
ASK HN: Request for macOS browser recommendations - aswfyi
Can I get your opinion on which browser I should be running for macOS from a security &amp; privacy standpoint?<p>My current setup is Safari 11.0.3 w&#x2F; ‘Prevent cross-site tracking’ &amp; ‘Ask websites not to track me’ enabled. I also have the extension Better (2017.4) installed.<p>(I have Brave (0.21.18) installed as a backup, but rarely use it.)<p>Would I be better using eg. Chrome w&#x2F; Certbot, HTTPS Everywhere, Privacy Badger or similar?<p>One reason I ask is I’ve seen recommendations re. physical U2F devices. I use a password manager and 2FA wherever available, but Chrome seems to be the only mainstream browser that handles 2FA at the moment.<p>Any and all advice gratefully received. Thanks, and sorry if I missed this topic on a search.
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natch
You don't have to choose a browser. You can have multiple browsers and use
each as needed for its strengths.

Sort of sidestepping your question because I don't know either which browser
is best from the standpoints you talk about. But I have other advice:

One measure that helps a lot with privacy, though it doesn't solve everything,
is to use your own private VPN hosted on a service like Digital Ocean. I do
this with Firefox. Unfortunately Safari doesn't have a per-app setting for
proxies (it's system-wide or nothing with Safari last time I checked),
otherwise I would just use Safari. Anyway because I'm using a VPN, my ISP
doesn't have a full record of every URL I've ever visited. Digital Ocean would
be in a position to have a full record, but at least that's not a business
they are actively trying to monetize as far as I can tell, unlike, sadly, my
ISP.

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aswfyi
Thanks. I have used a couple of VPNs in the past, but it’s not an ‘every
session’ thing for me. Should it be?

