Any popular browser in incognito mode with a VPN?
this post was submitted on 26 Nov 2023
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Privacy
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"Any popular browser in incognito mode" is probably the worst advice I've ever heard.
Well fuck me then
Hey man didn't mean to make you feel down. Incognito mode is just the wrong tool for the job.
I pair it with a paid VPN. Why isn't it good enough?
Also, just because a VPN is paid for does not mean it is secure. Look into Mullvad and as a second option Proton VPN, if you have not already.
I have proton plus. What's wrong with incognito mode and unlock origin????? I've been doing this for years. I've had no issues
Well to cut it short, Incognito mode often just means that your own device will not remember anything. Meaning your keyboard does not log your keystrokes, your browser does not save your searches etc. Even if this was compeletely true 100% of the time (which it is not, example, you copy or download something), then the websites you visit would still have your device's fingerprint, so a VPN connection won't do much. It is better to use a privacy-oriented browser like Mull. If you want to, you can add incognito mode ON TOP, which on Firefox and therefore Mull is called private browsing mode. Do keep in mind, that it is hard enough to have a non-unique fingerprint. This only gets amplified on mobile devices, at least speaking for Android. IOS is out of the window by default lmao.
😂 you're telling me that by using proton plus VPN with, say, Firefox in private mode, websites still know who I am? I'm not logged into anything. They don't know anything.
Yes. They do. Not by name, but by your fingerprint.
They can see my fingers? I dunno know about that
Why not using Firefox, Firefox Focus or Brave?
Because Mull is hardened Firefox without telemetry. Brave is Chromium based and the company is shady.
Fennec (Firefox based), with Ghostery and uBlock origin installed.
You'll have to set add-ons up as a private collection for them to work, but it's easy as pie.
Mull works the same as Fennec, except it is hardended with patches from Tor and Arkenfox user.js. No real reason IMO to use fennec over Mull, whose developers also contribute to Fennec. Ghostery also changes your fingerprint, acting as one more data point. Mull has a whole bunch of configured flags to reduce fingerprinting, and many more to help with security (like disabling JIT).
Check here for some comparisons:
Following the pro-Mull comments here I've given it a try for a solid 48h, and just reverted back to Fennec. Mull is simply restricting the user experience too much, and I'm not willing to make the sacrifice.
My biggest annoyances:
- Websites don't get information about dark mode from my device and revert back to light mode by default.
- Websites don't get information about the system time on my phone and deliver content based on GMT+0.
- Some websites get wrong (or none?) information about the screen resolution and are unusable.
I'm aware that those details are suppressed to avoid fingerprinting, and while I believe that the intention is good, it makes using my phone more cumbersome, and that's not something I'm willing to do. So my choices at this point are basically to keep using Mull and deactivate the advanced fingerprinting protection, or use Fennec as before.
Firefox resistant fingerprinting does the first 2 things, the last one is mobile partial letterboxing. All are anti fingerprinting techniques, but i understand how they may be restrictive. Maybe just add dark reader to have dark mode forced on websites, which technically can be fingerprinted but has a large userbase so idk.
Hmm but On FF there are no way to see induvidual site data
You can delete cookies and data on a per-site basis, and advanced tracking protection prevents any nefarious websites from exploiting your browser. That's all I care for.
In firefox android, I dont see any way to delete cookie+site data per site basis. Are u talking about chromium?
Cookies are partitioned in Firefox strict mode IIRC.