I am trying to get better with my privacy, and I specifically want to try and avoid big US tech where possible. I know they there are many people saying you should use multiple browsers for better privacy and all that stuff, but I’m also being realistic with myself - I just want a solid browser experience that has decent privacy and i can live with that for the most part. Not opposed to maybe 2 browsers, but I’d like one daily driver, especially for work.
I do a lot of social media management and am using the Steam backend daily as I work for a game studio. I need to use YouTube and Bluesky and all those things, so it needs to handle media.
I’m running Vivaldi at the moment after jumping off Chrome. I don’t need to use Chromium. I was trialing Orion on my Mac but I use a Linux machine at home, a windows PC sometimes at work, having something across all would be nice and once again I know that is not 100% privacy, but it’s better than the average user.
Advice would be super appreciate.
If you want a privacy-focused Chromium browser with no Google stuff and also one that has extensions then, check out Cromite.
If you want a privacy focused browser which runs the most smoothly out of all privacy focused browsers and is the best one for simple people, I suggest Brave. (sadly it’s a US product)
And there’s always the Firefox forks, I would recommend these: Iceraven Browser, Fennec, WebLibre, IronFox. I would suggest IronFox and the most here since it’s the best one for privacy and doesn’t need any more hardening since it’s mostly fully hardened out-of-the-box. This is specifically for Android. If on desktop, you can check out LibreWolf, Mullvad Browser, Zen Browser etc. I recommend LibreWolf the most here.
Main advice: Every browser has pros and cons. You have to use each one and figure out the best browser for yourself. For example, Brave is greatly hardened out-of-the-box and every site runs very smoothly. So, great convenience. But sadly, it’s a US product! Cromite has no Google stuff and runs smoothly too, but it’s not hardened out-of-the-box. You have to manually add filter lists to improve your experience. IronFox is greatly hardened out-of-the-box, but it’s sometimes too hardened that sites break or behave weirdly. And sites also don’t run as smoothly as it runs on Chromium browsers (this happens for any Firefox browser at all, especially on Android)
Optional but recommended tip: Check out Celenity and his guides. You can also check out his Recommendations for services you use