the website I am visiting doesnt work on firefox.

One more disgusting tactic of those corporations! You can access these websites on Firefox by using an add-on Chrome Mask which would make websites think you're using Chrome, not Firefox.

You're right but Chromium still belongs to Google and they can change it whenever the want, and do anything to it. For example, if Google, say, removes a feature from Chromium or a line of code in it, this change will not be limited to just Chrome but also other Chromium browsers like Brave, Vivaldi, etc. including FOSS ones like Cromite. And the second reason to avoid Chromium is so as to not let them become a monopoly in this as well. If they control this market too, that's a win for them.

My thoughts on Vivaldi:

It's a decent browser however I'd recommend avoiding Chromium wherever if possible. But the biggest downside of Vivaldi for me is that it's not fully open-source. I would almost always prefer open-source software rather than closed-source even if the parent company or developer is trusted. I would not recommend Vivaldi because of this reason.

My thoughts on Qwant:

Again, the same thing here, it is trusted but it's still not open-source so it's a no from me.

What I'd suggest:

• Firefox-based browsers:

All of these suggestions will contain ONLY free and open source softwares.

I would suggest you to use one of these or other Firefox forks instead of chromium browsers but, ultimately, it's upto you what you choose.

All of these Firefox forks remove the telemetry that you'll find in the original Firefox browser.

1. IronFox: Privacy-wise, it's pretty strong. The only counterpoint I've noticed is that the sites may break sometimes because of its aggressive anti-fingerprinting and stuff. This is available for Android.

2. Fennec: This is the one I use and I've found it pretty nice. I've been using it for about 4-5 months now. This is available for Android.

3. LibreWolf: This is what I think is the best for desktop. It is very good for privacy. This is available for Windows, Linux, and MacOS.

4. Zen Browser: This browser has a nice balance between privacy and convenience. Pretty customizable, plus I like the UI of it. This is available for Windows, Linux, and MacOS.

Note: I haven't tried these but they're reputed and famous in similar private-focused communities.

5. Mullvad Browser: The privacy is strong but it is not very customizable. This is available for Windows, Linux, and Mac OS.

6. Waterfox: This is a famous and reputed browser too. This is available for Android, Windows, Linux, and MacOS.

• Search Engine:

All these suggestions are also FOSS and can be self-hosted.

1. SearXNG. It's the most popular right now and it's completely FOSS.

Note: I haven't tried the following these, as well, but they're also pretty famous and respected in privacy-related spaces.

2. Apache Solr

3. YaCy

4. Typesense

I've presented my suggestions but you should choice the one that suits you the best while also providing you with sufficient privacy and always avoid closed-source softwares even if the parent company or developer is trusted.

I second this. Always try to avoid Chromium if possible.

Where's the evidence for this though?

Not disagreeing with you, just curious.

Truecaller always seemed very fishy to me anyways. I live in a country where most people use Truecaller— even businesses. This makes it difficult for me to quit Truecaller altogether, and it pisses me off.

I have evidence that truecaller has sold my contact to call centers.

How did you get that evidence?

You can at least try to minimize the information that they squeeze out of you. It's either that you can give least amount of information such as just device you use, or whether you use Google or not, etc. or you could let them know every single detail in your life, everything you do, everywhere you go, even everything you think. That's what this community is about. It's not about being an alien to the world but minimizing the invasion of our privacy as much as is possible.

And many people do actually boycott everything, they quit all electronic devices and live the old school way, away from highly urbanized or metropolitan areas. If that's what you want, be a hermit like them.

This is such a stupid law. A lot of things require encryption, even the government itself need end-to-end encryption. Are they going to ban Signal and Briar next?

These laws are made by people who have the slightest knowledge about the subjects they're making the laws on. Oppressing the people is their only concern, everything is else anti-nationalist activity.

This is the first biggest step towards a totalitarian society: cut all (end-to-end encrypted and private) communications across citizens. I hope the people there realise this and protest against this law or something. U.K. is literally becoming Oceania.

Exactly. People who aren't as tech savvy would think something's wrong because they think companies won't lie to them/they'd think they have no other way and they would have to opt back in.

There isn't any explanation about what the user can do on that banner. It's just "accept it or we'll annoy you and make it very inconvenient to use the service." And most people would hit 'accept'.

Privacy keeps worsening day by day now. 2026 feels just as privacy-centered as 1984 nowadays.

UK Govt. to hold three-month consultation to improve kids' safety online

The United Kingdom, or rather the Oceania Kingdom (1984 reference), will come after every service available on the internet. They're definitely not doing this to protect kids, it's to suppress our voices. We lose all of our privacy and anonymity the moment we give them our face and data.

Most people use VPNs to bypass state-imposed restrictions or anonymity but if you'd have to give your data and face to the government before you access the VPN, it kind of just negates the reason why one would use a VPN.

This reminds me of the news I once read about amateur radio operators who were arrested and are facing death penalty. The government accused them for 'espionage' and 'treason' without any evidences.

One of the Belarusian HAM operator posted on Reddit: “State propaganda unironically claims these men were ‘pumping state secrets out of the air’ using nothing more than basic $25 Baofeng handhelds and consumer-grade SDR dongles. Any operator knows that hardware like this is physically incapable of cracking the modern AES-256 digital encryption used by government security forces. It is a technical fraud, yet they are being charged with High Treason and Espionage. The punishment in Belarus for these charges is life in prison or the death penalty.”

I would not be surprised if I ever any other news like that from the U.K. in a few months or years.

The moment we give our face or our data to companies and the government, it's no longer our face.

2026 is gonna be 1984.

These banners are so big as to obscure the majority of the content on the site.

They're designed that way intentionally so that it becomes too annoying and it forces us to opt back in for the sake of convenience for using the service.

If that shit ever pops up in any of my devices, I'm not gonna use that website ever. These corporate tricks are just disgusting.

Yes, it works for Android