A Guide to Bettering Firefox
Web browsers are kind of awful. They do too much (why would I want an application to be an image viewer, pdf reader, media player, and html renderer?), and as a result, they are bloated beyond belief. They strain developer resources, require sandboxing because of the insane default that JavaScript is arbitrarily executed, and yet, they're the most prolific method of application distribution in the modern day. Web browsers have become the most convenient place for many to do their computing, so, with this page, I'm trying to define a more sane functionality for the browser I use—Firefox.
Why Firefox?
I use Firefox because it is the best web browser for the kinds of modifications I need. It is also the last major browser standing against Chromium domination (even if Mozilla takes money from Google). If there were a web browser that had sane defaults and all of the features I need (and I do plan on creating my own that does), I would immediately switch to it; however, until there is a satisfactory browser, which can do what I want from Firefox, I will stick either with it or a fork of it like LibreWolf. If you don't want to use Firefox, then at least choose your browser carefully.
In addition to the modifications and extensions listed here, my
script,
xdg-sanity, can be used to prevent your web
browser from being used to open remote content that has a MIME
type other than text/html.
Modifications to about:config
Read more about about:config
here.
These settings are advanced user settings, and I'm not responsible for misconfigured browsers, broken web pages, or thermonuclear war.
Make any entries that do not have anything written for their values blank.
Performance
gfx.webrender.all = true
Disable or Enable Features
widget.use-xdg-desktop-portal = truedom.event.contextmenu.enabled = falseextensions.screenshots.disabled = truebrowser.quitShortcut.disabled = truereader.parse-on-load.enabled = false-
services.sync.prefs.sync.extensions.activeThemeID = false
Allows Firefox to use KDE Plasma filechooser on GNU/Linux.
Prevents site from blocking the context menu from being opened.
Disables redundant in-app screenshots.
Disables ctrl+q quit shortcut.
Disables reader mode.
Prevents automatic application of themes on new devices.
Disable Digital Rights Management
What is DRM and why would I want to disable it?
-
media.gmp-widevinecdm.enabled = false -
media.gmp-widevinecdm.visible = false
Disable Pocket
What is Pocket and why would I want to disable it?
-
browser.newtabpage.activity-stream.section.highlights.includePocket = false -
extensions.pocket.enabled = false extensions.pocket.site-
extensions.pocket.oAuthConsumerKey extensions.pocket.api-
services.sync.prefs.sync.browser.newtabpage.activity-stream.section.highlights.includePocket = false
Privacy
privacy.resistFingerprinting = trueprivacy.firstparty.isolate = truemedia.navigator.enabled = falsegeo.enabled = falsebrowser.send_pings = falsedom.netinfo.enabled = falsebeacon.enabled = falsedom.enable_resource_timing = false-
dom.event.clipboardevents.enabled = false
Disables quality-of-life features such as automatic site dark mode detection.
Restricts cache, storage, and cookies to the domain that issued the data in them.
Disables location tracking.
Disables browsers sending POST requests when you click a link.
Prevents sites from being able to see what text you copied or cut and when you did it.
Peripherals
-
camera.control.face_detection.enabled = false -
camera.control.face_detection.enabled = false -
dom.battery.enabled = false
Webpage Prefetching & Caching
-
browser.urlbar.speculativeConnect.enabled = false -
browser.cache.offline.enable = false network.prefetch-next = false-
browser.cache.check_doc_frequency = 0
Mozilla Telemetry
-
toolkit.telemetry.cachedClientID -
browser.aboutHomeSnippets.updateUrL -
browser.startup.homepage_override.mstone = ignore -
browser.startup.homepage_override.buildID -
startup.homepage_welcome_url -
startup.homepage_welcome_url.additional startup.homepage_override_url
User-Agent Spoofing
general.platform.override = Win32-
general.useragent.override = ""
Returns Win32 when the
navigator.platform object is utilized
in JavaScript.
Set this equal to the latest Chrome user-agent string.
DNS over HTTPS
Read about DOH here.
-
network.trr.uri = "" network.trr.mode = 2
Select a DNS-over-HTTPS server to use—I use the dnswarden adblocking one, but if your polity censors your internet access, you should use the uncensored one. There is a list of alternatives available on GitHub.
This sets HTTPS over DNS to be on unless the DNS server cannot be reached.
Header Sanitization
-
network.http.referer.spoofSource = true -
network.http.referer.hideOnionSource = true
Disable Google Safe Browsing
This is an exhaustive list of all the settings you need to
change. Typing only browser.safebrowsing into the
about:config search box will return all of them,
but make sure to apply the correct value to each.
-
browser.safebrowsing.allowOverride = true -
browser.safebrowsing.malware.enabled = false -
browser.safebrowsing.phishing.enabled = false -
browser.safebrowsing.downloads.enabled = false -
browser.safebrowsing.blockedURIs.enabled = false -
browser.safebrowsing.downloads.remote.block_dangerous_host = false -
browser.safebrowsing.downloads.remote.block_dangerous = false -
browser.safebrowsing.downloads.remote.block_potentially_unwanted = false -
browser.safebrowsing.downloads.remote.enabled = false -
browser.safebrowsing.downloads.remote.url browser.safebrowsing.id-
browser.safebrowsing.provider.google4.updateURL -
browser.safebrowsing.provider.google4.reportURL -
browser.safebrowsing.provider.google4.reportPhishMistakeURL -
browser.safebrowsing.provider.google4.reportMalwareMistakeURL -
browser.safebrowsing.provider.google4.lists -
browser.safebrowsing.provider.google4.gethashURL -
browser.safebrowsing.provider.google4.dataSharingURL -
browser.safebrowsing.provider.google4.dataSharing.enabled = false -
browser.safebrowsing.provider.google4.advisoryURL -
browser.safebrowsing.provider.google4.advisoryName -
browser.safebrowsing.provider.google4.pver -
browser.safebrowsing.provider.google4.lastupdatetime -
browser.safebrowsing.provider.google4.nextupdatetime -
browser.safebrowsing.provider.google.advisoryName -
browser.safebrowsing.provider.google.advisoryURL -
browser.safebrowsing.provider.google.updateURL -
browser.safebrowsing.provider.google.reportURL -
browser.safebrowsing.provider.google.gethashURL -
browser.safebrowsing.provider.google.reportPhishMistakeURL -
browser.safebrowsing.provider.google.reportMalwareMistakeURL -
browser.safebrowsing.provider.google.pver -
browser.safebrowsing.provider.google.lists -
browser.safebrowsing.provider.mozilla.gethashURL -
browser.safebrowsing.provider.mozilla.lastupdatetime -
browser.safebrowsing.provider.mozilla.pver -
browser.safebrowsing.provider.mozilla.updateURL -
browser.safebrowsing.provider.mozilla.lists -
browser.safebrowsing.provider.mozilla.lists.base -
browser.safebrowsing.provider.mozilla.lists.content
Extensions
When it comes to extensions, fewer is better, so try to limit your extensions to the minimum you need to browse the web. This helps reduce the performance impact and fingerprintability of your browser. The following are a list of extensions you can give the boot:
- For many use cases, containerization extensions like Facebook Container or Google Container are redundant with Total Cookie Protection and Enhanced Cookie Clearing.
- The I don't care about cookies extension has been acquired by Avast , and the extension itself is superfluous with the recommended uBlock Origin filter lists below.
- Privacy Badger has multiple issues, including its lack of finterprinting protection, its connection to Fastly CDN, and its redundancy with uBlock Origin.
If there is any extension you feel is missing from this list, feel free to send me a git patch through e-mail adding it along with a description as to why you believe it should be included. Before contacting me, please read through the whole list and the DON'T BOTHER section of arkenfox's extensions page.
Standard Privacy Extensions
-
Privacy Pass – Stores tokens to bypass captchas.
-
uBlock Origin – Ad blocking, cosmetic filtering, malicious script protection, and tracker blocking; all in one package. Here is a list of useful blocklists:
- ClearURLs functionality ( read more) [TXT]
- To replace I don't care about coookies' functionality, enable the EasyList Cookie list and manually add the officially-provided blocklist. [TXT]
- Other annoyances
Advanced Privacy Extensions
These extensions may hinder or break certain functionality on websites using heavy amounts of JavaScript.
-
CanvasBlocker – Fakes fingerprint readout for some JavaScript APIs (blocking the canvas can break some functions of image rendering).
-
GNU LibreJS – Extension that blocks all but freely licensed JavaScript.
-
JShelter – Restricts access to JavaScript APIs to prevent fingerprinting.
Tools
-
Bypass Paywalls – Bypasses paywalls for some sites.
-
FireMonkey – Lightweight user script and style manager utilizing native Firefox APIs to support userscripts from sources like GreasyFork and OpenUserJS as well as Stylish themes from Userstyles.
-
Flagfox – Displays information about a website's physical location and IP address in the address bar.
-
FoxyProxy Standard / Basic – Advanced proxy manager which replaces Firefox's lacking settings.
-
LibRedirect – Redirects services like Twitter and YouTube to their privacy-respecting front-ends or alternatives.
-
New Tab Suspender – Tab management extension that puts tabs to sleep after a set amount of time using the native Firefox discard API.
-
Web Archives – Allows you to easily open web pages at various archive sources such as the Wayback Machine.
Further Reading
- Add a pref to disable Do Not Track in Firefox
- arkenfox/user.js Wiki
- Farbling-based wrappers to hinder browser fingerprinting
- Firefox — Spyware Watchdog
- PrivacyTests.org
- Revocation is Broken
- Sync custom preferences
- Tor font fingerprinting defenses roadmap
- Trinity's browser extensions
Fingerprinting Tests