this post was submitted on 13 Mar 2025
10 points (85.7% liked)

Privacy

5351 readers
63 users here now

A community for Lemmy users interested in privacy

Rules:

  1. Be civil
  2. No spam posting
  3. Keep posts on-topic
  4. No trolling

founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
iopq@lemmy.world
10
Recommended Firefox alternative(s) for Android (reddthat.com)
submitted 1 day ago by sunset@reddthat.com to c/privacy@lemmy.world
29 comments fedilink hide all child comments
 

Recently there has been controversy around Mozilla Firefox.

I've been looking for an alternative but really struggling, seems like every alternative has a downside:

  • Vivaldi: Uses some proprietary code and likely not doing much better on the user data side of things, also based on Chromium.

  • Tor: Uses Tor protocol and so is quite slow, my ISP would probably also think I'm a drug lord.

  • Fennec: Basically looks the same as Firefox but guessing less up to date, F-Droid has a warning about it's using Mozilla services for tracking.

What are you guys using? Have you found anything good?

top 29 comments
sorted by: hot top controversial new old
[–] sonalder@lemmy.ml 4 points 16 hours ago (1 children)

So currently this is my recommendation for web browsers for Android.

Chromium based (best for security on Android)

  • brave, disable cryptocrap, telemetry sponsor background and you're pretty much good to go.
  • cromite, an active fork of bromite which is basically an upgrade of ungoogled chromium
  • Vanadium, if you are using GrapheneOS

Firefox based browser (none support per-site isolation as of today)

  • IronFox, a active fork of Mull, basically the most harden FF flavor on Android
  • Fennec, basically a fully libre FF flavor
[–] CrayonRosary@lemmy.world 1 points 8 hours ago* (last edited 8 hours ago)

How do you feel about DDG browser? It's another chrome based option. I've been using it when the some rare website won't work in a Firefox fork, and I'm curious to hear other people's opinions about it.

I like their free email forwarding service for throwaway accounts. Obviously, they aren't private in any way.

[–] sic_semper_tyrannis 6 points 1 day ago (3 children)

IronFox is similar to what Mull was and similar-ish to fennec. You can also try Brave or Vanadium if you wish to go Chromium

[–] TuxEnthusiast@sopuli.xyz 5 points 1 day ago (1 children)

+1 for IronFox

[–] TIN@feddit.uk 1 points 1 day ago

+2, using it as my daily over vanadium

[–] Rose@lemmy.zip 4 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (1 children)

Switching from Firefox to Chromium because of the latest Mozilla policy changes is insane. Google is ten times worse in every relevant aspect.

[–] dukethorion@lemmy.world 2 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Brave and Vanadium remove the google telemetry. Next complaint?

[–] Rose@lemmy.zip 3 points 1 day ago (1 children)

If telemetry is the problem, the rational thing to do is to use a fork/build of Firefox without the telemetry, not support the Google monopoly or go for browsers that have had potentially problematic privacy policies for a lot longer than Firefox.

[–] sonalder@lemmy.ml 1 points 16 hours ago

The issue is that any firefox-based browser on Android lack of per-site isolation unlike chromium browser. It's a security issue that Mozilla doesn't seem interested in fixing. And it does impact every fork such as IronFox (previously Mull)

I am mainly using Firefox engine on all my computers but on Android I am using either Vanadium when on GrapheneOS and a tweaked brave when not.

For me personnaly it has nothing to do with supporting Google's monopoly on web tech or not. It's not about telemetry either, it is a security concern.

[–] sunset@reddthat.com 1 points 1 day ago (1 children)

I think I might give IronFox a go, just a bit weary as never heard of it before, not sure who is the owner of the project and where they are based, GitLab project only has ~125 stars.

Have you ever used the Accrescent app store? That's their recommended option for installing it.

[–] sic_semper_tyrannis 2 points 1 day ago (1 children)

I haven't used Acrescent but I believe it's made by the GrapheneOS team. It's focused on security, rather than totally FOSS programs.

[–] turtl@lemm.ee 3 points 1 day ago (2 children)

I'm pretty sure the Acrescent store is independent from Graphene OS - though they just seem to like the project so much they made it available in their own "App Store"

[–] sonalder@lemmy.ml 1 points 16 hours ago

Yes this is more correct. They wanted to provide to their user an alternative store that meets their security criteria so GOS users can download and install other apps safely.

[–] sic_semper_tyrannis 1 points 1 day ago

Gotcha

[–] LWD@lemm.ee 5 points 1 day ago

The nice thing about Fennec is you don't have to accept a Mozilla license to use it, and those Mozilla services are (AFAIK) disabled by default. In fact, when I look at their settings menu, there is no "data collection" section to speak of.

The not-so-nice thing about Fennec is a little while back, it just didn't receive any updates. For something like a month.

Just about every browser that's based on Firefox is going to be slower to update than mainline Firefox, with perhaps the exception of Tor and Mullvad because they work hand in hand.

[–] Smokeydope@lemmy.world 5 points 1 day ago

I've been sticking with Ironfox as much as I can. It took up the mantle of Mull so Its based off fennec but got the security locked down and mozillas telemetry ripped out. Of course this means some websites don't play nice so I need to occasionally use a less hardened browser like firefox or kiwi(chromium based that can install any desktop extension). You should be used to that situation if you've used a hardened browser before though.

If I recall right you don't need to use the Tor network on the Tor browser. disconnect from the network and see if you can use it as a regular clear web browser. Also your ISP don't give a fuck whether you use TOR or a VPN, in fact they probably prefer it. As long as you pay them each month and they aren't getting calls from DMCA laywers or Feds running a honey pot they dont give a fuck. Apparently Its when you start torrenting gigabytes of data off of cellular network that they start getting pissed.

[–] Flagstaff@programming.dev 1 points 1 day ago

Waterfox has been great.

[–] 3aqn5k6ryk@lemmy.world 2 points 1 day ago

Fennec cause it got cute little mascot

[–] B0NK3RS@lemmy.world 2 points 1 day ago

I'm using Vivaldi and I'd recommend it. Obviously nothing is perfect, and especially browsers, but I'd implore you to look further in to it.

[–] Sophocles@infosec.pub 2 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Iceraven is my go to, been using it for about a year now. It works great

[–] sunset@reddthat.com 2 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Interesting, seems you have to download the .apk directly from their repo though, rather than any store. So I'm guessing there's no automatic updates?

[–] Sophocles@infosec.pub 1 points 18 hours ago (2 children)

Yeah, but I see it as a pro and a con. With previous browsers I used like Mull, Fennec and Bromite, the store versions usually lagged behind, usually due to FDroid shenanigans, and downloading it from the source eliminates the middleman. While it is more work, I do use my browser for many important things, so I feel like it's worth it for my use case.

[–] sunset@reddthat.com 2 points 16 hours ago (1 children)

I just found out you can use Obtanium to make this process easy, you can just add the repo URL into the app.

[–] Sophocles@infosec.pub 2 points 15 hours ago

Very nice! I will look into using it

[–] sonalder@lemmy.ml 1 points 16 hours ago

Are you using Obtanium ? RSS Feed ? Or the app notify you and you manually download and install the update ?

[–] novacomets@lemmy.myserv.one 1 points 1 day ago (1 children)

After looking for a browser without anti-features, I have settled on using FREE Browser

[–] Kess8a@lemy.lol 1 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Isn't that one chromium based?

--From my experience of using it

[–] novacomets@lemmy.myserv.one 0 points 1 day ago

It is a libre web browser, that's all I care about.

[–] sunset@reddthat.com 1 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

Just seen another post on Lemmy about it.