Achieving Browser Privacy

[Lob]

With the recent news that DDG browser is "receptive" due to contractual terms to MS trackers (to an extent), I am wondering what the SN audience here are doing for their standard browser experience. Here's my basic setup:

• Edge Chromium (because of native vertical tabs)
• uBlock Origin
• Cookie AutoDelete - with most cookies cleaned after 30 minutes bar a few sites I white/greylist
• Don't F--k with Paste - because I like to paste in passwords generated with....
• Bitwarden for password management

Am I missing something? PrivacyBadger, for example, would it add anything to my life?

Frankly, I know I will end up tracked somehow because it all comes back to my IP address. I don't care about that, it's the price I pay for using TCP.

 

[Dave New]

This -- "Edge Chromium (because of native vertical tabs)"

What happened to native vertical tabs on Chrome? I thought it was supposed to be, oh, about 20 major revisions ago?

I'm stuck on a corporate laptop with using either;

Chrome with no vertical tabs, but I have over 80 open tabs AND my Lastpass extension, OR
Edge with vertical tabs, but NO extensions whitelisted (so far, and IT says they are too busy to deal with that right now).

I know, on a corporate laptop I have no privacy, but I want my LastPass, which the company whitelisted for Chrome a long time ago.

So, when is Chrome going to get native vertical tabs? I know I can search my open tabs on Chrome, but if the particular tab I'm using is 'off the right end' of the tab list, I can't manipulate it (drag it around, etc), except to close it with a Ctl-w.

 

[PHolder]

Are you able to install extensions? Maybe this will work for you? (Or some of the related ones.)

Vertical Tabs - Chrome Web Store

A chrome extension that presents your tabs vertically. News: - Tab preview support is here! - Dark theme support is here!…

chrome.google.com

 

[miquelfire]

I think the issue is the extension needs to be whitelisted.

 

[PHolder]

extension needs to be whitelisted.

Not gonna lie, I don't really know what that means. Whitelisted by whom? If it's his company then he should lobby his favourite IT professional.

 

[miquelfire]

Chrome with no vertical tabs, but I have over 80 open tabs AND my Lastpass extension, OR
Edge with vertical tabs, but NO extensions whitelisted (so far, and IT says they are too busy to deal with that right now).

Not gonna lie, I don't really know what that means. Whitelisted by whom? If it's his company then he should lobby his favourite IT professional.

 

[Lob]

Not gonna lie, I don't really know what that means. Whitelisted by whom? If it's his company then he should lobby his favourite IT professional.

This is a security forum, we should all be happy that our corporate Chromium browsers don't allow unvetted code to run on our corporate devices

I can actually say that I blocked the installation of any extensions on a Chrome deployment some years ago - firstly, above and secondly, nobody will pay the FTEs to vet the extensions that might be permitted. That at the time included LastPass because it was not leveraged in the corporate world and if you allow one password manager, you probably need to allow many.....it's not an easy situation.

anyway #blockunauthorisedcode

 

[PHolder]

Well the issue with extensions is that the source is provided (they're written in JavaScript though, which is god awful write only code, IMHO.) The other issue is that they could theoretically be safe today and become unsafe tomorrow because the author could get hacked or could sell his dev/API key to another party. I don't know how the whitelisting works in a corporate environment, if each version of the extension needs to be whitelisted or if it's just the highlevel API key that is whitelisted and it's assumed the developer won't go rogue. The browser also has a permission model, and if you give an extension just the necessary permissions for tabs and not for all content, one would hope that would limit the risk of damage. Again, though, does the whitelisting expire if the permissions change?

 

[Lob]

don't forget the stories of extensions changing hands and then suddenly changing purpose.

and you're trusting the supply chain of what is usually some hobbyist.......