#use Firefox

[cryoverkiltmilk]

In case you wanted a really simple illustration of how AI-generated results are poisoning the accuracy of search engines. (Also worth mentioning I didn't get this on DuckDuckGo, my default engine with Firefox. Not anywhere in the first page of results.)

[discolesbo]

[rarilee33]

annoyed with the assumption that all younger ppl use google (even in uni). Like no I don't want to use the mega giant that fucking steals every aspect of you ffs plus everything about its operation is terrible. Give me some boolean operator advanced search proquest shit and promote information literacy

[totallynotreimuhakurei]

Guise chrome is bad!1 don't use it use this browser!!!

*looks inside*

"chromium"

[xipiti]

Searching Google for downloads of popular software has always come with risks, but over the past few months, it has been downright dangerous, according to researchers and a pseudorandom collection of queries.

“Threat researchers are used to seeing a moderate flow of malvertising via Google Ads,” volunteers at Spamhaus wrote on Thursday. “However, over the past few days, researchers have witnessed a massive spike affecting numerous famous brands, with multiple malware being utilized. This is not ‘the norm.’”

One of many new threats: MalVirt

The surge is coming from numerous malware families, including AuroraStealer, IcedID, Meta Stealer, RedLine Stealer, Vidar, Formbook, and XLoader. In the past, these families typically relied on phishing and malicious spam that attached Microsoft Word documents with booby-trapped macros. Over the past month, Google Ads has become the go-to place for criminals to spread their malicious wares that are disguised as legitimate downloads by impersonating brands such as Adobe Reader, Gimp, Microsoft Teams, OBS, Slack, Tor, and Thunderbird.

On the same day that Spamhaus published its report, researchers from security firm Sentinel One documented an advanced Google malvertising campaign pushing multiple malicious loaders implemented in .NET. Sentinel One has dubbed these loaders MalVirt. At the moment, the MalVirt loaders are being used to distribute malware most commonly known as XLoader, available for both Windows and macOS. XLoader is a successor to malware also known as Formbook. Threat actors use XLoader to steal contacts' data and other sensitive information from infected devices.

[littletissueghosts]

Is it just me, or does the Google verification system feel intentionally dumb? Like, the three options are that you either have to turn off any VPNs you're using and give Google more data on you, own an Android phone connected to a Google account, or give Google biometric data? And you can't even turn this off for accounts that are low-security. Call me a conspiracy theorist, but it sometimes feels like Google's mandatory verification for incredibly low-security e-mail accounts is just another method of getting your data.

[kiwibirb1]

Okay so I've tried to switch to Firefox many times, but each time i download the launcher, go through the installation process, and then open the browser it just immediately closes again. I've tried to find the problem, but nothing I've done seems to be working. Does anyone have any suggestions? Using chrome sucks but my computer doesn't want to switch.

[cryoverkiltmilk]

Having to use Chrome to get a website to play nice with accepting a payment/order is a spiritual equivalent of pretending to be straight at a family gathering.

[titleknown]

So, I found this video via @hirosensei reblogging that post about the change in web browser use over the years, and I felt it deserved its own post, because holy crap, Google's basically using dirty tricks to try and hoodwink us into giving them a monopoly, that's fucked up.

[yayroos]

Think gigantic corporations are generally bad?

Wanna have less to do with them if you can?

Step 1: de-google your life! Use Firefox, use a secure email provider, and an alternative cloud storage provider

Step 2: Federated social media! Join Mastodon, no ads no algorithm no money whatsoever, it's all volunteers and nerds.

Step 3: (advanced) de-microsoft your life! Look at non microsoft office products, consider linux instead of windows.

If you want help with any of the above, or more please feel free to DM me or send an ask, I'm happy to talk about:

Firefox

Anti-tracking extensions

VPNs

Password managers

Mastodon and the fediverse

Secure email

other google alternatives

microsoft alternatives

and just tech and personal privacy in general

I don't know everything about everything obviously, but I'm happy to help literally anyone who wants to do any of this stuff at all, and every step you take improves your personal digital privacy. There are things you can do right now without changing any habits that will help.

[royalninja]

loving late stage web 2.0

tumblr - needs three bespoke extension and a theme installed via a fourth to be configured how i like

twitter - needs an extension to use the old theme to undo the dumbass rebrand

youtube - only able to watch videos without being logged in because i refuse to not use adblock

reddit - have been using the old reddit option for 6 years and i'm genuinely astonished they haven't arbitrarily gotten rid of it yet

instagram - i fucking refuse to log into it on my desktop cause facebook loves tracking shit (firefox has an addon that auto-contains it but still)

[spaceyshenanigans]

🎉🎉🎉

[snarwin]

guy who installs firefox and ublock origin on mobile

guy who installs an adblocker and forgets about it and lives in a beautiful world where online ads have become much less frequent

[lonely-space-ace]

my computer broke (rip) so I’ve been borrowing my sisters and I’m so used to my Firefox/ad blockers that I go onto hers with all it’s Microsoft edge capitalism glory and I’m like “damn bitch you live like this???”