I'm really surprised Google's lawyers let them proceed with ad-blocking given all the antitrust scrutiny. Not because it makes them more competitive with Firefox, but because it gives them a competitive advantage against other advertising agencies. (You know that if your ads are run through a Google service they're safe, but why risk using another service?)

The fatal flaw in Google's approach is that they're primarily focused on visible ad features instead of privacy concerns. I'd rather have an internet full of flashing highway billboards than the current privacy nightmare of today.

I'd be 1000x more inclined to turn off ad blocking if there was any transparency about the data being siphoned up.

More ad blocking isn't the answer. More transparency around data collection is.

> (You know that if your ads are run through a Google service they're safe, but why risk using another service?)

From what I understand, the Ad Blocker will work on a per-site basis, rather than a per-ad basis, i.e. if you have bad ads on your site, all ads are blocked in Chrome, including Google Ads.

Firefox for Android also has built-in tracking protection. This will only block ads that track you, but wink.

That's only default-enabled in Private Browsing, though.

To enable it in normal browsing, set "privacy.trackingprotection.enabled" to true in about:config.

You can also use Brave, which is based on the Chrome codebase so scrolling and rendering are smoother. I love Firefox but I just couldn't hack it on mobile.

Yeah, firefox has been a pretty abysmal experience for me on android, it's slow, scrolling is janky, it crashes almost every time I try to use it... it's just been a bad experience all around.

enabling protection from tracking and fingerprinting also speeds up browsing. kill 2 birds with one stone.

as mentioned elsewhere in the comments, it's a good idea to set up the default browser in android to use the maximum of privacy and security settings together with the uBlock Origin addin.

these urls provide some good starting points :

https://www.linuxfestnorthwest.org/2017/sessions/security-an...

https://www.privacy-handbuch.de/handbuch_21.htm

the 2nd url is in german but it has great tips (spurenarm surfen = surf without leaving traces)

I've used Firefox for the last 2 years on Android. In that time I've only had a couple of websites not work, probably because the Dev only tested with one browser. I've enjoyed browsing ad free and a couple of other features that Chrome didn't have at the time, like open tabs in the background when I click on links in other apps.

If you're willing to give Firefox another chance, it's a good time to do so. They've put a lot of effort into performance in the last few releases.

I'm also a regular Firefox-on-Android user, and the only thing I would criticize is that sometimes layouting of large sites gets the browser stuck for a few seconds (e.g. long HN threads with 100+ replies). I hope that gets better though when Stylo is enabled by default in a few versions.

You could also try the Firefox Focus which comes with inbuilt adblocker and tracking protection. However, it doesn't support multiple tabs and you lose all data every time you close the application. It's perfect for one off browsing sessions where you just want to look something up.

Personally, I have it set as my default browser, so that any links that I click on in other applications open up in it and then I also have my full-blown Firefox installed for when I need to do actual browsing.

Works out really well, as Focus starts up extremely quickly (uses the native Android Webview), and I usually don't need each and every link in my browsing history, and it also means that my proper Firefox doesn't get filled up with random tabs that I didn't close out of properly.

Dumb question, if Focus uses Android webview, Can google still track the webpages visited using focus. (i have clue on how the webview works)

No :)

Just did a scan of the Focus source and I don't see it using the native Android webview -- it appears to use Gecko.

Note that if you're using FDroid it's called "Firefox Klar" (the upstream Focus depends on proprietary Google stuff, while Klar works without it). Note though that it has telemetry features (which are off by default for the FDroid APK).

> (the upstream Focus depends on proprietary Google stuff, while Klar works without it)

Do you have a source for that? I see this and things like "Klar has the telemetry turned off by default" thrown around everywhere, but then other people again saying that there's no difference beside the name.

And while I assume, the F-Droid devs actual did do some research, I'm not aware of German privacy laws being so strict that proprietary dependencies or telemetry would have to be taken out. (Klar is the localized version for German-speaking countries.)

Also, I was able to use Firefox Focus on my phone and I don't have the Google Play Services installed, which doesn't say much, but that's what I assumed people meant with that.

This comes from the FDroid discussions (you can probably find more with some quick searching):

* https://gitlab.com/fdroid/rfp/issues/235 * https://gitlab.com/fdroid/fdroiddata/merge_requests/2363

Basically, Focus uses GMS and Analytics. The telemetry is free software, but it is disabled by default for Klar (from what I can tell).

What about the Firefox Klar app available on the Google Play store ? It's incompatible with my devices(according to play store). Does it also have telemetry switched off by default ? What other difference does it have compared to the Firefox Focus app on the play store ?

I think Firefox Klar is only available in Germany on the Play Store. Focus has telemetry off by default but it still uses GMS and Google Analytics.

I did the same, along with switching over to DuckDuckGo. Mobile web works fine when you block all the crap.

I've used Firefox mobile with ublock for over a year and have just recently switched to Brave. Just give it a try - it's worth it!

yeah, if you don't mind having by far the slowest browser around unable of such basic thing as pull down to refresh