privacy/firefox/README.md

# Firefox

Make using the web more safe by disabling commonly used techniques and mechanism _without_ sacrificing usability.

Why Firefox? It provides high configurability, is open source and thus better to be reviewed by external security advisories.

Based on [https://www.privacy-handbuch.de/handbuch_21.htm](https://www.privacy-handbuch.de/handbuch_21.htm).

## Recommended extensions

Besides Firefox integrated anti-tracking mechanisms, it's still advised to install additional plugins to further enhance this.

* `uBlock Origin`: blocks ads and unwanted trackers
* `Neat url`: removes common parameters from pages (e.g. to identify you with something like `?os=windows&browser=chrome&version=86`)
* `Skip Redirect`: skips not needed redirects of pages
* `CanvasBlocker`: disallows canvas fingerprinting which would be able to identify your unique browser, heavily used in some JavaScript (web) APIs
* (optional and might lead to disfunction): `Cookie AutoDelete`: automatically deletes cookies during a session

**More**:
* Use a password manager and don't store or synchronize your passwords within internal browser functionality, e.g. `KeePassXC`
* Use `Invidious` instances for a liberated YouTube experience (a proxy to YouTube)

**Hint**: All extensions, especially extensions interferring in redirects and cookies like `Skip Redirect` or `Cookie Autodelete` _might_ lead to malfunctioning of some websites, e.g. websites not redirecting correctly or not being able to store cookies. _It's recommended to disable them per page if you notice something's not working as expected_!

You can **hide extension icons** in the overflow menu if you like. Just right click the icon in the top right in the menu bar and "pin to overflow".

### uBlock settings

For the uBlock plugin import the `ublock-config-1.txt` in the "My Filter" menu for proper settings.

## Recommended search engines

If not possible in another way, you can add them via [Add custom search engine](https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/add-custom-search-engine/). Just follow instructions after installing and opening the extension.

```
https://www.qwant.com/?q=%s&r=DE&sr=de&l=en_gb&h=1&s=0&a=1&b=1&vt=0&hc=0&smartNews=0&smartSocial=0&theme=0&i=1&donation=0&qoz=0&shb=0&shl=0
```

```
https://duckduckgo.com/?q=%s&ks=l&kav=1&kn=1&kp=-2&kak=-1&kax=-1&kaq=-1&kao=-1&kau=-1&kaj=m&kam=google-maps&k1=-1&kae=c
```

Be sure to add shortcuts to be used in your navigation bar, e.g. `@ddg` refers to DuckDuckGo search engine and directly issues searches to DuckDuckGo from the navigation bar.

## Recommended settings

How to do it?

* Use the provided `user.js` file and copy it into your Firefox profile folder while application is _not_ running. 

    To find your profile folder, click on the menu top right, on `Help -> Troubleshooting Information`. You can directly open your **Profile Directory** from there or see it, typically it's something like `$HOME/.mozilla/firefox/...` or in Windows `%APPDATA%\Mozilla\Firefox\Profiles\...`

* Adjust values by browsing `about:config` in the address bar. `""` means empty, just delete the characters and press ENTER.
* Create your own profile and copy it into the application data folder while application is _not_ running. See [https://ffprofile.com](https://ffprofile.com).

Some settings _might_ break website behavior although this is not very likely. Be aware of that!

Use an external password manager like KeepassXC, at least AutoFill is advised to be disabled). See [https://www.privacy-handbuch.de/handbuch_21j2.htm#08_07_18](https://www.privacy-handbuch.de/handbuch_21j2.htm#08_07_18).

### Common User Preferences
Optional, but commonly used to ease browsing. Not security-related.

```
general.smoothScroll = false
general.smoothScroll.pages = false
mousewheel.min_line_scroll_amount = 40
browser.newtabpage.activity-stream.feeds.topsites = true
```

Optional and **potentially dangerous in terms of website behavior**, for _GNU/Linux only_.

```
image.mem.max_decoded_image_kb = 512000
media.getusermedia.aec_enabled = false
media.getusermedia.agc_enabled = false
media.getusermedia.noise_enabled = false
```

## Additional hints

Besides securing Firefox, you should consider not using the DNS servers of your Internet provider and instead install system-wide [DNS alternatives](https://www.kuketz-blog.de/empfehlungsecke/#dns) or a [local DNS server](https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Unbound) which directly queries root DNS servers. There's really no downside of this.