As open source as Android is, it is very difficult to find a decent browser, let alone one that is privacy focused and also usable on daily.

  • Almost all web searches point to site that shows stuff like : Chrome, Edge, Opera…etc. So this doesnt help.

  • Play Store is full of shitty browsers. If you skip the usual DDG, Chrome, Edge, Opera…etc then you will see either:

a) browsers from random Chinese company (Via, UC Browser)

or b) browser that is coupled with other products, e.g. a video downloader with built in browser.

  • After the recent fiasco with Firefox and their ToS, I saw a lot of posts saying IronFox / Water Fox is better. I’ve never heard of these Foxes variants before.

So I tried the following on Android:

  • DDG: only good if you do basic search. It lacks a good adblocker. So very annoying if you are on a site with shit tons of popups.

  • Brave: not a fan of the in your face AI tools. Overall it works ok though

  • The Foxes variants: IronFox seems to be very good on privacy. It has its own DNS and most of the security is on by default. However, same as all Foxes, IronFox just doesnt play well on Android. There is a slight lag when you try to switch tabs.

  • TOR: This would be the safest. But the poorest in terms of usability.

  • Chrome w/o account or Chrome run from private space. Surprisingly, Chrome is still the one browser that runs the smoothest…

Any input is appreciated.

  • haui@lemmy.giftedmc.com
    0·
    20 days ago

    Android is not open source in its final form. The base is open source. First step to privacy is checking if you can use something like lineageos or graoheneos. They both include android open source project (aosp) as a base and build on top. Graphene only works on pixel phones and lineage has a variety of phones you can put it on. Dont install play services and use fdroid for most apps. Some apps you will need aurora (play store but anonymous) which is a last resort.

    I use fennec on lineageos which works quite well. I have ublock (recommend) and noscript (optional because pretty drastic).

    Let me know if you need more help.

  • MangoPenguin@lemmy.blahaj.zoneEnglish
    0·
    24 days ago

    Also on IronFox and it’s solid.

    If you already use Brave on desktop then that works fine too and syncs your data. Not a huge fan of the crypto/AI stuff in the browser, but the security/privacy aspect of the browser is good.

    • Novaling@lemmy.zipEnglish
      0·
      24 days ago

      Gonna be real, Firefox with some settings changed + uBlock/Librewolf + uBlock is Brave, and even better honestly. Brave has whitelisted some trackers on sites, and they also will break a site while not giving you a chance to find the one tracker breaking the site, forcing you to turn the entire shield off, defeating the purpose. Meanwhile, uBlock with advanced settings on will allow you to still block anything unnecessary to letting the site do basic functions.

  • PortNull@lemmy.dbzer0.com
    0·
    24 days ago

    I use IronFox and have no qualms. Vandium on graphene is also popular. Buy apart from that I can’t offer up much more

  • kyub@discuss.tchncs.deEnglish
    0·
    24 days ago
    • Tor browser for anonymous/private regular browsing (without logging into personally-identifiable accounts)
    • Vanadium (GrapheneOS’ Chromium-based browser, maybe it’s usable on non-GrapheneOS as well?) in combination with a good crap-blocking DNS server
    • Brave is decent but has some bad default settings, can probably be configured to behave well (similar to regular Firefox)
    • Firefox + forks are generally not that great (at least on Android?) because their sandboxing capabilities (and maybe other security features) are weaker compared to those of Chromium-based browsers. See also: https://grapheneos.org/usage#web-browsing
    • Commercial browsers like Chrome, Edge, Opera, and so on all contain loads of on-by-default-spyware and should never be used
  • Stillwater@sh.itjust.works
    0·
    24 days ago

    Currently on mobile I run DDG for primary uses, and Tor browser occasionally when I want extra privacy, but it is too slow to use for everything. DDG is fine IMO. It’s simple and I like the default “always incognito” approach it has. I have no issues using their search and tend to avoid sites littered with ads anyway.

    I refuse to use any chromium descended browser anymore, so stuff like Brave is out. I would be interested in migrating to some libre-like version of firefox, but haven’t figured out what that would be yet from the options that are out there. I would want something that can let me always be incognito, block all trackers, not store history or cookies, etc… so basically DDG.

  • Ulrich@feddit.orgEnglish
    0·
    24 days ago

    It sounds like you’ve come to the correct conclusion that no browser is best. I use Brave.

  • Ardens@lemmy.ml
    0·
    24 days ago

    I use 3 browsers on my android devices. All 3 on all of them. That’s Firefox as the primary, and then Firefox Focus, and Firefox Nightly.

    In the primary Firefox browser, I use uBlock Origin.

    I have no lag - so why you talk about “all foxes” here, I don’t really know. Maybe you do know that Google, Like MS, Apple and others, always try to make it harder to use anything else, than their solution?

  • verdigris@lemmy.ml
    0·
    23 days ago

    Firefox. They’re still great, people keep freaking out over extremely benign changes.

  • FriendBesto@lemmy.ml
    0·
    23 days ago

    Librewolf on PC, or Tor, if you want to go full on; And Ironfox on Android. Use LibRedirect as a search provider and if you use Searxing, it will rotate all your searches to different instances every time.