I’m currently using LibreWolf (a Firefox fork) as my primary browser, with uBlock Origin set to block scripts by default on all but a few sites. When i need to use a site that’s not one of these trusted ones and refuses to work without JS (for example, forums.linuxmint.com), is it better for my privacy to temporarily allow JS or to open the site in a different browser like FF or Vivaldi?
Does switching browsers actually make it harder to track me, especially ones that don’t have full modern CSS and JS support like Dillo, Links2, Alhena, and NetSurf?
Tracking from WHOM and thus WHY should be the question.
It’s different to be tracked for profit, e.g. Google or Meta, versus for political or corporate espionage purposes.
The former is basically volunteering information through bad practices. Those companies do NOT care about “you” as an individual. In fact they arguably do not even know who you are. Avoiding their services is basically enough. It might be inconvenient but it’s easy : just do not.
The later is a totally different beast. If somehow the FSB, because you criticized Putin, or NSO Group, for something similar or because you have engineer something strategic to a business competitor who is a client of theirs, then you will be specifically targeted. This is an entirely different situation and IMHO radically more demanding. You basically don’t have to just care about privacy good practices, which is enough for the former, but rather know the state of the art of security.
So… assuming you “just” worry about surveillance capitalism and hopefully live in a jurisdiction benefiting from the Brussels effect with e.g GDPR related laws, either way is fine.
Treating Google and Meta as apolitical in contrast to the scaaaary foreign entities - when they are currently aiding genocide and more-spectacular-than-usual immigration cruelties - is a particularly funny example of how liberal rhetoric rapidly ages out of relevance to its own premises. If you ever read about the Cold War and wonder why people were so easily duped by McCarthyism, just examine your own thought processes. Little changed.
On a more practical note, most people are concerned with personal safety, not ideology, so entities that will block you & have you arrested for political reasons e.g. Microsoft, Meta, and Google are far from ideal for Americans. If your beliefs are still outside that expansive group of reasons just sit tight you’ll probably care in time. Russians should avoid Russian services. You get the idea
I didn’t.