Browsing the web more securely

As many people nowadays I browse the web every day for hours on end, either for business purposes, to stay informed or simply as a leisure activity. However, since many websites are riddled with annoying ads or unnecessary scripts and tracking cookies, I'd prefer it if I had more control over my browsing experience. So far I used the browser plugins adblock to disable ads and noscipt to turn off javascript except for websites I whitelist. Recently AdBlock allowed "acceptable ads" to be whitelisted however and I don't feel that noscript gives me enough fine grained control over what I allow to run in my browser. Are there any better alternatives to brows the web more securely?
Submitted by Alexander Götz on Sat, 12/03/2016 - 15:03
1 answer

use uMatrix and uBlock browser plugins

To browse the web more securely you should use the browser plugins uBlock and uMatrix.

uBlock (https://www.ublock.org/) is a powerful advertisement blocker that does not allow for paid whitelisting like adblock does, you as the user remain in control over which ads you want to block. It is open source and also blocks trackers. Furthermore it is less likely to be detected by anti-ad-block mechanisms which some sites deploy to coerce you into enabling ads.

uMatrix (https://github.com/gorhill/uMatrix) is another browser plugin that can help you with your browsing experience, although is more targeted at advanced users. It effectively acts as a firewall for your browser that by default blocks cookies, scripts, plugins, css, images, frames and XHR. The user is expected to whitelist for each website which functionality it is allowed to use, which makes very fine grained control possible. It may seem annoying to use at first since you need to whitelist sites that you trust, but in my experience it is worth it.

Submitted by Alexander Götz on Sat, 12/03/2016 - 15:14