Today I'm Just Tired

[Sherri is a Cat]

I got a lot of things taken care of today. I worked on updating my resume, requested and paid for documents I need so I can get my name straightened out in a new state, organized some things, made some phone calls. I arm wrestled with Zoom again today...

I'm attending meetings through the browser, no extensions. No platform on my machine.
I thought I had this problem solved. I don't. I sent a message yesterday to the account owner to let them know I can train for hosting now. It's a good thing they haven't responded. I noticed some problems: Participants names are out of order, raised hands are not grouped together, the chat box is perpetually stuck at the first reply.

I thought maybe another browser would work better. Then I remembered my latest issue with Firefox. "Your browser is being managed by your organization". In other words, it's being managed by my ISP. I don't have the 'DNS over HTTPS' option anymore, unless my ISP says it's okay. When I first saw this message a few years ago it was easy to keep my ISP from managing my browser. Firefox has made it more difficult to keep this from happening. Now that I'm using a different OS, it's even more work to figure out how to change this.

For a long time I thought I could trust Firefox, now I don't, Google is selling my personal information, Zoom keeps tabs on my machine, online purchases are tied to a credit card number that is tied to me. Everything I look at on Amazon, Walmart, Ulta, or any online retailer is recorded then filed away somewhere for future financial benefits. If I want to minimize my odds of being fingerprinted I have to avoid certain preferred configurations in my browser. My phone is a homing device that I can't live without. I've started looking into how to mask my device ID.


Today I'm tired of it all. I'm tired of weighing the benefits against the cost of using technology. I heard someone say that if it's free, YOU are the product. It not free. I pay for it with my privacy. Some countries restrict what information can be collected. Mine doesn't. No limitations, no privacy. I don't expect it to get better any time soon. In fact, it will probably get worse, if it isn't already.

I thrive on challenges. Usually I enjoy thinking up and figuring out ways to keep Big Brother out of my personal business. Today I just don't have the energy for it.

 

[Condobloke]

Then I remembered my latest issue with Firefox. "Your browser is being managed by your organization

That means it is being managed by Linux itself. They decide when updates will be applied so no nasty interaction takes place with other apps/dependencies etc

 

[Condobloke]

I don't have the 'DNS over HTTPS' option anymore, unless my ISP says it's okay.

Firefox has that setting....standard , increased and Maximum. I have mine set at Maximum. I still use Firefox from time to time

Keeping big brother and his assortment of 'comrades' out is nigh on impossible.
I do my best by mixing it up
I use different browsers and swap between them regularly.....and they contain different info....just to confuse things even more. As long as I dont confuse myself, all is good

When It comes to spending money and putting in credit card numbers..... EasyOS. On a usb stick used ONLY for that purpose. Nothing else. Mine has red tape around it so it doesnt get confused with any others.

 

[Sherri is a Cat]

Mine has red tape around it so it doesnt get confused with any others.

 

[Sherri is a Cat]

Firefox has that setting

It only appears to have that setting.

It's hell to turn it on again. Adding every single website I may ever visit is impractical.

 

[Sherri is a Cat]

I looked this stuff up. In this case, my ISP is my organization. My ISP is the reason I can't keep that feature 'On'. Keeping it on prevents DNS leaks. Not being to keep it on renders my VPN useless.

 

[Condobloke]

That is the standard Firefox that came with LM22.1

 

[Sherri is a Cat]

Okay...

That's funny, it really is. The trouble is that I'm just too damn tired to laugh...

Thank you

 

[Condobloke]

so your isp controls what you do/use ??!!

No way. Something is wrong there !!!!

How do you know it your isp?

 

[Condobloke]

They must have some 'rule' you have to agree to....maybe something that 'protects your security'...?

 

[Sherri is a Cat]

I'll have to find it again. I think I have it bookmarked. Basically Firefox is giving in to Big Brother, that basically what it comes down to.

 

[Sherri is a Cat]

Just remember that our privacy isn't protected here like it is in a lot of other places around the world, like the EU. It's a free-for-all here.

 

[Mike-BTU]

View attachment 25416
...
That is the standard Firefox that came with LM22.

That looks good to me.

I don't know if this is any better, but I don't put this info in my web browsers. Instead, my pfSense router contains two Cloudflare IPs, plus the IP of the router. Only the router's IP is used for the WiFi access point and the computers. Thus, all our devices use Cloudflare.

I do not use my ISP's DNS.

 

[Mike-BTU]

I'll have to find it again. I think I have it bookmarked. Basically Firefox is giving in to Big Brother, that basically what it comes down to.

I do use Firefox, both on our computers and this phone. But Vivaldi is much more secure. Its Private Mode is definitely more secure than Chrome's so-called "Incognito" mode.

For example, I can view websites in Vivaldi's Private Mode that I can't in the other browsers.

Vivaldi is my main browser on my phone, and I use the phone far more often than my computer. (Long story.) I am typing into Vivaldi right now.

I see that Vivaldi on my computer has an optional Proton VPN. But I never needed to use that.

 

[Condobloke]

Firefox. It can be 'secured' in many ways...including the way I showed in my screenshot

I have no problem with Vivaldi....i have not used it....I believe it is very good.

But...your isp having control of your browser is just plain Wrong

You may have found the cheapest etc isp....in which case, you are the product.

I speak to people from all over the world, and I have not heard from any of them that their isp controls their browser, down to and including altering Firefox's settings.

 

[Sherri is a Cat]

Firefox. It can be 'secured' in many ways...including the way I showed in my screenshot

I have no problem with Vivaldi....i have not used it....I believe it is very good.

But...your isp having control of your browser is just plain Wrong

You may have found the cheapest etc isp....in which case, you are the product.

I speak to people from all over the world, and I have not heard from any of them that their isp controls their browser, down to and including altering Firefox's settings.

Let me find the information I'm talking about. It's not quite that simple.

 

[MikeRocor]

"Your browser is being managed by your organization"

If you have policies set (whether you set them yourself or "your organization" set them) in /etc/firefox/policies/policies.json it will show that message. I handle updates "out of band" (manually) so I have a policy there that disables automatic updates and it shows a message like that.

If your ISP insists on having it a certain way, then you would want to be very circumspect about fiddling with that.

 

[David Cat]

As a very new member here I hesitate to offer my advice. I've had the same thoughts about Firefox on my PC, though it works well enough. I do find I am getting a large number of ads for Mature Women though. Too late!!

The main browser I use, and have done for a few years now is Opera. It's free and seems to have a fair number of options to it. Not had any problems with it so far.
Hope you get your problem sorted.

 

[KGIII]

I do find I am getting a large number of ads for Mature Women though. T

Install the uBlock Origin (and not one of the clones that try to use similar names).

uBlock Origin – Get this Extension for Firefox (en-US)

Download uBlock Origin for Firefox. Finally, an efficient wide-spectrum content blocker. Easy on CPU and memory.

addons.mozilla.org

That'll take care of the ads in Firefox.

 

[MikeWalsh]

I had a spell with Google's DNS servers, several years ago. Then I switched to CloudFlare's 1.1.1.1 service, around 6 years ago now. Been with them ever since.

For ad-blocking, I now use AdGuard. Can't use UBlock Origin, for the simple reason that I'm a Chrome'n'clones man. Never trusted Firefox since I lost all that work through their constant crashing back in the late 'noughties.

UBlock Origin no longer works with the new Manifest v3 stuff. You can still use it in Firefox, so I understand, but Raymond Hill decided it was going to be too much like hard work to re-write UBO to work with Mv3, so instead he modified it to produce UBO Lite. I've tried it, but it doesn't seem as good.....AND it needs "training" like AdBlock.

Never had time for all that messing around......and having lost my trust all those years ago, FF is going to have to do something exceptional to earn mine again. It hasn't done so yet.

@David Cat :-

Opera has been my 'go-to' browser for the last 3-4 years. Despite having a spell under Chinese ownership, it doesn't seem to have done it any harm. It's a good browser, and has many novel features you won't find elsewhere.

It's still not as good as the original Opera with the 'Presto' engine, so I'm told, but the original browser introduced so many of the core browsing features everybody takes for granted now. Which gives you some idea of its lineage...

Only time will tell whether or not it pushes YOUR buttons.


Mike.