Yup. That’s what I use (Android. Dunno if it’s possible on iOS due to Apple’s restrictions)
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Yes! Once you have Firefox installed on Android, just load up firefox, then go to the menu in the top right, > Extensions >Extension Manager- You should be able to search for uBlock Origin there.
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Nope, extensions are still not allowed on browsers in iOS. But you can install Firefox Focus, which is a privacy-oriented fork just for iPhones.
I also run my iPhone in lockdown mode for other security reasons. It does prevent a lot of crap from loading, but it requires a lot of manual maintenance to load or bypass restrictions on certain sites.
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Unless they’ve changed things, it’s worse than “no extensions”. It’s “no browsers not based on Safari”. I don’t keep that close an eye on it though 
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Thanks for letting me know. That sucks. Firefox sounds like the next logical move at this point, but it feels like a step back since I moved away from it and college to jump on the Chrome train.
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Good thing the rest of us are here to help!
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Sometimes a misstep must be corrected.
Ditch everything to do with Google, but in particular Chrime and Google search itself. There is nothing to be lost by doing so and much to be gained. They are coasting on a reputation they have not in any way deserved in at very least a decade. It’s no longer a case of “how would anything be different if you chose to be evil?” But rather “how would anything be different if you chose to be the most incompetent, the most corrupt, you could possibly be?”
Google is a sewer on fire.
As pointed out above there are other issues with browsers (Chromium, Brave is dodgy, Apple are utter monopolist scum and if you think you are using Chrome on iOS, tough, you aren’t), but Google’s sewer fire is a class above and beyond.
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That’s going to be a process given devices I’ve invested in and usage through work, but at the very least I’m off of Chrome and Google search on my PC and phone.
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and even firefox – which is what i use ( its containers extension is great for walling off personal browsing, from work, and things like my bank ) – it wouldn’t exist without google.
they keep it propped up precisely to avoid the antitrust issues i think
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The fundamental problem is that functionality that can intercept and modify the behavior of your webpage, for the positive purpose of removing annoying ads, can also be used for nefarious purpose of intercepting your sensitive inputs (like your banking credentials, or, much worse for me, capturing SSO credentials)
We don’t talk about it as much, but Google has been dealing with and removing many such nefarious plugins on the Chrome Webstore.
This is the motivation behind limiting/removing the functionality that uBlock Origin depends on.
Also, recall that uBlock Origin exists in the first place because the original uBlock was itself diverted
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The thing about the walled garden approach is that it protects you against everything, except the person who put up the walls in the first place.
It is in a way like a from of digital serfdom. The lord of the manor will protect you from the bandits in the woods, but wait- there’s an increasing rent extracted, and he lets through this other idiot who demands 10% of your crop as well, and then you find you can’t leave.
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I may be jaded (
), but I think the malicious extensions that steal credentials may just be a convenient bad guy they can foist some blame onto. I certainly don’t believe for a second that Google is wiping away any tears over disabling ad and tracking blockers. And their new privacy sandbox is little more than redistributing the analysis and counting bits of their algorithms to client computers and tossing a “privacy” label in the release notes.
Everything Google has done since acquiring Doubleclick is what a Bond villain would have done in their shoes.
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Especially when you consider all the malicious ads.
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I’ve found it a bit clunky on mobile tho (and it’s fucking huge). I use Brave on my phone but FF everywhere else.
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… on Android there is a project called FFUpdater that is like an app store for open-source web browsers, many of which work fine with uBlock Origin
There is a link to F-Droid but it might be better to install directly from github (it’s the file named “ffupdater-release.apk”)
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Once the bastards started subjecting users to multiple un-close-able pop-ups and slide-ins, too many of which were virus-ridden and made noise, I tried out all the ad- and content-blockers. I kept the good 'uns, and still use a couple.
They aren’t ads, they’re an attack.
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There are so many replies here that I’m late to the party, but I started using Firefox when it was still in version 0.8 (beta).
I use Chrome/Edge on my work laptop because that is what my employer prefers, but my daily (home) browsers have (and have always been since version 0.8) Firefox.
Full disclosure: It was my understanding years ago that one’s browser usage should be separated by purpose; as such, all of my banking and bill pay related tasks are handled by Edge only. All other browsing is done via Firefox.
eta to further add full disclosure:
My ISP is Google Fiber & my phone is a Pixel, but I disagree with Google in this issue.
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IMO, the best Chromium-based browser that works with Chrome extensions is Vivaldi.
However, my daily driver is Firefox and only resort to other browsers for specific sites that suck don’t work with Firefox for some reason.
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