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Comment by sidibe | Hacker News Reader

The reason Firefox is higher is probably because it's the easiest one to block ads on mobile. Most people I know who use Firefox on mobile do so specifically to have ublock origin. I personally use chrome on desktop but Firefox on mobile.

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The reason Firefox is higher is probably because users who choose it are more educated about the internet and are probably the ones who know how to use an adblocker. So it is unlikely that the proportion of users who use Firefox globally is higher than what stats give us.

I thought Firefox desktop and mobile blocked Google Analytics by default these days, as part of the general anti-tracking protections. Maybe I’m wrong, though?

Funnily enough, Privacy Badger is an excellent ad blocker. Turns out 99% of ads come from tracking domains. You'd think the ad people would split up the tracking from actually showing the ad, but apparently it's not worth showing an impression without also tracking the user.

Exactly right. Imagine you have a list of 10,000 people who have visited your website whom you want to target with ads. You don't want to show anybody your ad more than ten times. You're using an ad network that reaches ten million people. Your ad will only appear when the trackers tell you that someone is on your target list.

With so many options for Chromium-based browsers, is there a reason why you still use Chrome?

I personally use Edge on desktop and iPhone because I give so much data to Google by using a gmail account that it lightens the load a little bit to use something other than Chrome. It functions the same as far as I see and it runs all the same plugins.

Not op.

I also use Edge on my Android, it has a built-in adblock plus. I prefer unlock origin, but it's better than nothing.

Doesn't firefox on android allow ublock origin?

yes.

and privacy badger, https everywhere, decentraleyes and a number of privacy addons.

My reason for using chrome is I don't mind it. I think I'm less suspicious of Google than most of HN. They don't allow extensions on mobile though

I use Brave and am very happy with it

You have to be on Android to use addons with mobile Firefox. Since Android=Google, doesn't that mean you are giving Google all your data including browsing data and the fact that you are blocking ads?

I don't know, but it definitely blocks ads which is why I use it.

Yes, but at least I don't have to see as many ads, and my phone's CPU doesn't spend as much time rendering ads, and my limited mobile bandwidth isn't all sucked up by ads.

Only if you are running Google Play services. You can certainly opt out of this if you like. I run LineageOS and do just that, but I also don't need my phone for much more than the basics, and F-Droid can fill those in for my use case.

Why would you assume they are getting all browsing data?

Motive + ability. They want all the data and they own the OS.

Why would you assume they aren't?

Motive + ability aren't the only things. That'd be a clear invasion of privacy that you could expect to win a court case over.

there's never been any evidence that Google is capturing all internet traffic on android devices.

that being said...

The other option is even less anti-consumer than privacy hating Google.

There's no Apple phone with an sdcard slot. No Apple phone with a headphone jack. Repair your iPhone ? Well Apple just slows down your device under the guise of prolonging its life.

No Apple phone where you can install apps through a non-Apple owned store.

Not a single iPhone has a built in FM tuner.

And for all the privacy flag waving from Apple over the years, they're now scanning local files for child porn. This is a feature set that will just grow.

Firefox is likely higher because FF users are more likely to have Ublock or some other content blocker installed. I'd also guess FF users are older, on average. Some will remember a time when FF was the clear choice over IE6. I used Chrome exclusively for a long time, then went back to FF once Chrome started to automatically log me into Chrome with my Google account.

There's a whole generation of users who first experienced the web via mobile browsers that don't block anything. When they become old enough to start using laptops and desktops, I imagine that it won't occur to them that an analytics-free and ad-free world is possible.

Ad Block Plus browser on Android is easier. I use both but don't bother blocking ads in FF since I use reader mode 99% of the time.

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