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Comment by whoami_nr | Hacker News Reader

You could also try the Firefox Focus which comes with inbuilt adblocker and tracking protection. However, it doesn't support multiple tabs and you lose all data every time you close the application. It's perfect for one off browsing sessions where you just want to look something up.

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Personally, I have it set as my default browser, so that any links that I click on in other applications open up in it and then I also have my full-blown Firefox installed for when I need to do actual browsing.

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.

Dumb question, if Focus uses Android webview, Can google still track the webpages visited using focus. (i have clue on how the webview works)

No :)

Just did a scan of the Focus source and I don't see it using the native Android webview -- it appears to use Gecko.

Note that if you're using FDroid it's called "Firefox Klar" (the upstream Focus depends on proprietary Google stuff, while Klar works without it). Note though that it has telemetry features (which are off by default for the FDroid APK).

> (the upstream Focus depends on proprietary Google stuff, while Klar works without it)

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.

This comes from the FDroid discussions (you can probably find more with some quick searching):

* 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).

What about the Firefox Klar app available on the Google Play store ? It's incompatible with my devices(according to play store). Does it also have telemetry switched off by default ? What other difference does it have compared to the Firefox Focus app on the play store ?

I think Firefox Klar is only available in Germany on the Play Store. Focus has telemetry off by default but it still uses GMS and Google Analytics.

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