Some (really) nice tips & addons for Firefox#
Privacy and tranquility. If those words means something, then you came at the right place :
Search engine#
Open a page on your favorite search engine, like :
Then click on the address bar, and click on the bottom right favicon that got the small "plus" icon ; it will add this search engine to Firefox.
Alternatively, you can use https://mycroftproject.com/search-engines.html then search and add the search engine you like ! For instance I use the « Startpage - français (no filter) » search engine. Useful and discrete, as it's not adding my search queries to the address bar.
Preferences#
Some little things I do when using Firefox for the first time :
- Home, homepage & new windows : Blank page (don't want to see Amazon and all the bastards)
- New tabs : Blank page (same)
- Search : pick your favorite search engine (see our previous section)
- Privacy and security : Strict (little privacy improvements)
- Send "do not track" : Always (they don't care anyway)
- Collecting data by Firefox : Disallow, Disallow (don't know why should I send some data to Mozzila, so...)
Pocket#
You see that little icon at the right of the address bar ? Right click on it, and choose "remove from the toolbar".
Toolbar#
Right click on it, customize.
Drag & drop the "Send a link" email icon to the toolbar.
Because it's just cool to email nice URLS to our nice friends, without using any (private) social media or (private) instant messaging. And don't tell me that you or your friend is using Gmail.
Addons party time#
Click on the addon "puzzle" icon, then :
Installation#
Search & add to Firefox :
- uBlock Origin, the best adblock for now.
- Privacy Badger, to also remove tracking cookies from the CDN requests
- I still don't care about cookies, to close those annoying cookies windows, popups, lightboxs, whatever.
- Cookie AutoDelete, to automatically delete cookies, cache, indexDB, localStorage, plugin storage, service workers.
- Privacy Redirect, to use non-tracking alternatives from Twitter, YouTube, Reddit, etc. And it does also replace all those invasive YouTube iframe.
- SingleFile, to quickly save a webpage as a single HTML file.
- Bypass Paywalls Clean for Firefox, an unofficial addon that just, you know. To install it, download the latest release (bypass_paywalls_clean-something.xpi), go on the firefox downloads tab and click on the downloaded file. Allow Firefox to add it.
- Disable JavaScript, to quickly disable JavaScript from a webpage, because you don't need fancy JavaScript all the time.
Configuration#
uBlock Origin configuration#
Click on the extension (puzzle) icon on the tool bar, click on uBlock origin, open the dashboard (cogwheel icon), Filter lists tab, Click on "update now".
You can also click on the extension (puzzle) icon on the tool bar, right click on uBlock origin and choose "pin to the toolbar", to see the trackers being blocked for every page.
Cookie AutoDelete#
Click on the extension (puzzle) icon on the tool bar, click on Cookie AutoDelete, parameters, click on "activate automatic cleanup", scroll down, other options, then click on every checkbox to activate cache cleaning, indexedDB cleaning, etc.
Scroll down a little bit and don't forget to disable "display notification after automatic cleanup".
You can also click on the extension (puzzle) icon on the tool bar, right click on Cookie AutoDelete and choose "pin to the toolbar", to see the cookies being blocked (or authorized) for every page.
Privacy Redirect#
I personally do redirect for :
- Nitter (against Twitter trackers)
- Invidious (against YouTube trackers)
- OpenStreetMap (against Google Maps trackers)
I also use the following instances :
- Nitter :
https://nitter.fdn.fr - Invidious :
https://invidious.fdn.fr - Reddit :
https://libreddit.kavin.rocks
Credits#
The photograph "Firefox" is from Paul Copeland and licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 2.0.
And thanks to SebSauvage for his Firefox essential addons article (french)