What extensions would you absolutely recommend to someone who use Firefox?

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Or a fork of Firefox like fennec

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Remove YouTube Suggestions (assuming you still use the YouTube client directly).

Also, Tampermonkey, to install single-site scripts that you can customize and with more limited permissions.

What do people think about "I still don't care about cookies"?

I have no evidence to back this up, but I've seen lots of reports that suggest if you just hide the consent form, you're assumed to have accepted all of the cookies. This is why Consent-o-Matic is preferable.

It's not about privacy per se but Tridactyl "A Vim-like interface for Firefox, inspired by Vimperator/Pentadactyl." because, like Userscripts - Tampermonkey, you can basically redesign any website.

A basic privacy oriented solution I made was using autocmd https://tridactyl.xyz/build/static/docs/modules/src_excmds.html#autocmd to redirect YouTube content to my local https://github.com/user234683/youtube-local and that works even with embeds.

uBlock Origin is the must have.
Personally I also use Dark Reader, NoScript, View Page Source and User-Agent Switcher.

NoScript is duplicative with ublock medium mode, I am amazed people are still using it. It hasn’t been relevant for 5+ years by my estimation. Why use two addons when one you’re already using does it better?

https://github.com/gorhill/ublock/wiki/Blocking-mode:-medium-mode

Roughly similar to using Adblock Plus with many filter lists + NoScript with 1st-party scripts/frames automatically trusted.

The why is browser fingerprinting. Which Google started using as of January to track everyone.

https://abrahamjuliot.github.io/creepjs/

So if you go to ANY page with Google trackers, even in private mode, Google knows.

But having two addons will make your fingerprint even larger. So your argument doesn't explain why you should use two addons instead on one that does it both.

No, you use one as the backup. That's why I said use JShelter, but if a site breaks beyond use, switch IPs and then reload with NoScript instead to be more selective of what is blocked and what's not. That way I can still block Cloudflare and Google and Apple and still let the actual site load. And JScreep seems (for me, YMMV) to treat each as distinct fingerprints.

IMO if you know you can have multiple fingerprint profiles anyway based on which combo of extensions you use that do roughly the same job, that's a net benefit.

Because I'm used to noscript, I've tried using uBlock in stricter than default settings but found it hard to get into their flag system.
I do not trust 1st party by default in noscript and am pleasantly surprised anytime a site works without js.

Dark reader is getting my browser slow lately. Is it just me?

It also happened to me. Now I am using Page Shadow.

I’ll give that a go thanks

This seems so much better, thanks you!

happens occasionally, but not only "lately", I have been using it for many years and it does (rarely, but occasionally) cause performance drops, yes

I'm probably slow enough to not notice, or maybe the site is already cached when I'm done with noscript.

  • ublock origin, first last and if necessary only extension you really need
  • dark reader
  • youtube shorts block - converts shorts links into regular video player with actual fucking seek/volume controls
  • youtube sponsor block - I pay for my bandwidth, I decide what gets downloaded.
  • privacy badger

You don't need privacy badger anymore if you have ublock

Huh, I didn't realize. I've had it installed forever, I guess I didn't realize. Oh well, I just switched back to Brave and I don't even have uBO installed anymore and it's been fine.

Youtube Unhook lets you disable specific parts of the website: Shorts, Recommendations, Comments, and lets you redirect from startpage to subscriptions like in the olden days.

Bring back the dislike button or something like that for YT.

Shorts are the only thing that really annoyed me, I don't mind recommendations or comments, and I just keep a tab open on my subs page all the time anyway.

Doesn't Firefox have reader mode with dark mode built in? Don't get me wrong, I find that functionality indispensable, but I didn't think it required a plugin.

Maybe? shrug I didn't look too hard, I stumbled across someone talking about dark reader and was like 'I must have this in my life.'

Libredirect is generally more useful than sponsorblock since it is built into Invidious now

i’m turd burglar and i approve this message

Dont forget SponsorBlock if you spend any time on youtube

Sponsorblock is magic. I don't know how it doesn't have trolls ruining it.

Users voting on whether a segment is good or bad. I always give a thumbs up to the segments that were well-defined and a thumbs-down to segments that cut off half a sentence unnecessarily etc.

I've never seen the option to vote, maybe it's easier on desktop. I'm on revanced

uBlock Origin

Sponsorblock

Multi account containers

Password manager like Bitwarden

Bypass Paywalls Clean

Do not use cloud password managers.
If you can, self host your bitwarden instance.

My suggestion is KeePass (XC on PC and DX on mobile) with syncthing. It's very flexible and useful for stuff beyond passwords, like ids, notes, emails etc

Category "how the hell isn't this included by default" :
- Copy Plain Text: Adds an option in the right click menu to copy the selected text as plain text, without formatting
- Copy Link Text : Adds an option in the right click menu to copy the text of a link
- Markdown Reader: Show formatted markdown. I tried several extensions for this and this is the one I prefer personally. It has an index panel on the left which is sooo useful.

Category "Preserving your mental health online" :
- uBlock Origin: You really need to block those ads
- Consent-O-Matic: Never see a cookie pop-up again in your life (it auto accepts or refuse in your place).
- SponsorBlock: Skips Youtube sponsorships. You can define which ones you want to skip and which you want to watch (paid ads, self promo, etc)
- Return Youtube Dislike: Show the number of dislikes on videos. It's not a real number, it's extrapolated based on how many people with the app have clicked dislike.
- Youtube No Translate: Keeps titles, descriptions and audio tracks in their original language

Category "Usefull" :
- KeePassXC-Browser: To access your password database from your browser
- Whatever fingerprinting protection you can find (Canvas, Fonts, WebGL, etc.. half those I used have been pulled, haven't found a replacement for all of them)

Category "Would be nice if..." :
- A user agent switcher... if you want all websites to block you 😑
- NoScript: Block javascript and create custom rules to allow it only when and where you want. Or the reverse. It was great a few years ago but I've stopped using it because websites require allowing more and more otherwise nothing works and it's hell can we cancel javascript please?
- Dark Reader: Dark mode for all websites. Can make some websites unreadable, but you can turn it off for that website. Makes everything much slower though so I don't use it.

BTW for plain text, ctrl+shift+V pastes as plain text.

For copying link text if you hold alt and drag you can select text without activating the link, then ctrl+C as usual.

I had no idea about the second one! I still like having a context menu option, right click + E seems much less of a hassle than selecting the text and copying, but it's nice to know you can select part of a link! How did I never notice that you could in 20 years? 😅

Yeah alt+select doesn't work 100% of the time too so the extension sounds nice lol

Pro-tip: you may not need Consent-O-Matic. There are uBlock Origin cookie banner filters that you can enable (even though they break some websites, even if it's rare)

Thanks, that's nice to know!

But Consent-O-Matic does not break websites (very rarely so), so it's better than uBlock in that specific area.

  • ublock origin
  • dark reader
  • firenvim
  • vimium
  • containers

For android mobile I use Ironfox.

https://gitlab.com/ironfox-oss/IronFox

Its a fork of the now discontinued Mull browser.

Ohhh, I loved Mull. Good to hear someone forked it.

I've tried it a few times but tend to fall back to Fennec. While Librewolf on desktop is restrictive by design, it also still allows you tweak the settings to your liking (with some scolding). Ironfox felt much more locked down to me, and if a site was completely broken, I couldn't do anything about it in the settings.

Huh? You can totally change the advanced settings (about:config) for Ironfox. I literally had to do that a few months ago to get a certain feature working for an extension I use cause some javascript and SCP settings were disabled for privacy/security.

Now, I completely understand why you wouldn't want to spend hours tweaking settings and reading Mozilla's source code forms to get stuff to work, so if that's the reason for switching then I get it. But you can absolutely change the config settings, unlike vanilla Android Firefox which doesn't enable about:config

I went on the same path. I was surprised how many sites were broken in IronFox.

I know the mobile browser space is just weird overall, especially Firefox forks, but it definitely stood out to me. Things that work totally fine in Librewolf out-of-the-box were totally busted, and most settings are inaccessible.

I'm still keeping an eye on it though, as Fennec leaves a lot to be desired, and using a chromium-based browser like Vanadium won't do it for me because I rely so much on the cross-platform sync functions.

also to add Iron fox is slow as hell. I personally use cromite.

uBlock Origin and nothing else. The more extensions, the more unique you're fingerprint will be and the bigger your attack surface.

For vanilla FF I use multi - account containers, uBlock, and privacy badger.

For other FF forks like Librewolf, I get more blocky, like JShelter, a random agent switcher, and if that breaks a site beyond use I try Chameleon and NoScirpt.

uBlock Origin
Firefox Multi-Account Contaniners (and then use them)
If you use some kind of webmail like google, hotmail, yahoo, then: Webmail Ad Blocker
Remove FBclid and UTM

Optional
Dark Reader
Enhancer for Youtube

ublock origin, nutensor(umatrix), twp, bypass paywalls clean, dark reader, vimfx

ublock origin, dark background and light text

  • uBlock Origin
  • NoScript
  • JShelter
  • CSS Exfil Protection
  • Libredirect
  • Indie Wiki Buddy

I also sometimes use the IceCat extensions, too:

  • LibreJS
  • LibrifyJS
  • Reveal hidden HTML
  • Searxes' Third-party Request blocker
  • Workarounds for nonfree JS

Jshelter is good. You know it works because many shady websites won't even load bx they are big bad they can't finger print you lol

For me:

  • uBlock origin
  • Libredirect
  • Decentraleyes (Although I don't really know how much it really helps for privacy)

LocalCDN is more up to date then Decentralize.

I use it with umatrix

To support independent Wikis
- Indie Wiki Buddy

For those who are multilingual that are annoyed at websites autotranslating via a shitty ai
- Reddit Untranslate
- Youtube Anti Translate

To make Youtube better
- SponsorBlock
- YouTube Row Fixer
- Hide Youtube-Shorts

I think Youtube Anti Translate only works on video titles and descriptions? There's Youtube No Translate which does the same and also keeps the audio track in the original language so you don't get a shitty AI dub

Depends on the user.

For me it's uBlock Origin, NoScript, Cookie AutoDelete and Binnen-I be gone

No one mentioned Privacy Badger yet. Is there something I don't know?

Most people will tell you that it's been made obsolete now since (1) it doesn't use behavioural analysis to detect trackers anymore, it just uses a pre-defined list of trackers to block (2) browsers (especially firefox) now have built-in tracker blocking (3) ublock origin blocks trackers by default anyway.

I don't think it hurts to still use it, just as a belt and braces approach, but I suppose it's possible it makes your browser fingerprint more unique.

Interesting. Fingerprinting is a good point, although I've switched to a combo of Vivaldi and Librewolf browsers so they're already fairly unique unfortunately.

uBlock Origin is a lot better.

Privacy Badger can actually be detrimental because it makes you more unique while adding basically nothing useful.

I like how Privacy Badger replaces tracking icons/widgets. I’m guessing uBO just removes them outright? I haven’t really bothered to check the differences.

Yes ublock will just completely block/remove all tracking and annoyances, plus whatever other filters you enable.

i fkin love noscript it pairs well with ublock origin

What advantage does it have compared to extended mode of ublock? I used NoScript years ago but switched to ublock to block scripts and resources.

NoScript breaks every site and does very little good.

breaking websites is a good thing actually, as it disables any and all javascript and webgl tracking (and you can unbreak a website anyway if you really need javascript for it to function)

It's more that I have to re-enable scripts on most websites, so it's not giving me much benefit.

I don't think NoScript is a good idea in 2025. It breaks virtually all websites.

uBlock Origin + cookie banner filters should be enough

I'm not gonna lie, I'm a little bit of an extensions hoarder, which is bad for fingerprinting 😣, but I seriously do use the extra ones.

Vital:

uBlock - obviously, some people even suggest to only use this extension and nothing else to reduce fingerprinting. Make sure to enable those filters! Also check out the advanced mode, eliminates the need for NoScript.

Not Vital But Really Good To Have:

LibRedirect - Never worry again about visiting the original social media site, you can immediately be redirected to a proxy version of the site that doesn't stalk you. Great when I'm forced to click a Twitter, Reddit, Youtube, etc. link. Unfortunately, some proxy services are dead (Instagram, Tiktok, Invidious is always under threat, etc.)

Bitwarden - Password manager

Dark Reader - Nice, especially on fingerprint resisting browsers like Librewolf that don't let your browser/sites see your system settings to automatically pick the dark mode of a website. Have singed my eyes a couple times.

For Language Learners (like me):

Yomitan - The GOAT of tools, a popup dictionary that can be used to instantly look up the definition of a word in your target language, and connects with Anki, a flashcard app. I use it for making vocabulary cards from Japanese media I consume. Literally all the other resources are meant to be paired with this.

Asbplayer - Lets you add subtitles to whatever media you're streaming and makes the text selectable. Paired with Yomitan, you can easily make Anki flashcards from the TV/Movies/Videos you watch.

Lap Clipboard Inserter - By using a clipboard extension with Textractor, you can hook a game/visual novel and auto-copy all the game text to a webpage, which can be paired with Yomitan (you guessed it!) to look up words. You have to turn it on for individual pages, so don't worry about it constantly stalking you.

Neat, But Random:

Mastodon Streetpass - Helps you figure out if a person is on Mastodon by looking for a custom link on their site. Collects a list of them and tells you the date that it found the account. Basically just browse as usual and it will passively collect a list.

A fellow Japanese learner and VN enjoyer! Are you on Linux? I ran into issues with Lap Clipboard Inserter not capturing any clipboard events when the window was in the background, and I think it's an issue with Wayland, since all firefox-based browsers had the same issue but chromium-based ones didn't

Yep, I used Fedora Kinoite now! I originally used Fedora Silverblue, but that used GNOME + Wayland, and I dropped it cause spectacle couldn't take screenshots in a Wayland based system. I switched to Kinoite because it uses Plasma instead. I don't know if Wayland causes clipboard issues, as I never tested/got that far when trying to make Silverblue work. I just rebased cause I couldn't get ShareX (the tool I used while on Windows) to work with WINE.

I use my clipboard tool with FF and have little to no issues there. The only thing I will note is, Textractor hooks the sentences a little weirdly. None of the hooks are perfect, the best one I can find that isn't complete gibberish is a hook that simply copies the sentence twice. All the others repeat characters in a sentence like 50 times, so they're unsalvageable. Not sure if it's a browser hook thing, or a trying to force Windows apps in weird ways thing, but it's not as smooth as a process compared to native Windows 😅

At least from my research, Kinoite is Wayland. I think you can go to KDE (Plasma) settings, find the "About this System" page and it should say "Graphics Platform: Wayland". GNOME and KDE are desktop environments, X11 and Wayland are display managers (I think of them like rendering engines).Though it's true that Spectacle has issues on Wayland, apparently all screenshot apps do, due to security restrictions and slow development. But Spectacle works great on KDE because Spectacle is made by KDE, and gets special privileges when run on KDE desktop. Same with GNOME screenshot when run on GNOME desktop. Third-party screenshot tools don't get these privileges and don't work well on either (at least when using Wayland), you can read more about it here: https://github.com/ksnip/ksnip/issues/727.

As far as Textractor goes, I haven't had any issues with text hooking, but from my experience it heavily depends on the game, and I've only tested 2 games on linux so far. But if I'm reading you correctly...are you using Firefox inside WINE?

By the way, in case you are interested, I do have a hacky script that lets me use keyboard shortcuts to attach screenshots and audio recordings to my anki cards. Just be warned that it is QUITE hacky, especially since I use a Fedora Atomic distro.

Surprised no one posted this link: https://awesome-privacy.xyz/security-tools/browser-extensions

Great resource btw, check out the website for other tools.

JShelter and Decentraleyes. And uBlock Origins, but it's already popular without me. :)

Ooh damn I didn't know about that, nice. I see JShelter is NLNet funded, makes perfect sense.

Thanks for sharing, trying!

Why Decentraleyes and not LocalCDN (which I believe is more updated)?

Library extension. Go to as page selling a book (Amazon, Powell's, etc.) and the extension will show you if you're local library has the book, how many copies, and if they're available for checkout. You can then click through and put a hold on the book.

Great cure for impulse buying of books. I've read more and bought less since using it.

Wow! Brilliant! Unfortunately my local library is not in their catalogue. They do have a public catalog and even a way to get online books, also with search capabilities, so hopefully they can find a way to integrate. I submitted their data to the extension maintainers.

Ublock origin
Sponsor Block
Foxy Gestures

Ublock origin and privacy badger

Adnausuem, Consent-o-matic

ublock orgin stylus if u use user styles and sidebery

ublock origin and umatrix, anything else only makes you more fingerprintable

Apart from those already mentioned I need Sidebery

Many commenters mentioned ublock, but don't forget to enable additional filters for shit like cookie banners or other annoyances