Browser De-Slop

Browser De-Slop | Cullum Smith

Modern browsers ship with an insane amount of bloatware.

You can point and click in the browser settings to disable most of it. Or, you can de-slop the browser by force using a policy file.

Policy File Locations

To get started, create a JSON file at the appropriate path for your distribution. Here’s a few that I’m aware of:

Distribution Browser Path

FreeBSD Chromium /usr/local/etc/chromium/policies/managed/policies.json

FreeBSD Firefox /usr/local/lib/firefox/distribution/policies.json

Ubuntu Chrome /etc/opt/chrome/policies/managed/policies.json

Ubuntu Chromium /etc/chromium-browser/policies/managed/policies.json

Ubuntu Firefox /etc/firefox/policies/policies.json

RedHat Chromium /etc/chromium/policies/managed/policies.json

RedHat Firefox /etc/firefox/policies/policies.json

Allegedly, these policies are also supported on Windows via Group Policy and MacOS using plist files. I wouldn’t know, since I use a real operating system.

Firefox

You should read the docs for each option to understand what it does. My configuration here does a few things:

Disables all extra functionality (Pocket, Relay, homepage widgets)

Disables telemetry

Disables anything AI-related

Installs and configures uBlock Origin

Disables native privacy and anti-tracking features

Disables DNS-over-HTTPS

Disables cute messages on first run

Disables built-in password manager (I use Bitwarden)

Sets default search engine to DuckDuckGo

Disables search suggestions

"policies": { "ExtensionSettings": { "uBlock0@raymondhill.net": { "install_url": "https://addons.mozilla.org/firefox/downloads/latest/ublock-origin/latest.xpi", "installation_mode": "force_installed" }, "3rdparty": { "Extensions": { "uBlock0@raymondhill.net": { "toOverwrite": { "filterLists": [ "user-filters", "ublock-filters", "ublock-badware", "ublock-privacy", "ublock-quick-fixes", "ublock-unbreak", "easylist", "easyprivacy", "adguard-spyware-url", "urlhaus-1", "plowe-0", "fanboy-cookiemonster", "ublock-cookies-easylist", "fanboy-thirdparty_social", "ublock-annoyances" }, "toAdd": { "trustedSiteDirectives": [ "intranet.example.com" }, "UserMessaging": { "WhatsNew": false, "ExtensionRecommendations": false, "UrlbarInterventions": false, "SkipOnboarding": true }, "OverridePostUpdatePage": "", "OverrideFirstRunPage": "", "EnableTrackingProtection": { "Value": false, "Cryptomining": false, "Fingerprinting": false, "Locked": false }, "Cookies": { "Behavior": "reject-tracker-and-partition-foreign", "BehaviorPrivateBrowsing": "reject-tracker-and-partition-foreign" }, "NoDefaultBookmarks": true, "DisablePocket": true, "DisableAppUpdate": true, "CaptivePortal": false, "Certificates": { "Install": [ "/usr/local/share/certs/trusted/your-custom-root-ca.crt" }, "DisableFeedbackCommands": true, "DisableFirefoxAccounts": true, "DisableFirefoxStudies": true, "DisableTelemetry": true, "DontCheckDefaultBrowser": true, "OfferToSaveLoginsDefault": false, "DNSOverHTTPS": { "Enabled": false }, "SearchSuggestEnabled": false, "Homepage": { "URL": "about:home", "StartPage": "homepage" }, "SearchEngines": { "Add": [ "Name": "ddg", "URLTemplate": "https://duckduckgo.com/?q={searchTerms}", "Method": "GET", "IconURL": "https://duckduckgo.com/favicon.ico", "Alias": "ddg", "Description": "DuckDuckGo", "SuggestURLTemplate": "https://duckduckgo.com/ac/?q={searchTerms}&type=list" ], "Default": "ddg" }, "FirefoxHome": { "Search": true, "TopSites": false, "SponsoredTopSites": false, "Highlights": false, "Pocket": false, "SponsoredPocket": false, "Snippets": false }, "AIControls": { "Default": { "Value": "blocked", "Locked": true }, "ExtensionUpdate": true, "Preferences": { "dom.security.https_only_mode": { "Value": true, "Status": "locked" }, "dom.push.connection.enabled": { "Value": false, "Status": "default" }, "browser.urlbar.suggest.quicksuggest.nonsponsored": { "Value": false, "Status": "locked" }, "browser.urlbar.suggest.quicksuggest.sponsored": { "Value": false, "Status": "locked" }, "browser.toolbars.bookmarks.visibility": { "Value": "newtab", "Status": "default" }, "browser.safebrowsing.malware.enabled": { "Value": false, "Status": "locked" }, "browser.safebrowsing.phishing.enabled": { "Value": false, "Status": "locked" }, "browser.safebrowsing.downloads.enabled": { "Value": false, "Status": "locked" }, "browser.newtabpage.activity-stream.feeds.section.topstories": { "Value": false, "Status": "locked" }, "browser.newtabpage.activity-stream.showSponsoredCheckboxes": { "Value": false, "Status": "locked" }, "browser.newtabpage.activity-stream.widgets.system.weather.enabled": { "Value": false, "Status": "default" }, "browser.urlbar.suggest.quicksuggest.all": { "Value": false, "Status": "locked" }, "browser.tabs.groups.smart.userEnabled": { "Value": false, "Status": "default" }, "signon.management.page.breach-alerts.enabled": { "Value": false, "Status": "locked" }, "privacy.fingerprintingProtection.pbmode": { "Value": false, "Status":...

Browser De-Slop

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