1.1 To Arkenfox or Not

🟩 FOREWORD

Arkenfox is a resource ¹, feel free to use any, all or none of it - just HEED the warnings, notes and documentation.

¹ ⭐ There is also an interactive version at https://arkenfox.github.io/gui that you can search, filter, collapse and expand to your heart's content. Thanks icpantsparti2.

🟪 TOR BROWSER

If your threat model calls for anonymity and advanced fingerprinting protection, USE TOR BROWSER. You can also use Tor Browser for everyday browsing as another secondary browser. However, you're going to want a non-Tor Browser browser too, which is Firefox, so carry on reading :).

🟪 A FEW SETTINGS & EXTENSIONS

For most people, this is all you really need.

• 🟦 TECHLORE VIDEO (8m58s)

  • This supplementary video is well worth watching for those people who like visuals
  • You should still read this wiki page before deciding
  • Links: youtube | odysee

In the Before Times, mankind suffered ... but nowadays, together with a select few extensions, you will get most of the privacy possible with Firefox's built-in solutions: such as:

• HTTPS-Only Mode
• State Partitioning
  • Network Partitioning
  • Total Cookie Protection (dFPI / Dynamic First Party Isolation)
  • Enhanced Cookie Clearing along with sanitizing¹ on close
• Site Isolation (Fission)
• CRLite
• and many more

Some of these solutions are the default, or will be. Others are easily changed:

• ☰ Settings > Privacy & Security >
  • Enhanced Tracking Protection > Strict
  • Cookies and Site Data > Delete cookies and site data when Firefox closes (you can add exceptions)
  • HTTPS-Only Mode > Enable HTTPS-Only Mode in all windows

Now you can start enjoying some of the Tor Level protections arkenfox has enjoyed since Firefox 52.

After that, the benefits get incrementally smaller, but they do add up: your mileage will vary depending on your needs. Each arkenfox release generally sees the number of prefs flipped decrease, and we've been doing this since the Before Times. We hope that arkenfox will one day become obsolete.

¹ Sanitizing refers to clearing site and other data such as caches and histories.

🟪 FINGERPRINTING

Most of the above deals with state ¹ and other cross-origin linkability mechanisms such as navigational tracking.

Stateless tracking, or fingerprinting, is a little more complex. If your threat model calls for anonymity and advanced fingerprinting protection, THEN USE TOR BROWSER. Otherwise you can read more about it later in the wiki where arkenfox helps mitigate it, but you have options.

¹ State refers to stored (disk/memory) client-side data such as those listed here.

🟪 EXPECTATIONS

If you're going to use arkenfox's user.js, then don't expect to just start using it as is. You WILL NEED TO CREATE OVERRIDES, and FULLY read this wiki.

---

🟩 Next: User.js