I switched from Chrome to Firefox on Android because Firefox supports any extension you want on mobile, where Chrome doesn't support any extensions on mobile.
uBlock Origin alone has made that switch worth it. No ads in Google results either.
uBlock Origin alone has made that switch worth it. No ads in Google results either.
The fatal flaw in Google's approach is that they're primarily focused on visible ad features instead of privacy concerns. I'd rather have an internet full of flashing highway billboards than the current privacy nightmare of today.
I'd be 1000x more inclined to turn off ad blocking if there was any transparency about the data being siphoned up.
More ad blocking isn't the answer. More transparency around data collection is.
From what I understand, the Ad Blocker will work on a per-site basis, rather than a per-ad basis, i.e. if you have bad ads on your site, all ads are blocked in Chrome, including Google Ads.
To enable it in normal browsing, set "privacy.trackingprotection.enabled" to true in about:config.
If you're willing to give Firefox another chance, it's a good time to do so. They've put a lot of effort into performance in the last few releases.
as mentioned elsewhere in the comments, it's a good idea to set up the default browser in android to use the maximum of privacy and security settings together with the uBlock Origin addin.
these urls provide some good starting points :
https://www.linuxfestnorthwest.org/2017/sessions/security-an...
https://www.privacy-handbuch.de/handbuch_21.htm
the 2nd url is in german but it has great tips (spurenarm surfen = surf without leaving traces)
Works out really well, as Focus starts up extremely quickly (uses the native Android Webview), and I usually don't need each and every link in my browsing history, and it also means that my proper Firefox doesn't get filled up with random tabs that I didn't close out of properly.
Do you have a source for that? I see this and things like "Klar has the telemetry turned off by default" thrown around everywhere, but then other people again saying that there's no difference beside the name.
And while I assume, the F-Droid devs actual did do some research, I'm not aware of German privacy laws being so strict that proprietary dependencies or telemetry would have to be taken out. (Klar is the localized version for German-speaking countries.)
Also, I was able to use Firefox Focus on my phone and I don't have the Google Play Services installed, which doesn't say much, but that's what I assumed people meant with that.
* https://gitlab.com/fdroid/rfp/issues/235 * https://gitlab.com/fdroid/fdroiddata/merge_requests/2363
Basically, Focus uses GMS and Analytics. The telemetry is free software, but it is disabled by default for Klar (from what I can tell).