lance Whitney Each browser offers its own settings for security and privacy, but you can often control these options better via third-part
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ibe98765, lmacri, Norio, TechTango, fisher75, DLivesInTexas, rc primak, Fred

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Sorry Lance, but in my opinion, the only one of value on your list is uBlock Origin.  The rest are either redundant, outdated, problematic, or just outright spyware.  Some of them I used to use but gave them up a long time ago when better solutions came along.

For example, there’s no need to use Disconnect or Ghostery when uBlock Origin covers all their bases and much, much more.

And I’ve heard Avast is very problematic on Windows 11.  Especially when Defender also covers that territory.

Click&Clean has appeared & disappeared & appeared from the Chrome Store a couple of times due to tracking issues, so I consider it untrustworthy and no longer use it.

DuckDuckGo, I just default it to the browser search.  There’s no need to use their add-on since once again, uBlock Origin takes care of that, too

Malwarebytes seems to have gotten more & more bloated in recent years, and it seems to be catching less & less, probably due to Defender and Microsoft’s own malware remover tool taking care of it.

Privacy Badger is redundant since once again, uBlock Origin also takes care of it all.

Trend Micro is in the same class as Avast.  No need for it in Windows 11

What you listed might have been good 5 – 10 years ago, but a lot has changed.  Besides, I think the less add-ons you can get away with to your browser, then better.

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unbob, Biiljoy

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or just outright spyware

Which ones in this list are spyware? In what ways are they “spying”?

 there’s no need to use Disconnect or Ghostery when uBlock Origin covers all their bases and much, much more

uBlock Origin has had problems with the changes in how Chrome operates. Their block lists are blacklists, which is not always comprehensive. But the main thing is, uBlock Origin takes time to contact its servers, and this can slow browser performance, especially on ad-heavy pages. Ghostery is leaner and quicker, but highly effective in my experience.

Malwarebytes seems to have gotten more & more bloated in recent years

The browser Guard Extension is independent of the program. You don’t need to install the antimalware components or anything from the Premium Edition to use this extension.

Defender and Microsoft’s own malware remover tool taking care of it

I prefer to have at least one second opinion when scanning for malware. Different programs catch different types and lists of malware and PUP/PUM.

Privacy Badger and uBlock Origin target different kinds of ads and tracking. Privacy badger is privacy focused, while uBlock Origin targets all kinds of ads, not just the ones most associated with privacy risks. So they cater to different audiences.

Privacy issues are not in the past. And sadly, browser and OS makers do not look after our privacy for us. So the need for extensions is as great now as ever, if not greater.

As for security, yes the OS, the built-in Defender AV and any third-party additional AV/AM people may have installed, all have made great strides in recent years. But some people still insist that there’s more that can be done. And given how little impact on browser performance the security add-ons have, the only question is, do we trust the companies which make the browser guard extensions?

I use Ghostery, Click and Clean and Privacy Badger. I see nothing wrong in using the others, but I personally don’t see the benefit of loading up my browsers with extensions when what I use gives me all the safeguards I feel I need.

And I did a lot of customizing to enable all the relevant features and block lists available for Ghostery and Click and Clean. This enhances the effectiveness of these extensions, but it can cause some issues if you don’t know which enhanced features do what kind of blocking and cleaning.

-- rc primak

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wavy, ibe98765, TechTango, Fred

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You are very right;so when in a hurry and travelling around wanting to make a hotelreservation it’s alway handy to have an extra browser installed for there is something changed again and the process stocks.

* _ ... _ *

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“Which ones in this list are spyware? In what ways are they “spying”?

Well Trend Micro and Avast for a start.  Did you not read nibbed’s quote below?

“uBlock Origin has had problems with the changes in how Chrome operates.”

That’s due to Chrome interfering, not uBlock Origin.  Google’s interference will only get worse once they depreciate ad blocking with v3.

“The browser Guard Extension is independent of the program.”

Why would I need that?  That’s just more & more bloat added to the equation. Firefox has Safe Browsing built in, anyway.  Plus you can harden Firefox even more if you want to.  No need to pay money for that.  I haven’t paid for an antivirus (including their bundled suites) in almost 10 years.  Not since Windows 10 came out.

I suggest you read the link here here about Privacy Badger and some of the reasons why I don’t use it anymore.

“I use Ghostery, Click and Clean and Privacy Badger. I see nothing wrong in using the others, but I personally don’t see the benefit of loading up my browsers with extensions when what I use gives me all the safeguards I feel I need.”

What do you think Ghostery, Click and Clean and Privacy Badger are?  They’re extensions.  You just contradicted yourself.

“And I did a lot of customizing to enable all the relevant features and block lists available for Ghostery and Click and Clean.”

In Firefox, those are all built-in.  In uBlock Origin, you just have to update your lists.  Very little to customize.  The less junk and redundancy added to my browser, the better.  Not to mention Defender and  Microsoft’s own malware remover tool are also built-in and free.  No more subscriptions to pay for any extraneous stuff.

Just my opinion so don’t take it personal.

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Biiljoy

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Ublock Origin, check.

Privacy Badger, check.

…and there’s a new one for FF called “Firefox Relay” by Mozilla Firefox: “Masks your email address. Firefox Relay protects your identity & prevents junk mail.”

Avast, uh-uh. No way.

I trust them as far as I can throw a Grand Piano:  they were caught red-handed harvesting and selling user data in 2020:

https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/security/avast-shuts-down-jumpshot-after-getting-caught-selling-users-data/

================================

There’s a trick between going naked into the Net with no protection, (so to speak) and having your browser so clogged up with add-ons that it mucks things up and slows it down, if not completely crashing your machine.

My approach is to carry a small load of them, and make sure none of them overlap if I can help it.

It also helps if they are FF certified/monitored for security if that’s the browser you use.*

And keep them all updated!!

• Avast is NOT monitored by FF/Mozilla for security. That should tell you something.

Win7 Pro SP1 64-bit, Dell Latitude E6330 ("The Tank"), Intel CORE i5 "Ivy Bridge", 12GB RAM, Group "0Patch", Multiple Air-Gapped backup drives in different locations. Linux Mint Newbie
--
"The more kinks you put in the plumbing, the easier it is to stop up the pipes." -Scotty

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ibe98765, Biiljoy, Sky, Norio, TechTango, Microfix, gwt10, rc primak, geekdom

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For Ublock Origin there are additional filter scripts to download for more than just privacy and security: https://letsblock.it/filters
May come in handy for some

Windows - commercial by definition and now function...

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Norio

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I am somewhat surprised that the Brave browser was not included given the company’s focus on privacy.

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Biiljoy, Cybertooth, fisher75

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On my new Windows 11 machine, I’ve been trying out the Ghostery Private Browser, a Firefox-based browser that includes a ton of privacy features from Ghostery. Good experience with it so far, very snappy feel and no issues.

That same box has also received the Ulaa browser, a privacy-oriented Chromium derivative offered by Zoho. So this machine sports not one, but two off-Broadway browsers.

 

Keep Running Windows 7 Safely for Years to Come  
Make Windows 10 look and work like Windows 7

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Norio

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uBlock Origin, DuckDuckGo Privacy Essentials
Kaspersy A/V,
HitmanPro.Alert.

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I’d also recommend LibreWolf which is Firefox hardened down even more.

For Blink-based browsers I sometimes use Brave as a secondary browser.   I stay away from Edge and Chrome now, except at work.

 

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I had in the past sampled  Disconnect, various permutations of AdBlock, and Ghostery, but ultimately had to disable them.  Not mentioned was the fact that many websites deny you access when any of these are detected — even when they are disabled !  (Some severe overkill at work there.)  These can be prominent sites, and you are then faced with a decision.  Most of the time, I can get around this by whitelisting the site in Opera, my preferred browser, which is Chromium based.  It also has some useful extensions for tailoring control over cache & cookies.  Until I discovered those, it was pretty much a “throwing out the baby with the bathwater” situation, in which the all-or-nothing purge of those elements carried with it some deleterious effects to the browser’s functionality.  Such as zapping the entirety of your browser history.  Very much not the ticket, if you really needed to retrace your steps later on to some page you had previously visited.  That said, I definitely miss in Opera the degree of pinpoint control I had over all these things — via certain extensions — in a much older legacy edition of FireFox which I keep around for available use, even though it is otherwise outdated.  With that setup, I could selectively delete particular, individual items from Cache, Cookies, or History.  Or a very specific range of them.

Current issue FireFox has been a disappointment to me, not only due to their major sea change on the whole extensions architecture awhile back.  (This completely invalidated some very good past extensions.)  It also has too much “nanny state” minding of your business, balking at visits to sites I believe to be innocuous.  I’m quite capable of evaluating those risk factors for myself — thank you very much.

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Cybertooth

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LostintheZone wrote:

Current issue FireFox has been a disappointment to me,

Try Pale Moon https://www.palemoon.org/

It still has the XUL stuff and supports many of the old cool extensions that are now in FF’s rear view mirror.

Just because you don't know where you are going doesn't mean any road will get you there.

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Due to this latest Google fiasco, I’m using browser extension ‘Block Site’ where I added *.zip and *.mov for blocking. Works with Chrome, Edge, Firefox and Opera.

https://www.ghacks.net/2023/05/15/googles-zip-top-level-domain-is-already-used-in-phishing-attacks/

https://webextension.org/listing/block-site.html

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rc primak, Cybertooth

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There are system-wide ways to block those domains if you want to do it right. A modified Hosts File won’t necessarily block everything, so a Powershell script has to be run from time to time to make sure the block stays in effect. See my reply to the extended topic about these domains.

-- rc primak

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TechTango

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