I'm currently trying to decide between using Google Chrome or Mozilla Firefox browsers. Both web browsers have their strengths and weaknesses, so it would be up you to choose which one suits your needs. But this is something I am not concern of at the moment; I am worried about what kind of information is being recorded by theirs syncing services. I use these services a lot, because I have one computer at work and another computer at home, and I need to have these to computers web browsers synced. Chrome sync and Firefox sync services are perfect for me, so, as I said before, I am not concerned about their functionalities.
I want to understand what kind of information Google and Firefox are collecting and using from those services. Currently I'm using Chromium instead of Chrome, because all (I guess) telemetry functionalities are off. But I heard that they do have access to the information that's being uploaded to their sync services, so it would not really protect me to use Chromium if my browsing history is being exposed. What about Firefox sync? is it really encrypted so nobody will be able to see my browsing history?
Both can be encrypted client side so at least as far as they say neither company can see the data. It is possible to run your own Firefox sync server if you're extra paranoid though.
I was thinking the same thing, is there no "dumb" browser out there? without sync and logging and all those things? Just a web renderer with URL input field would be nice.
Firefox is going to be completely rebased and reworked this year. It's going to also shift to webkit, which is basically what Chromium is based on.
Also, if DRM becomes part of the W3C spec, nothing is safe any more, and you never know whether what you see in your browser is what you actually wanted to see, even if you're now part of the undoubtedly less than 1% of users who actually go through the trouble of making sure they actually are on the real internet and see what they want to see, by using only end-to-end encrypted traffic, DNSMASQ/DNSSEC/DNSCrypt, non-tracking and multi-sourcing non-regioning multi-language search methods, and strict script and ad hygiene.
On top of that, the question about browsing privacy is completely futile if the person that asks the question is using a personal device that is wirelessly connected, even if it's only a feature phone, but certainly if it's a smartphone.
Sure, the cookie monsters are always there. That is one of the next things for me to get rid of.... Maybe mastodon is the open source answer, will give that a try.