Starter Kit to browse Web in 2024/2025 (Must-have)

I'd actually recommend consent-o-matic instead of IDCAC. It actually selects the minimum concent for you instead of just hiding it.

EDIT: Ignore my blind confidence. CAD is (mostly) broken in recent FF versions. (See ivn's reply to this post).

Consent-o-Matic with Cookie Auto Delete and Firefox's Multi-Account Container tabs covers it all nicely for me.

Cookie banners get handled, cookies I don't explicitly want to keep automatically disappear when I leave the site/close the tab, and those I do want to keep can be given their own containers to keep them separated.
- Cookie autodelete doesn't work with strict mode and you should use strict mode. Just drop it.
  
  You don't need an extension to auto remove cookies with Firefox.
I use uBlock Origin's picker mode instead. It lets you select which element you want block. It works on other annoying notices, popus and annoying stuff not just cookie notices
- clicking the cookie notice away with the picker mode doesn’t mean the cookies don’t apply.
I use that one on iOS. In Firefox I use the native functionality (the cookiebanners.service.mode flag). See https://community.mozilla.org/en/campaigns/firefox-cookie-banner-handling/. I also set cookiebanners.ui.desktop.enabled to true to make this setting appear in the settings menu.
- I didn't know it was native too!

Drop IDCAC and Privacy Badger, add consent-o-matic, sponsorblock and bypass paywall clean.

Check Arkenfox for Firefox config and extension recommendations.

https://github.com/arkenfox/user.js/wiki/4.1-Extensions

Only use temp mails for unimportant, one-shot account, otherwise use an email relay.

It's insane how big a fight we have to put to JUST surf the damn Internet.
Why drop privacy badger? It's been working well for me.
- Because it doesn't bring anything more than Firefox in strict mode and uBlock Origin.
Ok any tips on how to manage email addresses to minimize their exposure and spam?
- Yeah, use an email relay service like Firefox Relay, SimpleLogin, the one from Proton if you have an account with them (that's SimpleLogin behind)…
  
  You can create email aliases, that will relay the email to your main address. Create a new alias for each website so they can't use your email address to correlate your identity and you can close it anytime, you can even configure an alias to only allow a set amount of messages and auto-close afterward.
- Addy.io gives you email aliases as not to expose your actual email address. Everything gets funnelled into a single inbox of your choosing still. And the great thing is that if you use a unique email alias for all services, you know instantly who leaked your email address if you start getting spam. :D
- Don't give out your email to spammers. Most legitimate businesses might send quite a lot of mail, but it's very often easy to unsubscribe so do that.
What about Decentraleyes?
- Arkenfox put it in the "Don't bother" list: https://github.com/arkenfox/user.js/wiki/4.1-Extensions#-dont-bother
There is also I still don't care about cookies
- I don't see its usefulness, uBlock Origin's "Cookie Notices" list does the same thing.
  
  For consent forms consent-o-matic is better, IDCAC / ISDCAC was not created for this.
It looks like bypass paywalls clean was actually taken down recently. Apparently mozzila recieved a copyright claim and it was taken down as a normal part of that process :/
- https://gitflic.ru/user/magnolia1234

DONT use the "I Don't Care About Cookies" plugin. It was sold to Avast. The same company that stole users information and sold it ON A PRIVACY PRODUCT illegally for years causing them to get sued for 16 million. (slap on the wrist tbh)

https://www.i-dont-care-about-cookies.eu/whats-new/acquisition/

https://www.theverge.com/2024/2/22/24080135/avast-security-privacy-software-ftc-fine-data-harvesting

Why would someone use that instead of uBlock origin cookie filter?

Its really best to keep browser extensions as few as possible for fingerprinting resistance

To OP/readers you're OK with extensions this would be a better pick imo (read installation instructions)

https://github.com/bpc-clone?tab=repositories
- Why would someone use that instead of uBlock origin cookie filter?
  
  Not using the addon, but I simply didn’t know uBlock can do that.
Oh yeah, I gotta get rid of Avast, it keeps flagging things that straight up aren't viruses, what's a good alternative?
- iirc Windows Defender does a decent job. However, if you are a JavaScript developer, try to add node_modules to the exceptions, unless you don't care much about the performance hit.
  
  I personally have stopped running antivirus on Windows a couple years ago. Since I run most, if not all, untrusted software in VMs, I didn't see the point of wasting performance. On the host, I only run Firefox and Steam/Epic games.
  
  I then moved to Linux and I have 2 GPUs; one for the host and one for VMs with games. But that's probably a different story.
Use fork, https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/istilldontcareaboutcookies/
- No, use consent-o-matic, which is even configurable and thus better in every way.

Privacy badger is not longer needed IIRC, its role is taken care by uBlock.

IDCAC should not be on this list since it was compromised, ABP-style. consent-o-matic is probably better but the most direct replacement is "I Still Don't Care About Cookies".

Doesn't the "EasyList/uBO – Cookie Notices" filter in uBlock's settings do the same thing as IDCAC / consent-o-matic?
- Cookie notices and consent forms are two different things. The first comes from the ePrivacy Directive while the second comes from the GDPR. Consent forms are not only about cookies, the law doesn't even specify cookies and it's often using confusing phrasing (like "allow to use personal data collected through cookies or other means").
- iI think consentomatic scripts the opt-out interaction. idcac probably just hides the popup.

UBO can block YT ads, no need to use a seperate ad blocker for YT

I use uBlock Origin on Firefox and I've never even seen the semblance of an ad.

Are you using Chrome, and have they implemented V3, yet?
- Currently V3 is in Canary channel or maybe in Beta but surely not (yet) in the stable version.
Sponsorblock to auto skip sponsor segments, or even non music parts of music on YouTube. Or interaction reminders, or end credits, etc can make it a little bit how you want it

Sigh

Invidious hasn't been working for most of this year, so this doesn't seem like a 2024 guide.
Download jerboa
Why don't you download something like Voyager or Thunder from f-droid?
- I've really been enjoying Eternity (also available on f-droid)
Phone settings > Private DNS > set DNS provider host name to dns.adguard-dns.com.

Problem solved.
- Very easy for a majority of people.
  
  As an alternative, for those who want to dive in or have more control: Self host PiHole or AdGuard Home DNS. Either use WireGuard VPN and set the DNS manually, or setup a DoT/DoH service. Either way works.
Try out boost (for Lemmy), and if you like it there's a small one time payment option to support the Dev and remove ads
- Oh for sure. Sync offers that as well, I just haven't taken it up yet.

ublock origin has a cookie notice and nag filter that removes those.

go into the settings and turn on the annoyance filters, they are awesome.

Also FWIW you should care about cookies. That said, I use that filter in UBO but I'm wondering if using it is the same as hitting "reject all" or "accept all"? Does it even matter if you're using Firefox and thus isolating cookies regardless?
- My understanding is that most people use an extension to dismiss the cookie dialog if they're also deleting third party cookies, either with an extension/or a browser feature
  
  Though there is also consent-o-matic which is supposed to automatically decline all the cookies you can. Folks in this thread mentioned it, so now I'm giving that a try :)
- AFAIK as long as you don't click 'accept', you are good. I believe thats why they make these notices so obnoxious.

Shout out to pi-hole

What’s the upside down Z-Library icon in the lower left for YT?

Invidous
- Currently, it is recovering from attacks from Google. Only self-hosting works reliably at the moment..
Idk it's not NewPipe or Grayjay

Ublock origin already has privacy badger and no cookies functionality. Worst case nothing gets blocked. Also slower internet for you.

Go into uBO settings and then filters and enable all the non-language filters. You won't need privacy badger or that cookie addon anymore.

Another recommendation for YT:

SponsorBlock

It is Community-Based. Ppl (like you) mark timecodes from sponsor ads and if toggled on those will be skipped. You can whitelist channels as well if you want to.

150% better YT-experience!

If I'm going to see an ad, I do prefer sponsor ads over the injected YT ads. At least I can hope the content creators are getting paid directly for the ad.

I’m not saying my setup is any better, but it currently looks like this:

Firefox
UBO
SponsorBlock
Return YouTube Dislikes
DeArrow
Archive.ph

I’m open to suggestions if anybody knows any better alternatives. I’ve had mixed luck with services that filter out YouTube’s crap.

Be careful with using Privacy Badger and uBO together as it might get in each other's way. I had YouTube detect me having ad block until I paused Privacy Badger for YT.

Lemmy could be better…

Care to provide more information?
- it's a reddit competitor that lacks features of reddit, including: multireddits, hiding individual posts, card view that doesn't autoplay video, and more but I'm lazy.
- There's the features/app part already mentioned, but I also feel like there's few "discoverability". I'm glad Lemmy doesn't has a addicting algoritm, but it's also kind of hard to find new/diverse content that I like, and there's also some issues in the community, but there's unfortunately nothing to do about it.
- I don’t like the federation part of it
  
  I wish every instance was separate

NewPipe and FreeTube if you want YT subscriptions without ads

Addy.io or simplelogin for email account signups

Firefox Relay is another free email alias generator.
- Proton pass is another
And SmartTube for Android TV
Tubular is also good. It's NewPipe with dislikes + SponsorBlock
Invidious works cross device in the browser though. Handles subscriptions just fine.

On Iphone its the only proper option.

I do run my own service, ymmv using a public one.

Install the LibRedirect extension and fiddle a bit with the settings to automatically redirect to privacy respecting alternatives away from ad heavy sites.

If I can’t recover an account because I used temp mail

I just make another

Can't you re-use those emails? I use random email aliases almost everywhere, and I store them in bitwarden.
- You can re-use those but so does anyone, so you should consider those accounts as public.

I have yet to see unpaywall workk ever. All that site does is link you to free versions if legally available. So it does nothing. Bypass Paywalls clean sometimes works, but if you want non mainstream sites going to archive.today is the most reliable option.

I noticed archive websites sometimes skip the paywall
- Yeah, they are my most reliable anti paywall technology. wayback machine is down very often right now, but for the express porpuse of getting rid of paywalls archive.today works very well for me
I use https://ladder.nerdvpn.de/ and it works very well for me.

Shift + RClick to force the browser's native context menu instead of triggering a JavaScript event.

Ctrl + Shift + E (and then perhaps Ctrl + F5) to see URLs of resources.

CTRL+P

Dear god. My inner 90's kid wants this as a browser.

Invidious is it effectively dead

Who knows if they can actually gnd a workaround this time. They themselves where unsure about it.

When the alternative is dealing with the absolute horseshit quantity of ads that YouTube desperately wants to shovel down my throat, I'll take Invidious any day of the week.

It may not be in perfect condition but it's still good enough to use!
- Ublock origin blocks YouTube ads though
The public instances are useless at the moment.

The project isn't dead.

If you only care about a clean UI and no adds, just selt-host it. I'm doing it for a week now with no problems at all.

Google seems to have blocked all datacenter or cloud IPs from accessing YouTube.
- Hey, sorry for asking this here... I used to access public instances through a URL like this: https://redirect.invidious.io/watch?v=sTEm--FVNe0 and previously there'd be a long list of public instances, whereas now there are only 3-4. I assume this is due to Google's attacks. If you have a link available, can you direct me to a web page or discussion or something that explains exactly what's going on there? I'm interested in learning more about the technical details. Thanks.
works fine for me

Firefox actually has their version of tempmail built in now.

it's not like a tempmail it's like proxy email to hide your actual email. So if you sign up for spam the spam will reach your actual email.
- Duckduckgo's version is so much better. Unlimited aliases for free.
- Yeah, you can block that at any point though.
Really? I didn't know that! What is it called? How can I use it?
- Email Relay Mask. It just pops up when I right click an email sign up field. You have to sign into Firefox with an email because it forwards stuff to you, but you can tell it to prevent that just as soon as you've got your validation email.
  
  Link to see your current emails is: https://relay.firefox.com/accounts/profile/?

note that I don't care about cookies and Privacy badger is unnecessary when you have uBO. Also get Bypass Paywalls Clean though.

Anyone know if there is a proper solution to block ads on twitch? ublock doesn't work for me.

try something from the scripts section on here:
https://github.com/pixeltris/TwitchAdSolutions?tab=readme-ov-file
- A note: Some days it will not work and ads will go through. Don't panic. You only need to wait until the next day at most for this to get patched though. They've very good at keeping up!
Anything on Pixeltris' TwitchAdSolutions should work. I use the ublock filter and that works great.
I use one that works 90% of the time. I can't remember the exact name so I'll check when I get home but it's something like "Purple Adblocker".
VPN set to a country that doesn’t get served ads.

What's the one in the bottom left?

I have adblocked yt and pirated yt music on my phone, but those 1 minute ads between 1:50 songs on my tv are getting to me...bad.

I'm damn near ready to yeet the tv off the balcony.

I just use my tv as a big monitor, no way i would ever give my tv internet access
- Strong agree. I would pay more for a non-smart tv. They're probably all smart these days, aren't they? Ugh.
Pretty sure it's a chevron from stargate?
- Two figures on either side, praying beside a pyramid with the sun directly above it.
A Yeet Cannon is a fine solution to any TV. Personally I recommend a 12ga slug or buckshot for any and all TVs. There is nothing worth the effort to watch and even less worth paying for.

Books, books are where it's at these days. What is old has become new again!
- We're not allowed any firearms here, i could maybe 3d print one lol.
  
  I like a book every so often, but they don't play music all that well unfortunately.
Invideous. A Software that provides an alternative YouTube look/frontend. There are also people who host invideous instances as publicaly accessible websites. Sadly all the public instances have been blocked by youtube for about a month now. I hope there will be a fix soon.

there's some good shit in these comments that I need to come back to later.

Yeah I'm saving this thread this is good shit gotta check some of these innanet tips

If you want a usable mail for all your accounts that is also spam resistant, may I recommend https://port87.com

Or just buy a domain for like $12 and use it for catch-all email. My custom domain routes everything to a single inbox, and I can tailor the email address specifically to who/what I’m making an account for. And if I ever see spam hit that address, I can just set a rule to automatically spam anything that comes in at that address.

For example, maybe I sign up for a Target account using Target@[mydomain]. Then a few weeks later, I see spam addressed to Target@[mydomain]. I now know Target has sold my info, and I can automatically route everything addressed to Target@[mydomain] directly to spam. Now I have no more spam hitting my inbox, because it all automatically gets sent straight to spam.
- What happens if you need to place an order using your Target account. Wouldn't your receipt and shipping confirmation also go to that spam folder?
- Yeah, that’s fine. That would be a very manual process, whereas Port87 makes the process automatic. But, yeah, you get most of what Port87 offers that way, you just have to pay for it.

Also setting the browser to forget all cookies.

That's not necessarily that useful.
- It is to disable tracking across sessions, you can set exceptions

Bypass paywall clean Firefox is a really good addition as well

What is "No need YT ads" and the "Ctrl+P"?

Ctrl P is to print a page. The idea is you quickly press print before the paywall loads, so you can read the full article
- Pressing ESC works in some cases too. It stops loading the page
That’s ~~piped~~ invidious an alternative frontend for YT but Google has been cracking down on it so YMMV and ctrl+p prints a webpage in browser which used to work for circumventing paywalls but nowadays it’s not really a thing anymore

What's with the control+P thing? I have the same paywall bypasser thing right next to it and it just works automatically without needing a special command.

without an extension you can grab the whole page as a PDF before it loads the paywall. you can also use Ctrl+A and Ctrl+V or the reading view function :]
- Though some sites are getting smart enough to realize they can't just entirely offload access control to the client and don't give the full article text until you've jumped through whatever hoops they demand.

archive.is or archive.ph is what I use for getting past paywalls. If it’s a hard membership paywall there won’t be much you can do about it. If it’s just a splash screen, they work by removing the annoying stuff that prevents you from going further since they have to package the content for SEO. The archive sites basically grab that content as if they were going to index it for a search engine, but then they present it in human readable format instead.

Install Freetube (which has sponsorblock already), then get the FreeTube redirect addon

What's ctrl-p do?

It opens a PDF version of any webpage. It may break some elements, but often gives access to text hidden behind paywall popups.

sponsorblock, return youtube dislike

I've been using Ghostery for years now and I don't know whether or not it's still relevant.

It's not, use uBlock Origin.
I've seen people mention it was bought by an ad company or something

Ah, the beginner loadout.

If you don’t have this kit you will be bombarded to Temu’s ads!

The first thing I do after setting a new PC is install Firefox and UBO.

I might start using Firefox once it has proper multi-account/profile features like Chrome.

I recently tried it but it's such a hassle to set up and switch between them.

I was able to get my profiles set up like chrome eventually. I'll have to remember what I did and post back
- I did get multiple profiles, but it was still missing features that make it more accessible to work with like it does in Chrome.
  
  It's almost there, it just lacks a bunch of definite features that would streamline it and integrate it better into the UI.
- It's a little unintuitive, but it's there. I setup different browser instances to launch different profiles.
  
  https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/profile-manager-create-remove-switch-firefox-profiles?redirectslug=Managing+profiles&redirectlocale=en-US
You may want to try Zen Browser - a Firefox fork that includes a chrome-like multi-profile UI.

Who is Temu?

I believe LibreWolf is better than Firefox. Correct me if I'm wrong.

The burden of proof is on you to prove your claim, not on others to disprove you.
- Meh.
i actualy use both LibreWolf and Firefox
- I think I'm about to start doing that, honestly :/
id certainly hope so, if not then what's the point? It's a fork of firefox, meaning it is firefox but with extras.

Did not know Privacy Badger existed, it's going right on the must have corner

Nah, uBlock Origin is the must have, Privacy Badger doesn't bring anything more.
- Are you sure?

Thankfully I'm not very interesting so I can use Chrome. If someone wanna know what I'm up to they'd probably get bored and leave.

No one is going to read first hand what you are up to. It's just companies trying to automate pricing based on data they collect so they can up prices when you need something the most. That's just one simple example so you can understand but there are plenty of other things you can do with the collected data.

This is also important because they'll just straight up sell it to data brokers that'll aggregate it, make it searchable and sell access to it to just anybody. And even if you feel your are not an interesting target now you never know how it'll be in the futur, once the data is out you can't do much.
Big "I've got nothing to hide vibes"

https://www.404media.co/podcast-how-the-u-s-government-tracks-your-phone/

Just using the Brave browser takes care of a few of these by itself and without add-ons.