When I loaded Linux Mint, it came with Firefox as a default browser. When I opened Firefox, it shot up a notice that I might want to add Privacy Badger from EFF. I did that, not because I thought I needed it, but because I remembered EFF from years ago and thought I’d try Privacy Badger again. Soon I started noticing as I visited various sites that Privacy Badger would light up showing multiple tracking blocks on google-analytics and even some from Facebook. So, I’m wondering: if I don’t have Privacy Badger added to the Firefox browser does Linux itself do some blocking of these trackers? If Linux doesn’t block them organically, are they just coming in via Port 80 uninhibited in order to watch my traffic? Any information appreciated. Thanks.
Hey @famcoll, and good to see you here too!
The website trackers are strictly the domain of your browser. That’s one reason why Brave was recommended in the first place. If you choose Firefox, Privacy Badger is a great tool - and I would also recommend uBlock Origin as an extension.
Linux itself does not allow any application to track you beyond what the application itself does (if it does track you and you agreed to it). Additionally, it does not send any telemetry data to anybody (unless you personally allowed Ubuntu to gather some anonymous hardware information to improve their support). It also gives you the capacity to spoof your MAC address (the ID of your network/WiFi card) and block location detection.
Thank you, as always, Vasileios, for your prompt attention to my issues! I’m going to work on the first para info you gave me and hope that in a few weeks I will better understand the second para. Truly appreciate your help!
My pleasure, as always! 
I was just looking at installing Brave on Linux Mint and all I could find were command line instructions. I’m guessing I can run both Firefox and Brave. Anyway, here are the command line instructions:
sudo apt install apt-transport-https curl
sudo curl -fsSLo /usr/share/keyrings/brave-browser-archive-keyring.gpg https://brave-browser-apt-release.s3.brave.com/brave-browser-archive-keyring.gpg
echo "deb [signed-by=/usr/share/keyrings/brave-browser-archive-keyring.gpg arch=amd64] https://brave-browser-apt-release.s3.brave.com/ stable main"|sudo tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/brave-browser-release.list
sudo apt update
sudo apt install brave-browser
Does that look right to you? I’m backed up on Timeshift so I can recover if necessary.
Already ahead of you @famcoll !
I set up a script in this forum, which you can just run. Click on the link below and have fun!
You, my friend, are a good man! Thank you.
Vasileios, Just following up here. So, I used your script to download Brave and started using it. Everything happened seamlessly. Thank you for that. After the download, I poked around in the rave settings and found that Brave appears to be wide open to all kinds of google-analytics and FB nonsense UNLESS you go in and tell settings to knock it off. Also, Brave doesn’t seem to log the incoming trackers in a transparent way, unless, of course, I just don’t know where to find what it is blocking. Where do you go to see what’s being blocked in Brave? It’s all very clear in the EFF Privacy badger. You can see what is being blocked, can remove the block, upgrade to forbid the block, or allow the block I also added uBlock to Frefox, and it seems to be very active, but I don’t know what it is blocking either. It talks mostly in terms of percentages of blocks. My basic question is: why does everyone represent Brave browser as such a secure product? Does everyone (except me) know you have to go to settings to secure it? Thanks for any info you can provide.
Compared to most browsers, it is more secure, yes. Though it also has its own “agreements” to gain financing to uphold its operations. The operation it offers is seamless, but tends to allow a few things (and at times, many things) through. Though it’s nothing like Chrome or Edge for that matter.
This is the reason why during one call I had with Jeff and Will, on Telegram, I recommended Privacy Badger and uBlock Origin. No matter what the browser is, I’d never go online without them. If I use other browsers, I go as far as put in individual anti-finger-printing extensions as well. If I want to go really incognito, I use Tor Browser past VPN.
Thanks, Vasileios. I’m going to stick with Firefox with the extensions you recommended for right now. I’m not sure why, but Brave just doesn’t “sit” right with me for now, but that may change as I learn more. Also, Firefox actually has Metager as an extension. I find Metager to be a very secure search engine and like the convenience that Firefox allows with an easy installation and default selection of Metager as browser. I’m going to put “individual anti-finger printing extensions” on my list of things to understand. We’ve got storms here this morning, so it will give me something to do! Appreciate all the help.
famcoll, in extensions on Firefox add “Container” it will put Facistbook in a sandbox and it can’t see anything else you are doing.
As always, you are very welcome! If you - by any chance - are using FakeBook, @fesjr 's recommendation is really good too.
fesjr, Thanks. I added FB container, but saw there are many other "containers as well. I’ll have to take a good look at them. I don’t use FB, but was shocked when I found it nosing it around. I’m not sure why I was shocked, but I was. What is the “temporary container” extension for? I’m guessing I can assign things into it temporarily, but am not sure.
I’m not sure I will check it out.
I checked it out. It’s if you have some tabs open and open a new one it will be in a temp container. I added it myself and set it to auto.
Thanks, I’ll follow your lead. Appreciate the help.
Just FYI, apparently this temp container isn’t friendly to streaming services. I had to turn it off when I logged into Britbox. I’m going back in to look for a permissions section to get a waiver for that site, but in the meantime, I just disabled the container temporarily.
Just wanted to mention that in the last few days, I discovered that the settings on the temp container lets you set a time frame for the deletion of the cookies it contains. When I did that, I also set up notifications so I can see in real time as the temp container works. It’s interesting. I had been wondering how Linux handled cookies and I kept reading that it wasn’t something to worry about. At least now I can see that these Firefox temp containers are holding and destroying cookies as instructed.