Tweaking browser settings for privacy

NP_complete · Tux's lil' helper Joined: 21 Mar 2009 Posts: 137

Does anything in Firefox allow me to do the following:

1. To NOT accept any Cookies.
2. To load images ONLY from the websites I am visiting. (Loading third party images is often used for tracking).

When I surf the net, I always do the above, plus disable Javascript and change the User-Agent string to look like I am using Windows. Galeon used to make this a breeze. Apparently, it's been removed in Fedora 15, so I am feeling stuck. My ultimate goal is to appear as anonymous as possible and avoid executing malicious Javascript.

If Firefox doesn't allow these customizations, maybe Epiphany does? Or Chrome?

Many thanks.

tomk · Posted: Wed Jul 27, 2011 9:36 am Post subject:

Moved from Multimedia to Networking & Security as it fits better here.

You can disable cookies with firefox as explained here.
For Images you can control what is shown from the about:config permissions.default.image setting. 1 means loads all images, 2 means block all images and 3 means only load images from the site you are visiting.

You can also use firefox in private browsing mode which prevents setting of history, cookies, etc.

Some of the other features you're after can be done with add-ons such as User Agent Switcher, NoScript and Flashblock.
_________________
Search | Read | Answer | Report | Strip

Hu · Administrator Joined: 06 Mar 2007 Posts: 23062

Disabling all cookies tends to cause a lot of problems, unfortunately. I try my best to run a similar setup, and frequently encounter sites where it is painfully obvious that no one even considered a browser that is not set to always accept all cookies. I have even seen servers that panic and keep sending you a 302 "Temporarily Moved" pointing back to the URL you requested (or sometimes to a URL which itself sends a 302 back to the URL you requested). Firefox will follow those for a while, then give up and display a XUL error page.

tuber · Apprentice Joined: 12 Nov 2004 Posts: 267

As Hu mentioned, browsing without any cookies can be painful, but with CookieSafe, you can easily manage your cookies. If you want anonymous browsing, definitely check out TorButton, though the latency can be bad.