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Useful Firefox extenstions to help protect yourself online

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I use Firefox as my main browser. I like it, I'm sure chrome is just as good but for me Firefox just works.

I use the Firefox account and sync. My bookmarks and plugins are synced between my browsers and I like it. I can send a page to a browser on another machine, so if I see something on my phone that is work related I can send it to my work browser, or just to a bigger screen.

I also like some plugins to make my browsing easier and "safer" so I thought I would list what I'm currently using.

The keyword shortcuts are nice to, so typing Control-L, to get to the URL bar, then something like "ha" and hit return takes me to my _HomeAssistant page. Quick and simple.

There is also some basic tracking protection built in to firefox, it can block some of the obvious stuff and I have that set to the high level.

uBlock Origin - Spam Blocker

https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/ublock-origin/

This does most of the spam and tracking blocking. It seems to work quite well at removing a lot of the noise. I have PiHole at home but this works on the move as well. There is a choice of lists to block but I mostly just used the defaults. It works for looking for objects in the page that look like spam and stopping the browser loading them. This has two benefits, firstly you don't get to see the advert but also it limits the tracking that happens as you move across the web. ( I know it's not stopping that completely but it helps)

HTTPS Everywhere

https://www.eff.org/https-everywhere

This does what it says. When you type in a URL it makes sure you go to the https version of that page and not the http version so you are encrypted from the get-go. It works in two modes, by default it has a list of known https sites that it automatically switches for but you can turn it up to do all sites. I am currently using the all sites mode and it's amazing how many sites don't have https.

This is useful when you are on public networks so people can't read the traffic that goes between your browser and the sites it visits. It will also block, to some extent, people diverting you off to a fake site as the SSL certificate now has to match the DNS entry.

Containers. General, facebook, google and temporary.

I have put these together as they are all part of the same concept. I have used the multi-account-containers for a bit and it allows me to have some sites separate across the web. It's also useful to log into sites twice, so work and home accounts etc.

The facebook and google containers log you out of the sites in the main browser then, whenever you visit facebook, Instagram, Google etc it moves you to a new container that blocks some of the tracking. They also stop some of the tracking links from loading on pages that try to load a facebook icon so facebook can't log you are visiting that page. I rarely log into facebook but I like that this makes them respect that :)

Temporary containers can be useful for testing logins etc. You only get one private browser mode but this lets you pop up another container and login as a new user as many times as you want to.

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