- Mozilla Firefox is arguably the best browser available that combines strong privacy protection features, good security, active development, and regular updates. The newest version of Firefox is fast, light-weight, and packed full of privacy and security features.
- When you turn private browser on, Firefox will even warn you that the feature is not 100% protection of your identity on the internet. If that is what you are looking for then you might want to check out a technology known as TOR. It’s not 100% either but it is a lot better than any other options out there.
Firefox has made giant strides in other ways to become more secure. Mozilla has tweaked the notifications for possible attack sites, become better at integrating with popular antivirus packages, added private browsing mode, and also included a “Do Not Track” option to head off tracking cookies. Firefox offers a suite of security features that any internet user will appreciate: phishing and malware protection, blocking reported attack websites/web forgeries, and warning users when a site is trying to install add-ons. Firefox is relatively lightweight, compared with its competitors. The Top 5 Firefox Security Addons When it comes to speed, privacy and security, Mozilla Firefox has the best to offer but you can still make it better by using addons. Categories: Internet Security.
If you use a Mac or have an iPhone, chances are you’re familiar with the Safari web browser. The fact that it’s pre-installed as the default browser for Apple product users definitely gives it an early advantage, but Firefox has its own set of useful features that make it an attractive alternative and can now be set as your default browser on your Mac and iPhone. Here we’ll explore the main differences between our browser and Safari in terms of privacy, utility and portability between devices.
Security and Privacy |
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Private Browsing mode |
Blocks third-party tracking cookies by default |
Blocks cryptomining scripts |
Blocks social trackers |
Privacy has become a white hot topic for tech companies as they realize more and more people are feeling vulnerable to things like data breaches, ad trackers and hackers. But when it comes down to the real tools people use to navigate the actual interwebs, is it all talk or are they actually taking action to keep your data secure?
As alluded to before, Apple is one of those companies that recently decided to step up their privacy game. Not long ago, Apple implemented cross-site tracking prevention in Safari, which prevents ads from following you around the internet. Safari also offers a strong password suggestion when you sign up for a new account on any website. And if you’re invested in the iCloud ecosystem, it syncs that password securely with your other devices, so you never actually have to remember it.
Like Safari, we at Firefox have made a point of focusing on privacy and security. But unlike Safari, we’ve been standing on the privacy soap box for a long time. In fact, Mozilla (our parent company) was one of the first voices in the tech community to sound the alarm for online privacy.
Our Private Browsing mode blocks trackers and erases your passwords, cookies and history every time you close it. But you can also experience our advanced privacy features even in regular browsing mode. With the latest edition of Firefox, enhanced tracking prevention is turned on by default. This prevents things like cross-site trackers from following you as you jump around the web. Also, with Facebook being caught out almost daily for privacy problems, our Facebook Container extension makes a lot of sense. It makes it harder for Facebook to track you around the web — similar to what Safari does to prevent cross-site tracking — but Firefox actually isolates your Facebook session into a separate container blocking Facebook from tracking what you do on other websites. Why do they need to know what you look up on WebMD anyway?
As far as security goes, Firefox is solid there as well. Any time you’re in Firefox, you can right-click in the password field to securely generate a strong password using the Fill Password option. When you save your new password, we will prompt you to save to its built-in password manager, Lockwise. We also serve up users and account holders with another free and useful product called Monitor that automatically alerts you if your data is included in a known data breach.
If you choose to use Safari, you’re in safe hands as long as you’re using an Apple device. But Safari only works on Apple devices, whereas Firefox works on Windows, macOS, iOS, Android and Linux. So no matter what operating system you choose, Firefox has you covered with our security and privacy protections.
Utility
Utility |
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Autoplay blocking |
Tab browsing |
Bookmark manager |
Automatically fills out forms |
Search engine options |
Text to speech |
Reader mode |
Spell checking |
Web extensions/Add-ons |
In-browser screenshot tool |
Apple is widely known for its closed ecosystem as it relates to creating software for its products. But inside the App Store, it does offer a section to developers to create plugins and add-ons to make the browser more robust. These extensions are also browsable through the App Store and easily added to Safari.
In addition to the regular set of features you’d expect in a browser, such as tabbed browsing and private browsing, Safari has some unexpected features as well. For instance, if a user were to right-click a word anywhere on a page inside Safari, then click Look Up, they’d get a dictionary definition plus entries from the thesaurus, App Store, movies and more. Safari’s Parental Controls are easy to customize, allowing the adults to breathe a little easier when the kids begin to get curious about the internet.
Like Safari, Firefox encourages its enthusiastic developer community to create add-ons and extensions to the browser. And since our platform is open-source, there’s a vast selection adding a wealth of functionality.
Also, when you sign up for a Firefox account, you get access to unique services like Pocket that integrate directly into the browser. The Pocket for Firefox button lets you save web pages and videos to Pocket in just one click, so you can read a clean, distraction-free version whenever and wherever you want — even offline.
Firefox is also great for video and audio. With autoplay blocking built directly into the browser and turned on automatically, no website will ever shout or bark at you uninvited.
Firefox And Privacy
Screenshots is another popular feature built right into the Firefox browser, allowing you to easily capture a picture of your screen. When you take a screenshot, you can choose to copy the file or choose which folder you want to find it in, instead of cluttering your desktop.
Both browsers have a lot of crossover features, as well as some unique functions. It’s worth mentioning, if you take a lot of screenshots, you’ll wonder how you ever lived without this handy feature that’s built right into Firefox. But if you’re just looking for a fast, private browser for surfing and shopping, then you may want to give Firefox a try — especially if you’ve been exclusively using Safari because it came preloaded as the default browser on your computer. Eventually, you’ll discover which one is more suited to your needs.
Download Firefox Browser
Portability |
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OS availability |
Mobile OS availability |
Syncs with mobile |
Password management |
Primary password |
Firefox and Safari both provide a seamless experience when moving from desktop to mobile browsing or vice versa. For Safari, one of its main strengths is its continuity features. It syncs your bookmarks, tabs, history and more to iCloud so they’re available on all your devices. That means you can open a tab on your iPhone and have it also appear on your macOS laptop with just a click.
Firefox also offers a similar sync feature when you sign up for a free Firefox Account that enables users to easily synchronize their bookmarks, browsing history, preferences, passwords, filled forms, add-ons, and the last 25 opened tabs across multiple computers. What sets Firefox apart from Safari is that it is available on any desktop or mobile platform, iOS, Android, Windows or macOS, boosting its portability across any device you may own.
The Firefox app for iOS and Android is one of the fastest browsers available and also has solid security and anti-tracking features — a huge plus if you’re constantly bouncing between a laptop and mobile devices.
Since Safari is Apple’s proprietary web browser, its iCloud syncing works exclusively with Apple products. This can be somewhat limiting if, for example, you’re both an Android user and an iPhone user or if you have a Windows based PC for work but use an iPhone as your personal device.
Overall Assessment
Safari does a great job of making the browsing experience simple, fast, and seamless if you’re an Apple user with multiple Apple products. Like Safari, Firefox is a fast and utilitarian browser, but privacy and cross-platform compatibility are our defining features. Firefox updates each month with new features and functionality. For example, one recent update switched on our Enhanced Tracking Protection (ETP) by default for new users, which effectively blocks cookies and cross-site trackers.
In the end, it just boils down to what you value in your browser. If you’re integrated with the Apple ecosystem, Safari is still a great choice. But if you value having the latest and greatest privacy protections and being able to work across multiple operating systems, we think Firefox is your best bet. Firefox is also a solid option as a secondary browser for those Apple-exclusive users who may want to switch into a different browser for those online moments that call for extra layers of privacy protection.
The comparisons made here were done so with default settings and across browser release versions as follows:
Firefox (81) | Safari (14)
This page is updated semi-quarterly to reflect latest versioning and may not always reflect latest updates.
Firefox (81) | Safari (14)
This page is updated semi-quarterly to reflect latest versioning and may not always reflect latest updates.
Mozilla is now offering a browser-based proxy which they are calling Firefox Private Network. Despite the name, this browser proxy is not a VPN (virtual private network). Unlike Firefox Private Network, a true VPN will offer complete encryption for all traffic on your operating system. While Firefox Private Network only works within the browser, it still offers more security than no proxy.
For basic users who don’t mind the limitations of a browser proxy, this Firefox VPN extension may not be a bad idea. More serious users, however, may want to consider other options offering more security and online anonymity. Here are some of the drawbacks I found when testing and researching Firefox Private Network:
- Browser-only encryption: Only traffic through the Firefox browser is getting encrypted. All traffic outside of your Firefox browser remains exposed.
- Cloudflare: All traffic is being routed through Cloudflare, which has partnered with Mozilla to offer this service.
- US jurisdiction: Being based in the US, Cloudflare, Mozilla, and your data are all subject to US laws and data requests. This makes Cloudflare a target for US authorities demanding access to data, along with gag orders forbidding disclosure – like we’ve seen before with Lavabit and Riseup.
- Data collection (logs): When your traffic passes through Cloudflare servers, Cloudflare will be logging your IP address and the sites you visit. Mozilla is also recording technical, interaction, and registration data.
- No location selection: Unlike other browser-based proxies, Firefox Private Network (VPN) does not offer any location selection.
Firefox Private Network may be a good choice for some people, such as those wanting a basic level of security on public WiFi. For anyone seeking higher levels of security and anonymity, there are some better options to consider that we’ll discuss below.
What is a Firefox VPN and how does it work?
A Firefox VPN can mean different things to different people:
- Many people are calling Firefox Private Network a “VPN” – but it’s not really a VPN and we’ll explain why below.
- Others are simply looking to use a VPN with Firefox – or what some call a “Firefox VPN”. There are different options for doing this that we’ll discuss later.
As a general rule of thumb, any browser-based “VPN” is just a proxy that is routing your traffic through a proxy server. The same can be said of Opera’s free VPN, which is also just an extension within the Opera browser. Now let’s take a closer look at Firefox Private Network.
What is Firefox Private Network?
Firefox Private Network is a browser-based proxy that was officially launched in September 2019. Here are some key points from Mozilla’s announcement:
- Firefox Private Network is currently in beta (testing)
- It is only available for people in the United States. (But you can easily spoof a US IP address by connecting to a VPN server in the US.)
- Mobile versions of Firefox do not support this feature – just desktop Firefox.
You can install Firefox Private Network here. Before you do that, however, you may want to carefully read the Privacy Policy, which leads us to our next point…
Firefox Private Network and Cloudflare
The organization behind Firefox Private Network is Mozilla. Here at Restore Privacy we’re fans of Mozilla, which is increasingly offering products and services for privacy-conscious users. Firefox is currently our top recommendation in the secure browser guide. (See also the Firefox privacy guide for custom tweaks and setup options.)
To offer Firefox Private Network, Mozilla has teamed up with Cloudflare, one of the world’s largest CDN operators. The partnership with Cloudflare has both pros and cons. On a positive note, Cloudflare has a massive network of servers that can offer great performance for Firefox users who activate the Private Network feature.
There are also some drawbacks with using Cloudflare.
US jurisdiction
The United States has proven to be a very bad jurisdiction for privacy-focused servers. Examples of this can be seen with:
- Lavabit being forced to hand over encryption keys to give US authorities complete access to user data. Rather than comply, Lavabit was forced to shut down.
- Riseup, a VPN and email service based in Seattle, also received legal demands for access to customer data, as well as gag orders preventing any kind of disclosure.
Cloudflare is a large US company. With this latest move to route Firefox Private Network traffic through their servers, it will be a juicy target for data requests. So let’s examine the privacy policy.
Data collection (logs)
Firefox Private Network has its own privacy policy, which can be found here. Reading through it, I found some things worth noting:
Cloudflare receives your web browsing data to provide the Service: As you browse, Firefox will encrypt the data you send to websites and send it to Cloudflare. Cloudflare will also receive your computer’s IP address, the IP address of the site you are browsing to, the timestamp, and a unique identifier. Cloudflare does not share this data with others and deletes this after 24 hours unless necessary for its security or legal obligations. Learn more at Cloudflare’s Privacy Policy for Firefox Private Network.
While there are some VPNs that keep connection logs, very few VPNs keep usage logs – i.e. the sites you are visiting. This is the opposite of privacy. The logging of timestamps and unique identifiers is also concerning, especially since this information could potentially be kept beyond the 24 hour window if deemed “necessary” by Cloudflare.
In addition to Cloudflare, Mozilla is also collecting some data:
Technical data. Firefox sends Mozilla data about your device, operating system, version, and a unique identifier that Mozilla connects to your Firefox Account.
Interaction data. Mozilla receives data about when you install Firefox Private Network, when you use the service, and engagement with our surveys and Firefox.
Registration data. This service requires a Firefox Account, which sends Mozilla your email address, locale, and IP address. Learn more about Firefox Account data practices.
There is more information about Mozilla telemetry data collection here.
While I understand this product is geared more toward a general audience that may be less privacy-conscious, I do not like how Cloudflare is logging usage data (the sites you visit).
Is Firefox Good For Privacy Protection
Firefox Private Network testing
Firefox Private Network is very easy to start using, but you need to be on a desktop version of Firefox with a US source IP address for access. This brings up a confirmation window discussing permissions and the data collection:
At this point, to actually use Firefox Private Network, you’ll need to create an account with Firefox.
To create a Firefox account, you’ll need to provide a valid email address, confirm your email, and create a password. This will be linked up to your “unique identifier” that we covered earlier. Once you do this, you can sign in through the browser extension and start using it.
To activate the “Firefox VPN” you simply need to toggle the switch and you should be connected in a few seconds to a nearby Cloudflare server.
As you can see above, there is no ability to select the proxy location you’ll be using. It’s only On or Off.
Is the Firefox VPN fast?
In running some basic tests, I found Firefox Private Network to be fast. But this is not surprising given that:
- It’s a lightweight proxy extension using HTTPS encryption.
- It’s running on Cloudflare infrastructure, a large global CDN network with high-bandwidth capacity.
To test Firefox Private Network, I used the VPN client on my computer to connect to a server in New York. (I’m currently in Europe and otherwise wouldn’t be able to use this.) My baseline speed for these tests was around 100 Mbps. Then I connected the Firefox VPN extension, which gave me good speeds close to my baseline.
Notice above that the server I tested is being recognized as belonging to Cloudflare Warp. Warp is the VPN that Cloudflare is building, which it announced last April. This project is separate from the Firefox partnership, but appears to share the same server infrastructure.
VPN for Firefox: different options
Aside from Firefox’s VPN browser extension project, there are some other options available.
1. Free proxy extensions (generally not recommended)
In the “free” category we see dozens of free VPN extensions that proxy traffic through the browser. However, these dubious free services are often data collection tools in disguise. The risks and dangers are the same as using free VPN services.
There are many malicious free browser extensions, so this category should probably be avoided.
2. Paid Firefox VPN proxy extensions
Another Firefox secure proxy extension I’ve tested (and liked) is the one from VPN.ac (a paid VPN service based in Romania). The VPN.ac browser extension also uses the same HTTPS (proxy) encryption as before, but it gives you access to a large selection of servers around the world.
There are other good VPN services that offer proxy browser extensions. NordVPN is one such option (based in Panama).
Note: VPN.ac and NordVPN offer standard VPN clients for your operating system, in addition to browser proxy extensions.
3. VPN client running on your operating system
Lastly, you can always run a VPN client (app) on your operating system. This will route all traffic through the VPN server, including everything in Firefox (and any other browser/app).
Given our discussion of Cloudflare’s extensive logging policy, there are a handful of no logs VPN services that have been verified either through audits or other external events. Unlike with Cloudflare, none of the VPNs recommended on Restore Privacy collect usage data (the websites you visit).
And lastly, good VPNs are also not free (if something is free, you may just be the product).
Who should use Firefox Private Network?
In their official announcement, Mozilla highlighted three “key features” of Firefox Private Network:
- Protection when in public WiFi access points
- Internet Protocol (IP) addresses are hidden so it’s harder to track you
- Toggle the switch on at any time.
I think the biggest use case for this Firefox VPN is simply a basic level of protection on public WiFi. If you don’t care about Cloudflare recording your source IP address and every website you visit, it may be a good fit. But this is also a drawback, since the “privacy” tool is recording your activities – even if for only 24 hours.
Now to the next question.
Who should NOT use Firefox Private Network?
- Those who do not want their browsing activity being collected and logged by Cloudflare.
- Anyone wanting a VPN in a safe privacy jurisdiction (outside of the 5/9/14 Eyes countries).
- Users who want the ability to select which location they route their traffic through.
- Anyone who wants traffic on their entire operating system encrypted (rather than just through Firefox browser).
And if you are still confused about exactly how a VPN differs from a proxy, see my guide explaining what is a VPN.
Conclusion on Firefox VPNs
Like any other privacy tool, Firefox Private Network comes with both pros and cons. It’s great to see Mozilla catering to privacy-conscious users with this latest development. And we can conclude that this is a step in the right direction.
For basic users in the United States who want more security on public WiFi, this Firefox VPN extension may not be a bad choice. In fact, it may just be one of the best “free” options out there, despite some of the limitations and drawbacks.
For those seeking a high standard of security and online anonymity, I’d recommend a good VPN service that will encrypt all traffic on your operating system.