(Warning: This blog mention some politics, me ranting about enshittification and my annoyance that I have to leave certain browsers for the sake of my privacy.)
Last week, I was browsing one of the Lemmy apps on my iPhone and saw a post from one of the many instances that has an article of Firefox added a Term of Services (ToS) for their site. At first I was like, “yeah fine, whatever” as every business has one. But then I foolishly read the comments on that post and I saw people screaming and banging on their drums that enshittification is coming to Firefox and that you should abandon ship now if you value your privacy!
Aww man, I thought Firefox was supposed to be one of the better browsers out there and now I’m hearing reports that they’re starting to go bad! Well, it’s turns out they’re been going downwards for YEARS (as I also heard reports that they support Gen AI, which is never a good thing) and the fact they added a ToS, means it’s the beginning of the end of Firefox as we know it!
Then you’re wondering what they said that made everyone in the comment section freak out? It’s that Firefox deleted their promise to never sell your personal data (well sort of…), which is a big no-no for those who respect their privacy. I said sort of because Firefox was once funded by Google (who’s been controversial as of late). WAS is the keyword as late last year, the U.S. Department of Justice announced that Google is illegally monopolizing the advertising technology and need to sell some of their things off. This includes Firefox.
But it didn’t stop many from panicking and accuse of Firefox of betraying them as they were supposed to respect our privacy. Later on, Mozilla (Firefox’s software owner), was forced to clarify that they're not selling your data, which is “great”! But because Google n cano longer fund them, they’re now forced to put ads on their browser in the future, which is a huge turn off for those who HATES ADS! And I think the ad blockers won’t work on them either…
Then one of their other biggest announcements that they made, which freaked everyone out, is that they now have the right to TAKE AWAY YOUR ABILITY TO USE THE BROWSER! Now it’s understandable if the user in question, is caught doing abusive/bigoted behavior and they did this for the safety for everyone. But what about those who aren’t terrible people; what did they do to piss off Firefox? Or what about those who might live in an authoritarian country like America, where we are slowly moving further right in the political sphere each day?
Sigh… I have been using Firefox for six years and before that, I use Chrome for seven years and then before that, I have use Internet Explorer since the day I start using the computer (which was when I was, like maybe 4 years old). Now I have to jump ship once more because Firefox is starting to go downward!
But then you wondered what made me switch from Chrome to Firefox in the first place?
It’s because Chrome kept eating up my RAM drive on my laptop, which means the browser ran slowly than it should and it cause my laptop to overheat! It was also around the time people were starting turning their backs on Chrome and anything Google related because they found out that the tech company likes to collect private data on everything we DO! And it was because one day, they changed the color font of my bookmark toolbar from white to black, which ruin my pink Hello Kitty themed bookmark and I couldn’t change it back!
Okay the last one was a very selfish and petty reason for me to leave Chrome as I figure they changed the color font for accessibility reason. But that what really made me switched browser!
And I won’t go back to Chrome since then. Mainly because last year, they upgraded their extension API (or known as Manifest V3) which killed ad blockers (like uBlock Origin), which is bad news for those who don’t like ads on their browser. For anyone who didn’t think about bailing Chrome because they stole your data, might now has an actual reason to leave.
Too bad Chrome is one of the most popular browsers in the world as over 3 billion people use it. So it’ll be hard for the 3 billion people, who don’t care if Chrome or Google knows what they’re doing with their life, to switch to a different browser because they stole your data and stopped ad blockers from working. Especially if your my nephew who uses a school-owned Chromebook, that comes with Chrome!
But at least Chrome runs faster than Internet Explorer that I have been using as a kid. Like, I remember it used to run very slowly and sometimes, the browser crashes! Which sucks as I’ll be browsing on Facebook and Google Search; then Internet Explorer decides to “crash” and I end up losing all my tabs! I also heard that it wasn’t security friendly either and you couldn’t get to change the theme of your bookmark, but Chrome can!
For the longest time, I loved using Chrome (and Google) as that what the cool kids use these day. But now, they’re an evil monopoly that will sell your data to ad companies and the government. Like I mention before, this is bad if you live in an authoritarian country, where Chrome can give your data to the government if they think you’re doing anything wrong or illegal.
Then as of late, Google has been pushing their poorly made Gen AI tool on their search browser, which caused many to flee and that they recently bend their knee to the Trump administration by getting rid of DEI on their site and changed the Gulf of Mexico to Gulf of AMERICA on Google Maps! So I figure it was time for me to stop using Google altogether (well expect for Google Images as it’s the only image browser that has its own standalone site [that I can think of]) and use alternatives as they will not only respect my privacy, but aren’t tied to the stinky cheeto man and his Republican cronies!
That what I thought Firefox would be as at least they RESPECT your privacy. Where Firebox won’t eat your RAM data as much as Chrome did, which is good news for my 10 year old laptop. Where Firefox have better customization, like you can modify their toolbar and has a better interface. Chrome couldn’t do all that. And I heard that their owner, Mozilla isn’t as terrible like Chrome and their owner, Google!
Too bad they’re not as of late as not only the ToS state that Firefox will take away your ability to use their browser, but they no longer respect your personal data, will put ads on their browser and that they’re going to use Gen AI on their browser in the future. Thanks to all that, this causes many who respect their privacy and is against Gen AI, to flee to other browsers since Firefox decided to betray them by selling their souls to the corporation and complete its enshittification!
Like, where should we go now?
Like, no one wants to go to Chrome; it’s the main reason why they fled to Firefox in the first place! Nobody wants to use Microsoft Edge either, which is Internet Explorer’s replacement. Opera is slow, glitchy and is owned by a Chinese consortium. Safari only works on iOS and Mac laptop, so forget it if your Android, Windows and Linux user. Then there’s Brave, whose co-founder is a Trump supporter, which is a HUGE turn off for those who don’t support him and there’s crypto mining on the browser, which is bad for the environment! Then I heard about the upcoming Ladybird, which is supposed to be good. Too bad there’s rumors that the co-founders are TERFs, so don’t bother if you support trans and human rights.
Instead, some decide to use the forked version of Firefox since unlike Chrome and Microsoft Edge, Firefox is open-source that allows the community to make changes on the browser in anyway and form. There are two well-known Firefox forks that some went to: LibreWolf and Waterfox.
While Waterfox is user friendly, but in the past they were owned by an ad tech company. They’re not now, but it doesn’t stop some from being wary of Waterfox anyways. Then there’s LibreWolf that is basically a heavy privacy version of Firefox, where it deletes your cookies whenever you exit the browser and comes with uBlock Origin when you first download the browser. And LibreWolf is where I go.
When I first tried to install the forked site that I download from the website, my computer won’t allow it since they think LibreWolf is a virus! Thankfully, there was a Windows app version that I can download for free and the website worked fine when I first opened it up. It took me a bit to sync my bookmarks and extensions from my Firefox browser to the LibreWolf browser (and that I turned it off once I was done). But I managed to make it work at the end.
Then as I expected, LibreWolf has some strange quirks that I had to get used to. When I went around the settings, I found out that the RFP (Resist Fingerprinting) extension that they use, forces you to use the LIGHT MODE, which hurts my eyes!
The reason for that is in order for website to switch to dark mode, you have to give some of your data to the browser, which increases your digital footprint. Thankfully, there’s an extension that automatically turn your websites dark. Then I found out that you can actually turn off the RFP in the LibreWolf setting. But that’s mean you’ll be tracked again, but they encourage you to use a different extension that blocks fingerprints as good as RSF.
I also saw that they don’t allow DRM-controlled content being played on their browser, as they said it’s actually bad for user freedom. Which is why they turned it off by default (but you can change in the settings). So basically any streaming site that my mom pays for (Disney+, Hulu and Netflix) and the YouTube videos I sometimes watch, won’t work on LibreWolf. I might have to stick with Firefox for that one unfortunately.
Then I found out that when I use Notepad++ to create websites, it only allow Firefox when you show a preview of your site. So that’s another reason for me to keep the browser, sadly.
So now it’s been a week since I switched browsers and so far, LibreWolf is actually fine. Yeah, I had to get used to the font and the tab boxes being smaller and that I can’t listen to some music and watch videos because of them not allowing DRM. I also had to turn off the RFP setting since I hate using light mode, but I put in that replacement extension that I mention above. Other than that, I feel no difference at all!
But still, I wish enshittification can stop ruining the Internet as I realized that browsers aren’t safe either. Well I know about Chrome and Google being bad and that you should stay away from them at all cost. But I thought Firefox know better than that! Funny thing is that I have a blog post that mention my past browser experience and why Firefox was better than all of them! But not after last week is where they lost all my respect. Oh well, I guess…
I hope LibreWolf stays around as long as it can. Because it’s an open-source, Mozilla can’t take LibreWolf and the other forks down without filing a copy right notation. If they do that, then basically lose all support. Like, where can we go next now we can’t trust Firefox and I don’t want to use Opera or Brave.
Ugh….!