Kelson Reviews Stuff - Page 12

When you really want (or need) to stay private while using the web, Tor is the way to go.

Private windows in normal browsers only “hide” your activity from other websites and your history. VPNs only hide your activity from whoever’s providing your internet connection. Even blocking trackers (or all third party cookies) like LibreWolf and Brave or using Privacy Badger do only goes so far (though it’s certainly a good start). (Speaking of Brave, that browser’s “Tor mode” is less thorough than the real thing.)

Drawbacks

The privacy does come at a cost, though:

• Tor bounces your activity around through multiple relays, kind of like chaining several VPNs together, to hide where you’re connecting from, which slows things down.
• The browser removes features that can be used to “fingerprint” your setup (even more than LibreWolf does), so sites that use those features or info for legit purposes can’t.
• While it supports Firefox extensions, they recommend not installing any in order to avoid adding more attack surface or (again) fingerprinting data.
• Some websites block access from Tor because attackers also use it to hide who and where they are.

What it’s For

OK, so it’s inconvenient for everyday browsing or shopping. But if you need to hide your tracks from a stalker or abuser, a harassment campaign, an abusive company with network access, an oppressive government agency, or just a nosy sysadmin, Tor can help you do that.

Tor can also get around network-level censorship to some extent, both with regular websites that might be blocked and by connecting to “onion” sites, websites hosted on the TOR network.

Even then, someone with access to your network traffic can still see that you are using Tor…just not what you’re doing with it. Snowflake and bridges are add-on layers designed to help disguise that further.

Using It

It’s built on Firefox, so [most of that review applies] as far as actually using it goes, both on desktop and Android. The hardening approach makes the experience a bit more like LibreWolf or IronFox. Sometimes you’ll get the wrong localization of a site depending on where the exit node ends up (like using a VPN, except with a VPN, you’re usually picking the exit yourself).

EFF has a guide to Tor as part of their Surveillance Self-Defense collection, and Tor’s own guide goes into more detail.

The browser is available on Windows, macOS, Linux (though not on ARM yet) and Android (you can add a repository to F-Droid). There’s no iOS version, but they recommend Onion Browser (iOS) and Orbot (not a browser, but proxies apps like a Tor VPN on both iOS and Android).

A privacy-hardened Firefox variation for Android, comparable to LibreWolf on desktops. It removes Mozilla tracking and services like Pocket, but keeps sync (which is end-to-end encrypted) and local translations (which happen on your device). Like LibreWolf, it disables or narrows some features that can leak data, but those changes can break some websites.

Using it is similar to using mobile Firefox, and virtually identical to using mobile Waterfox. I’m trying both out on the same phone and I sometimes forget which one I’m using. The biggest noticeable difference is that IronFox doesn’t support WebGL unless I dig through advanced settings to re-enable it. (Update: When I was trying both out back in March, Waterfox was missing in-browser translations, but both apps support them now.)

Even then, I’ve still had trouble with a few sites failing to work correctly. The worst is when an error pops up at the end of a checkout process, and you can’t be sure whether the order didn’t get created, or the response didn’t make it to your phone – and I’ve had both happen just in the past few days.

IronFox’s web presence is minimal – mainly its Gitlab repository and mirrors. I imagine this is at least in part because it’s (sort of) a new project, picking up the Mull browser from DivestOS, which was discontinued in December. It’s not on Google Play, but it’s on several alternative app stores, including F-Droid (you need to add their repo), Accrescent and Obtanium.

Firefox Sync works across all Firefox-based browsers I’ve tried so far, not just Firefox itself. OK, all except IceCat, which I think actually removes the code that connects to it.

Even the security-conscious LibreWolf and IronFox recommend using it, despite Mozilla’s AI shenanigans, because it’s encrypted end-to-end and it’s possible to host your own server. (I have not tried this.)

One nice consequence is that I can mix and match browsers, especially since there are some that are only built for the desktop and others that are only built for mobile. I can send a page from IronFox on my phone to Zen on my desktop. (I can also sync history between different browsers that I’m trying out.)

Downsides: It doesn’t work with Chromium-based or other browsers (at least not directly), and doesn’t have an online web view. That’s why I turn off bookmarks in the Firefox Sync settings and use Floccus for those. Plus if you use several different browsers with it, settings from one can leak over to another if you don’t turn that option off.

That said, I do know of at least one command-line client (amusingly named ffsclient), which has been used to create a bookmarks sync plugin for Dillo. Yes, Dillo!

Lighter than most Le Guin I’ve read, Changing Planes is a Gulliver’s Travels for the present era, the social satire made possible through interdimensional travel. (When you’re stuck in a dismal airport between planes, well, you’re already between planes, right?)

Some chapters are told first person as the narrator explores a new reality (sometimes sticking to the tourist spots, sometimes going off the beaten path). Others read more like magazine articles or encyclopedia entries. Still others mix first- and second-hand accounts with the narrator’s reactions to them.

There’s a world that imported genetic engineering tech without first figuring out evolution and genetics, and proceeded to run amok with it. A world where people stop talking in adolescence, and tourists tend to project whatever they imagine onto the adults’ inner lives. Another where the language is too complex for outsiders to learn or for the auto-translator to process. Worlds where war and battle are everyday things, but aren’t used for domination. One where everyone is royalty, except for a couple of families of commoners (whom the royals are obsessed with). Another that was colonized and turned into a string of theme parks. Worlds where people migrate like birds, or fly, but the non-flyers consider the winged ones to be disabled.

There’s a lot of whimsy, humor and sarcasm. It’s not particularly deep (especially compared to her major works), but it does give you a lot to think about.

For someone new to Mastodon, or on a medium-to-big-server (but not following a lot of people), it’s a good place to start.

The signup flow is a compromise: Mastodon.social or pick from a list with filters showing sites that allow open registration. It’s both the Fediverse’s biggest strength that you can choose a server and its biggest barrier to adoption that you have to. I’d prefer a few more options on the entry screen, but I’ve seen enough “I couldn’t decide on an instance!” posts to know why there’s only one.

I had no trouble logging into my backup account at Wandering Shop. Or, for that matter, into my GoToSocial account. Any server software implementing the Mastodon API should work with it, and I’m glad to see that the app doesn’t restrict you to only using Mastodon servers.

It works smoothly, it’s mostly intuitive, and it can even switch smoothly between multiple accounts. If you’re logged into more than one, it will ask you which you want to use when sharing from another app.

It’s missing advanced features like the federated timeline or scheduled posts, and lists are only reachable through the menu. One of the reasons I’ve stuck with Tusky is that I can put lists on the toolbar and switch between “conversations” and “art” with a single tap.

I can see this being a “good enough” app for a lot of people depending on use case, so it’s either 3 stars or 4. But advanced users are probably better off using the Moshidon variant with more features, or a different app like Tusky or Phanpy), or just installing their server’s web interface to their phone as a web app.