I have never used Waterfox although I did use Librefox for a while. Security was never a problem but I did find that some times by adopting the highest security settings some things on some sites just didn’t work. With Ungoogled Chromium I have yet to come across anything it’s not compatible with and that’s with all the security settings maxed out.
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I thought transmitted material was encrypted? Is that not
what https is for?
That is true in order to protect it en route but the source of the sent and copies of the received decrypted data remain in your browser in an unencrypted form until you clear your cache of cookies and temporary files.
So if I use
firejail --private firefox
all those caches and cookies are erased when I exit, and are sandboxed while I am using firefox.
I dont think I can get any safer than that?
If there is a better way, I would like to know?
There are no hard and fast rules, this is not windows, the whole point of linux is having the freedom to choose what works best for you. For me the only frustration I had with Firefox based browsers was the functional inconsistency I experienced. This might not be a problem for everyone, it all depends upon the sites you access and what you do when your on them. For example I gamble for a living, generally I do most all my betting on the sports exchanges but occasionally I use bookmaker sites if I can get myself a better deal. With Librefox I had no problem accessing streaming services on some bookmaker sites, others wouldn’t work at all and on Betfair I found that it would only stream the one time. I would have to shut the browser down and restart it to watch the next race. Even reducing the level of security didn’t fix that whereas with Ungoogled Chromium it just works all the time on every site and I have yet to encounter any problems with it despite the fact that I have all the security settings set to maximum effect.
That experience is worth noting. I have never had access issues, but I am concerned with security for some purposes.
AFAIA Firefox does have spyware of some kind, as to how much and exactly what it is is often a moot point on Linux forums but the one thing about UC is that it is an accepted fact that there is no spyware of any kind at all. When you install it they give you the option to download a hackers utility that gets you into the screwgle play store as access will be denied without it. I used it to install Ublock Origin as it is recommended as the best blocking device for UC but they do warn you to be very careful if you plan to choose any other extensions as they are often loaded with spyware too. Presumably it’s a similar situation with Firefox.
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So browser extensions can not be trusted.
That rules out using an extension that provides a password vault.
How do you manage passwords?
I used Bitwarden for a long time on all my distro’s but when I decided to go with Parrot OS I decided to install Keeper. Keeper stores all your passwords in an encrypted file outside of your browser which is itself password protected. As for spyware in extensions it has been known for some time that monetization plays a big part in the choice of free extensions google decide to place in their store.
I guess you use the desktop app, keep it open, and copy/paste from there to the browser. I do this sometimes, but I always thought Bitwarden extension was safe to use in any browser. Likewise, I have started using UC though and no extensions except password manager.
I wonder if it makes any difference if you self-host the password manager, as I am getting ready to set that up. And what about Proton Pass, it is included in my email service for encrypted email. Surely that is safe in a browser?
“Proton Pass has unbreakable encryption and other safety features to ensure protection. Proton Pass encrypts your metadata, which is something I haven’t seen other password managers do. So, even if your Proton account is somehow breached, there’s no way attackers can get any useful information from your vault.”
Sheila
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I dont know. I am asking.
My personal feeling is to keep passwords out of the computer
but I need a better alternative to paper.
I use Proton for email and VPN and can’t fault it. The VPN works well on both Parrot and Spiralinux OS. There’s so many alternatives out there for degoogling with there really are no excuses other than laziness for people to draw down on these days.
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I just discovered one insidious feature of Google Mail - whenever you reply or forward an email, where the conversation had an attachment, even if it was way down the “chain” - they include the attachment again EVERY F–KING TIME, and BILL you for it in your quota!
I was paying $2.50 a month 'cause I hit the 15 GB limit… Got up to 20 GB earlier this year…
But - I’ve slowly pared it down to under 13.5 GB - and cancelled my $2.50 subscription - and - will probably use my free Outlook mailbox from now on… If after a few weeks trial, it works out - I’ll just forward all my google mail to my outlook mail…
That’s insidious and evil - I’m sure at the storage backend, they’re using deduplication, so there’s only one copy (or maybe several across distributed storage) - but I checked an email conversation with my brother, that had about 70 different emails in a single conversation - there were only two attachments (images) to that “thread” - and when I looked via Google’s storage optimization wizard, one was 130 mb, the other was 70 mb (the images were probably less than 2 mb each) - that’s OUTRAGEOUS - as the attachments were only added once in one SINGLE reply - and to make it worse - the ONLY way to delete those multiple attachments? DELETE the WHOLE email (the WHOLE CONVERSATION).
So - I’ve had enough. One thing Microsoft do WAY better than Google, is email clients. Google doesn’t even have proper “rules” or “folders” (it calls them “labels” but they’re shonky and substandard) - and I’m pretty sure Microsoft don’t count MULTIPLE instances of the same attachment, in your free quota (also 15 GB).
The Outlook Web Access client is leaps and bounds ahead of Google Web Mail client (I prefer NOT to use a “fat client” for accessing email anyway - but I guess I could on my Mac).
So - my private cloud solution (Resilio Sync) can easily take the place of Google Drive (which I don’t use 'cause the client solutions for Linux are EXTREMELY lacklustre), I’ve even got a Resilio Sync share my brother can access from Melbourne (3000 km away) - and where that doesn’t work - I can use my 11.5 GB Dropbox storage (most of which I earned over the years through points and referrals).
And generally, I just find using Outlook via the web, e.g. for work, more intuitive than Google…
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I assume you mean gmail client?.. or do you mean the google mail server behind it.?
I use gmail , but rarely. Mostly use Telstra bigpond and Thunddrbird client. Never had any of your issues.
Attachments are removed by default if I echo an email.
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I completely agree. I’ve never liked the Gmail web interface and don’t ever use it. I use Yahoo! Mail for my personal email just because I always have, and it does the job. For work we use Outlook. I generally use the fat client, but the web interface is good too.
I’m gradually moving all of my important email to Protonmail.com. I only use gmail if a service requires it. It’s leaky as a sieve and looks to be constructed by 10K monkeys with keyboards. Tota.com and Mailfence are other, better email services and have at least one level of free service.
Abandon Google, folks.
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I’ve heard good things about Proton. Someone I work with decided to make privacy a priority and she chose Proton and is very happy.
I can second Proton. I actually bought their Proton Plus plan, because I also use VPN service. It is a bit pricey, but it does go on sale regularly. I bought a 2 year plan with them when they had a big sale.
Out of it, I can use the non-free VPN tier, get more storage in Proton Drive, and get more storage in my email. I also get access to Proton Calendar, which I don’t use but maybe I will start to use it, now that I think about it. After I bought the plan they added ProtonPass, but I am already quite happy with Bitwarden, and I am happy to keep those things seperate for now.
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Jimmy, I’m also experimenting with Proton Pass. It’s a little different but works a lot like Bitwarden. Proton Bridge works really well with Thunderbird and there’s a desktop app coming soon. The beta is pretty nice. All the apps seem to work well on an Android phone as well. Who needs Google?
No - I mean the whole Google Mail system… I prefer “conversation view” - and every reply or forward, creates another instance of an attachment (e.g. a photo) each time…
So - an email conversation with 70 replies, back and forth, that started with a 5 mb image file - will now be 70x5mb…
It’s unbelievable.
Since last night, mostly this arvo, I’ve managed to crop it drastically down to 10 GB…
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