Waterfox for Android update brings huge privacy improvements
A new version of the Waterfox web browser for Google's Android operating system has been released. The developer of Waterfox released a first public version of Waterfox for Android in 2017.
The new version is available on Google Play and soon also on the alternative marketplace for Android applications F-Droid.
The developer of Waterfox, Alex Kontos, released the new Android version of the web browser with big privacy improvements that should appeal to Android users who are interested in privacy.
The new version is based on Tor and features all the privacy improvements that Tor developers added to the base Firefox version the project is based on.
Waterfox for Android
The developer promises that Waterfox for Android does not restrict users in regards to extensions that they can run in the browser, and that it does not collect or transfer Telemetry data to Mozilla, the Waterfox project, or installation trackers.
The browser comes without Google Play Services integration. Pocket, a read-it-later and recommendation service that Mozilla integrated in Firefox has been removed, and all telemetry and data collecting of Firefox has been disabled next to that.
Tracking Protection has been enabled by default, patches from Tor integrated to limit fingerprinting, and as many app permissions as possible has been removed without compromising core functionality.
Thanks to Tor, Waterfox users don't have to worry about third-party cookies as those are blocked by default. You may enable them under Settings > Privacy if you wish so however.
Waterfox works pretty much as you'd expect a browser to work. Fire it up and you are greeted with a list of top sites, bookmarks and history that you can tap on to load automatically. Only two top sites come with default installations and they both point to the Waterfox project.
You can use the address bar to load any website; if you have used a copy of Firefox for Android in the past you will notice the resemblance with Mozilla's browser.
Sync is integrated in the browser but the browser seems to crash when you select the option to sync browsing data under History on the new tab page.
Waterfox does not restrict add-ons that you can install in the browser (provided that they are compatible with that particular version).
Select Menu > Tools > Add-ons to display installed extensions and to open the official Firefox add-ons repository to download and install browser extensions in the mobile browser.
Web compatibility should be good in general but you may run into sites optimized for Google Chrome and other Chromium browsers that may refuse to work in Waterfox for Android, or may not work as good as in Chrome.
Closing Words
The new version of Waterfox for Android feels quite snappy. I only had limited time to take the mobile browser for a test drive but what I saw was promising. I installed some browser add-ons in the mobile browser and visited popular sites such as YouTube, Amazon, or eBay to make sure they worked well in the browser (which they did).
Sorry for the lack of screenshots but Waterfox for Android prevents the screenshot function of Android (just like Tor does).
If you have played around with Waterfox for Android already let me know about your experience by leaving a comment below.
Doesn’t Windows 8 know that www. or http:// are passe ?
Well it is a bit difficulty to distinguish between name.com domains and files for instance.
I know a service made by google that is similar to Google bookmarks.
http://www.google.com/saved
@Ashwin–Thankful you delighted my comment; who knows how many “gamers” would have disagreed!
@Martin
The comments section under this very article (3 comments) is identical to the comments section found under the following article:
https://www.ghacks.net/2023/08/15/netflix-is-testing-game-streaming-on-tvs-and-computers/
Not sure what the issue is, but have seen this issue under some other articles recently but did not report it back then.
Omg a badge!!!
Some tangible reward lmao.
It sucks that redditors are going to love the fuck out of it too.
With the cloud, there is no such thing as unlimited storage or privacy. Stop relying on these tech scums. Purchase your own hardware and develop your own solutions.
This is a certified reddit cringe moment. Hilarious how the article’s author tries to dress it up like it’s anything more than a png for doing the reddit corporation’s moderation work for free (or for bribes from companies and political groups)
Almost al unlmited services have a real limit.
And this comment is written on the dropbox article from August 25, 2023.
First comment > @ilev said on August 4, 2012 at 7:53 pm
For the God’s sake, fix the comments soon please! :[
Yes. Please. Fix the comments.
With Google Chrome, it’s only been 1,500 for some time now.
Anyone who wants to force me in such a way into buying something that I can get elsewhere for free will certainly never see a single dime from my side. I don’t even know how stupid their marketing department is to impose these limits on users instead of offering a valuable product to the paying faction. But they don’t. Even if you pay, you get something that is also available for free elsewhere.
The algorithm has also become less and less savvy in terms of e.g. English/German translations. It used to be that the bot could sort of sense what you were trying to say and put it into different colloquialisms, which was even fun because it was like, “I know what you’re trying to say here, how about…” Now it’s in parts too stupid to translate the simplest sentences correctly, and the suggestions it makes are at times as moronic as those made by Google Translations.
If this is a deep-learning AI that learns from users’ translations and the phrases they choose most often – which, by the way, is a valuable, moneys worthwhile contribution of every free user to this project: They invest their time and texts, thereby providing the necessary data for the AI to do the thing as nicely as they brag about it in the first place – alas, the more unprofessional users discovered the translator, the worse the language of this deep-learning bot has become, the greater the aggregate of linguistically illiterate users has become, and the worse the language of this deep-learning bot has become, as it now learns the drivel of every Tom, Dick and Harry out there, which is why I now get their Mickey Mouse language as suggestions: the inane language of people who can barely spell the alphabet, it seems.
And as a thank you for our time and effort in helping them and their AI learn, they’ve lowered the limit from what was once 5,000 to now 1,500…? A big “fuck off” from here for that! Not a brass farthing from me for this attitude and behaviour, not in a hundred years.
When will you put an end to the mess in the comments?
Ghacks comments have been broken for too long. What article did you see this comment on? Reply below. If we get to 20 different articles we should all stop using the site in protest.
I posted this on [https://www.ghacks.net/2023/09/28/reddit-enforces-user-activity-tracking-on-site-to-push-advertising-revenue/] so please reply if you see it on a different article.
Comment redirected me to [https://www.ghacks.net/2012/08/04/add-search-the-internet-to-the-windows-start-menu/] which seems to be the ‘real’ article it is attached to
Comment redirected me to [https://www.ghacks.net/2012/08/04/add-search-the-internet-to-the-windows-start-menu/] which seems to be the ‘real’ article it is attached to
Article Title: Reddit enforces user activity tracking on site to push advertising revenue
Article URL: https://www.ghacks.net/2023/09/28/reddit-enforces-user-activity-tracking-on-site-to-push-advertising-revenue/
No surprises here. This is just the beginning really. I cannot see a valid reason as to why anyone would continue to use the platform anymore when there are enough alternatives fill that void.
I’m not sure if there is a point in commenting given that comments seem to appear under random posts now, but I’ll try… this comment is for https://www.ghacks.net/2023/09/28/reddit-enforces-user-activity-tracking-on-site-to-push-advertising-revenue/
My temporary “solution”, if you can call it that, is to use a VPN (Mullvad in my case) to sign up for and access Reddit via a European connection. I’m doing that with pretty much everything now, at least until the rest of the world catches up with GDPR. I don’t think GDPR is a magical privacy solution but it’s at least a first step.