> * use anonymous/private/porn mode browsing most of the time (except for sites I actually want to be logged in permanently)

instead of this, I just use Firefox and use the Multi-Account Container function to separate my browsing

The following command can be handy for one-off sessions. It won't interfere with your already-running instance of Firefox and uses a random profile in /tmp (which you can still monkey with if needed).

  firefox -no-remote -profile $(mktemp -d)

Interesting idea. I should give Firefox another try.

(I'm also using Fluid for self-contained Facebook browsing, I suppose that would then become unnecessary).

If you use Chrome, none of the steps you listed matter as far as protecting yourself from Google. I used to use Chrome until it really struck home with me what the incentives are for the world's biggest web advertising company to own the world's most popular web browser in a world where over-the-wire auto-updates are commonplace.

yeah, it's a pity, I hear Chrome is a good browser, but since it's from Google, there's just no way I'd touch it.

There's Chromium (ungoogled Chrome, or rather the other way around I think?) and Chromium-based forks. E.g. Brave is pretty good.

There is a separate Facebook Container extension if you only need to contain FB browsing (that's basically a single container extension)

Firefox is great on desktop, but I've found it too slow and clumsy on mobile, sadly.

Opposite for me. I use Chromium on Desktop and Firefox on mobile. Firefox Focus for everyday's browsing, and Firefox Mobile for long term sessions (I have 200 opened tabs of hacker new on Firefox Mobile, it's ridiculous)

Plus, Adblock extensions on Firefox Mobile work great.

But with the ad-blocker installed, you get a bonus speed boost that doesn't apply to the other browsers...

That's why I use Brave on mobile.

I like Bromite on Android.

try Firefox Quantum in the phone. it's super slick and I've really been digging it. the workflow is the for everyone but because it supports 1pass filling the constant clear doesn't feel that bad

whoops, Firefox Focus

Great list! You forgot to mention the browser, I personally use FF and have grown to like it though I miss Chrome occasionally.

>long ago switched to different email for main email, and forwarded gmail account to it (nobody uses it anymore).

Neat! How do you set up auto forwarding with gmail?

Either Firefox is awful on windows or Chrome has something really great that I've totally missed.

Chrome on Linux is just all kinds of unpleasant, it's not even possible to use it at all with my current distro. I don't understand how everyone seems to like it so much.

When I first started using Linux day-to-day, Firefox, at least for me, was an absolute nightmare and didn't run well. I've switched to Vivaldi (Chromium-based, very power-user / I-never-want-to-move-my-hand-to-the-other-input-device friendly) for the moment, but I might just switch to Firefox again, I hadn't heard about the Multi-Account-Container feature, and that might just push me over the edge.

I've switched to FF and am mostly happy but for some reason it's terrible for videos. I'll get long hangups that never happen if I watch the same video on chrome

You can set up a filter to match all emails and have them forwarded to another address. There may even be a specific forwarding setting somewhere in Gmail.

* Replace stock android with LineageOS if your phone is on the list of supported devices [1]. It has worked great for me.

[1]https://wiki.lineageos.org/devices/

Their “April Fools” jokes made me realize the devs think my phone was just a toy and not a tool. Not that they owe me anything. Made me switch immediately to iOS.

I agree. Contemplating the switch myself - iPhone SE is pretty cheap nowadays.

That's nice but a huge chunk of android has been moved into google's closed source "play services." It's pretty much impossible for the average person to have a functioning phone without that, they don't even maintain the open source mail client any more.

I've used it for a year without Google play services.

The basic OS utilites (camera, SMS, file manager, "phone" app, etc) are part of the Lineage base and don't need play services. You can also install f-droid which has a good variety of open source apps, including mail clients.

I even installed Whatsapp (downloaded the apk from whatsapp's website), which doesn't require play services.

Now, I don't think LineageOS is for the "average person", its for people who care about their privacy and like having control of their device, but you don't need to be some sort of long-bearded hacker to be able to use it.

> I even installed Whatsapp

This just switches being tracked by Google to being tracked by Facebook. They now have names, times, numbers, etc of people you talk to/interact with, as well as your rough location via IP, access point, or cell tower (which are shared with people who have location services enabled).

That's fine. The point the parent is making is that you can use whatsapp without google play services if you want to. This is not a given for a lot of other apps.

Same here, but I added Nextcloud in the basement for dropbox/google-drive/caldav/carddav/webmail.

I do still have an Android phone (Lineage), I tried without play services... I gave up after 1 day.

> * use tracking blocker (uBlock origin, BlockBear on iOS)

You could also use Firefox Focus in iOS. It comes with a built-in ad/content/tracker blocker. Since content blockers are common to all browsers on iOS (everything using Safari/WebKit underneath), it would help other browsers too.

> use Youtube either in private window, and/or download content with youtube-dl

You can play youtube directly in major video players (mpv, vlc), at least on linux. Although, afaik, they use youtube-dl in the background.

don't forget about fingerprinting:

https://amiunique.org/fp

Any defence possible, short of using Tor permanently?