How Should I Set Up Privacy and Security on Firefox?

martindow

I am using Firefox v88 as my browser on a Windows 10 computer. What do you recommend I do in settings?

Currently I have it set as strict - is this best?  Should I also opt for https-only mode?

On many websites I get a box inviting me to accept cookies where it is always easiest to click accept all rather than scrolling down to change cookie settings.  If I click accept all cookies will that over-ride my settings in FF or will they be blocked whatever option I click on these sites?

ann_droid

Hi
The BRAVE browser is an off-shoot of FireFox and is IMHO a better option.

[Deleted User]

martindow said:

I am using Firefox v88 as my browser on a Windows 10 computer. What do you recommend I do in settings?

Currently I have it set as strict - is this best?  Should I also opt for https-only mode?

On many websites I get a box inviting me to accept cookies where it is always easiest to click accept all rather than scrolling down to change cookie settings.  If I click accept all cookies will that over-ride my settings in FF or will they be blocked whatever option I click on these sites?

Totally depends on your usage and personal preferences, there is no single "best" setting that suits everyone which is why there are choices built in - what are you concerned with and what do you want to achieve?

The stricter privacy and security settings will mean that some websites won't work correctly, probably not the mainstream ones but there will be some that won't work. If you are happy to deal with that inconvenience or generally only use mainstream internet then that will probably work for you.

https only mode - again most websites use this by default so feel free to enable it and see how it works for you.

Cookies - In strict mode FF will confine the cookies for use only by that website to prevent 3rd party websites using them so you can safely click accept but still have further privacy.

This is a good guide that talks through the various settings to help you choose:

https://restoreprivacy.com/firefox-privacy/

Personally I'm more concerned with blocking malicious sites and malware than the privacy options, I do think people get carried away with the privacy thing - your browser isn't really leaking personally identifiable data, it is often just a unique fingerprint of sites you have visited and searches you have made in order to tailor advertising and one of the downsides is that adverts and recommendations won't be relevant to you if you are blocking all tracking.

forgotmyname

Set it high and lower it when you get fed up of websites not working, the sites you use may all be fine on strict.

I use UBlock Origin and NoScript.  NoScript blocks everything and shows what the website is trying to load
in the background. Although I use it myself its probably too much hassle for the average user.

PRAISETHESUN

I tried NoScript but it blocked too much stuff by default - it got annoying after a while having to manually opt into everything so I ditched it. Outside of that I just use UBlock Origin andPrivacy Badger, and use a VPN when I'm visiting especially dodgy sites

forgotmyname

Totally agree NoScript is rather OTT for most users. I find it interesting to know what websites try to load in the
background.

Plenty of sneaky websites that load another URL in very very briefly as the page you actually want to see loads.

I wonder if that will be on the cards next where websites need to declare where they are forwarding your data
to on the way to the actual website?

ie. typekit.net.  The website uses typekit for the fonts but that may allow them tracking for all posts made using
their fonts. Does the website need to alert users that another company maybe collecting data beside the
websites own tracking?  Lots of websites use typekit.

Neil_Jones

forgotmyname said:

I wonder if that will be on the cards next where websites need to declare where they are forwarding your data
to on the way to the actual website?

ie. typekit.net.  The website uses typekit for the fonts but that may allow them tracking for all posts made using
their fonts. Does the website need to alert users that another company maybe collecting data beside the
websites own tracking?  Lots of websites use typekit.

For some websites its a key prerequisite to forward you onto somewhere else, like cashback sites for example.  Its how they work.

Re: typekit, no different a scenario to Google Analytics or external webstat tracking technology.  Or anything else that's loaded in remotely like frameworks or Google Fonts/external fonts.  The ability to for websites in only appear in Verdana, Arial or Times New Roman went out the window years ago.  Now they can in Impact or Gill Sans or whatver God awful font you want.  Knock up a website in Wingdings?  You got it.

Anyway the whole internet thing is based on interconnectivity to some degree, even if its only to show adverts.  That's the way this cookie crumbles.  Realistically the declaration of what loads what from where is what your website privacy policy is for.  Which I dare say most people don't bother reading.  The cookie notifications is just another irritant to most people.  Anyway if people had to explicitly agree to every connection to every external website that you connected to in the first place calls, the entire system is dead on its knees and nobody would be able to do anything in peace online.

martindow

Thanks all.  In answer to what I want to achieve, I don't really know.  It just seemed wise to restrict things as much as possible.

If I click agree to all when a site asks for permission on cookies will that over-ride the settings in Firefox? 

Neil_Jones

martindow said:

Thanks all.  In answer to what I want to achieve, I don't really know.  It just seemed wise to restrict things as much as possible.

If I click agree to all when a site asks for permission on cookies will that over-ride the settings in Firefox? 

No because the browser takes priority.  There wouldn't be any point in having the settings in Firefox if the web site just did what it wanted cookie wise.  Note that it doesn't matter what you set in Firefox, the websites will still ask permission to set them (there are extensions to cut a significant chunk of this nagging out) when you first visit.  Also if cookies are cleared you'll get asked about them again when you come back.

There is nothing dangerous about cookies.  They are just basically little text files.  The main issue with them from a privacy point of view if you go to a website and search for sausages for example, you can go to another website and its adverts could show you adverts for sausages because you searched for sausages on the first site - that information is stored in the cookie which the second site can read - technically an ad server is another site as far as the system is concerned.

forgotmyname

If you want to block as much as possible install NoScript, although your likely to get fed up really quickly

and uninstall or disable it.

martindow

As you can tell from my naive questions I don't really know what i am doing, but now have it set as strict and https-only.  So far all is well with no problems.  Thanks everyone - your comments and advice have been very helpful.