I just switched to LibreWolf (desktop) and IronFox (Android) as a result of this news yesterday and today. LibreWolf has no Android version and IronFox has no desktop version, so they complement each other quite well. It’s pretty much been a drop-in replacement, with the only real friction being configuring my settings all over again. IronFox is quite new, being forked off from the discontinued Mull browser, which was previously the go-to privacy-conscious version of Firefox. There was a discussion among LibreWolf contributors about forking Mull and maintaining it themselves, but IronFox ultimately filled that gap instead.
Both LibreWolf and IronFox err on the side of caution as far as privacy and security. The defaults are very strict, e.g. LibreWolf deletes all cookies and history on exit by default, IronFox disables the JavaScript JIT compiler–in English, a potentially exploitable way to make browser go fast, etc. It’s somewhat counter-intuitive to switch to a privacy-focussed browser then go through rolling back privacy features, but I’ve reached a happy medium that suits my needs. The IronFox readme (at the link above) has a section Issues inherited from Mull that still apply to IronFox which I recommend checking out as it lists off a few about:config settings you can change to trade functionality for security/privacy as much as you are comfortable with doing so.
On that note, I believe Firefox Sync to be minimally concerning from a security perspective. It’s end-to-end encrypted, so Mozilla can’t see what you have in Sync to sell it even if they wanted to. If you are worried, Firefox Sync can also be self-hosted. Both LibreWolf and IronFox will happily sign in to Firefox Sync (option must be enabled in LibreWolf settings first; on IronFox it’s already available), which will provide you access to your synced extensions, history, passwords, etc. You can also share tabs between LibreWolf for desktop and IronFox for Android, just as you would with mainline Firefox on each. Pretty good time.
I just switched to LibreWolf (desktop) and IronFox (Android) as a result of this news yesterday and today. LibreWolf has no Android version and IronFox has no desktop version, so they complement each other quite well. It’s pretty much been a drop-in replacement, with the only real friction being configuring my settings all over again. IronFox is quite new, being forked off from the discontinued Mull browser, which was previously the go-to privacy-conscious version of Firefox. There was a discussion among LibreWolf contributors about forking Mull and maintaining it themselves, but IronFox ultimately filled that gap instead.
Both LibreWolf and IronFox err on the side of caution as far as privacy and security. The defaults are very strict, e.g. LibreWolf deletes all cookies and history on exit by default, IronFox disables the JavaScript JIT compiler–in English, a potentially exploitable way to make browser go fast, etc. It’s somewhat counter-intuitive to switch to a privacy-focussed browser then go through rolling back privacy features, but I’ve reached a happy medium that suits my needs. The IronFox readme (at the link above) has a section Issues inherited from Mull that still apply to IronFox which I recommend checking out as it lists off a few
about:configsettings you can change to trade functionality for security/privacy as much as you are comfortable with doing so.On that note, I believe Firefox Sync to be minimally concerning from a security perspective. It’s end-to-end encrypted, so Mozilla can’t see what you have in Sync to sell it even if they wanted to. If you are worried, Firefox Sync can also be self-hosted. Both LibreWolf and IronFox will happily sign in to Firefox Sync (option must be enabled in LibreWolf settings first; on IronFox it’s already available), which will provide you access to your synced extensions, history, passwords, etc. You can also share tabs between LibreWolf for desktop and IronFox for Android, just as you would with mainline Firefox on each. Pretty good time.