I use LibreWolf with ublock + noScript, and 4 different browser containers. The most common problems I face are mostly related to noScript, specially when webs try to redirect or there are cross-site requests. Those normally get fixed once I disable some/all noScript restrictions. Another common source of problems is the different captcha scripts, specially when the Google one, which I block by default obviously. Other than that I'm pretty content with it.
this post was submitted on 27 Jul 2026
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Privacy
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Use Librewolf' policies.json and remove the points causing most breakage. I think they use resist.fingerprinting? Which is kind of a master toggle that causes all kinds of mayhem but doesn't help much outside exact lookalikes like Tor browser.
My recommendations would be: use normal Firefox if that works for you, install uBlock Origin, enable Strict Tracking Protection in the settings, disable all the telemetry, enable the “AI kill switch” if you do not want any AI (including on-device translations) in your browser.
You can turn on the AI killswitch and then allow just the translations. If you do that any new AI features added in the future will be disabled by default but translations will always work.
did that and you're still tracked.
switching to windows and chrome seems to be the only thing that makes server side tracking hiccup, but only for a while.
and not break websites?
That's the hard part! IME the more private you try to make FF, the more sites will break. Well not just FF prob any browser, but I noticed it with FF when changing about:config stuff to ressist fingerprinters and improve other privacy. BTW, Edge works since Edge is Chromium with some MS shit slathered on.
There's a bunch you can tweak in about:config. Like blocking battery charge queries. turning off various telemetry from Moz. Resist fingerprinting. Cross site referrers. WebRTC. Disable Google Safebrowsing! More private search engine. But the more you change, the more sites will break. In the end, FF with all privacy tweaks, is essentially equal to Librewolf. So if you have probs with LW, prob same with FF.
I have complained to a local utility co that their site breaks in FF. Called them up. They basically told me they get so few FF users they don't care and they told me to install Chrome. Everyone is on one of 2 phone browers, or a few on desktop Chrome.
Which is the prob with losing too much market share. It's a downward spiral of irrelevancy. But we need ppl using non-Chrome browsers, or G will fuck the web even more than it already is.
There is a whole ass other topic about Identity Resolution on the web and how more and more sites will block you if the identity resolver they use can't peg your meatspace ID.
The problem is that you're coming at this from 2 different ends of the spectrum. These privacy browsers disable a bunch of functionality, because that functionality, whether intentional or not (let's be realistic, 90% of it is intentional) can be used to track you across the web. Naturally, this disabling of functionality also breaks websites.
The solution is to find a browser somewhere in the middle. I'll get a bunch of shit here surely, but this is why I use and recommend Brave. There is a Shields dropdown where you can easily toggle a bunch of privacy features on and off on a per-site basis. Set the global default to private, then you can turn things off as necessary to get the page working (if it's not a malicious page from Meta or Google, etc.).
Don't recommend Brave, their CEO is crap. Better to go for Firefox and harden it.
You can use that for daily stuff, and Librewolf for more privacy-sensitive things.
All CEOs are crap. Find me another browser with proper fingerprinting resistance and convenient per-site privacy controls.
As a bonus for Brave, you can maybe be part of affiliate link scamming networks, their own personal ad spying network instead of google, Microsoft, or apple. You can even have built-in crypto-bro gambling!
Not only that, but all of the drawbacks of chromium!
Also the ad revenue that they make off you can go to funding conservative mass-surveillance candidates and lobbying against same-sex marriage.
This sounds like a settings problem, especially since Firefox works. If I had to guess, you have scripts blocked. The modern web is made of JavaScript. You may have to let that one go. That's the only setting I've personally experienced that breaks things besides Tor connections or VPN which can technically be built into a browser.
To all: Yeah, I realize that I can't have 100% privacy and still use a mainline browser, really. I know that in those, there will always be something under the hood that is tracking me. I'm just trying to find a happy medium of being able to pay my gas bill, or order groceries without broke ass websites and not giving my fingerprints and facemap away. (I'm exaggerating, but only a little...)
being able to pay my gas bill
Have you considered running two browsers? That's what I do.
I use one for things that have to know me anyway. Bills, utilities. Banking. W/e. It's FF based. It's locked down against analytics and trackers. But not to extreme levels. Required sites still work.
The other, for looking up games on vintage board game sites. Movie/TV shows. News sites. Stuff that has no gd business knowing my ID. That browser is normally Tor. If a site blocks it, fine. It isn't essential b/c all my bills and essentials use the other one.
You kind of can't. Web sites are inherently invasive, and mostly as a side effect of AI scraping making site operators throw up more barriers, it's gotten harder to extract just the text. In the past you could browse with something like lynx but now that almost never works.
If you're really determined you could get a burner phone and run something like a scraper yourself, to extract the article content and send it to you.