Deliverer of ideas for a living. Believer in internet autonomy, dignity. I upkeep instances of FOSS platforms like this for the masses. Previously on Twitter under the same handle. I do software things, but also I don’t.

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Joined 3 years ago
Cake day: June 5th, 2023
  • chirospasm@lemmy.mltoOpen Source@lemmy.ml•You need to stop using Brave
    8·
    14 days ago

    If it’s viable for you, slightly modified Mulvad browser + Searxing for search.

    Mullvad browser is a variant of the Tor browser, but rather than being used to connect to Tor, it’s built on the stripped away version of Firefox that Tor builds. This means no ‘phoning home’ telemetry to Mozilla or Google. The only default connection Mullvad browser uses – and this might be why I would suggest modifying it – is the DNS gets routed through Mullvad. Nothing wrong with that, as they have some solid adblocking DNS servers. But: having a choice for that is good. The default should not be assumed.

    Searxing uses a number of search indexes that have been consistently effective when compared to commercial search engines, and it’s open source and deployable on, say, a home server. There used to be some public instances available. Searxing is good.

    Were setting up a Searxing service for yourself somewhere not as viable, and you want to try a service that you pay for (rather than them using your data as ‘payment’), I would recommend something like Kagi. They offer an interesting feature to their service, and this is why I suggest them: they have a privacy tokenized search, which valdidates but obsfucates you as a user when you make a search request. I think it is smartly engineered, and I can appreciate it for what it is.

    For privacy and security purposes, alike, I would avoid Zen and Floorp. They do not get security updates as often.