Safety Precautions for Using a Web Browser

[netw844f]

I've been using my web browser (Firefox, specifically) to view and navigate through personal files like PDFs, images, and videos stored on my computer. I'm wondering if this is a risky practice or something I should be concerned about. What precautions should I be taking?

I have a couple of specific questions:

1-Is there any chance that my browser could send what I'm viewing on my local webpages to anyone on the internet?

2-Could Mozilla or any third parties potentially access or see my documents through some kind of security leak?

I keep my browser up to date and I've customized the 'Privacy & Security' settings. For instance, I've set Enhanced Tracking Protection to 'Custom', enabled 'Tell websites not to sell or share my data', and turned on 'Send websites a "Do Not Track" request', among other tweaks.

Do you think these measures are sufficient? I've also been considering using a dedicated browser just for viewing my local files - something like LibreWolf or Pale Moon. Is it a good idea?

Thank you

[werewulf75]

I've been using my web browser (Firefox, specifically) to view and navigate through personal files like PDFs, images, and videos stored on my computer. I'm wondering if this is a risky practice or something I should be concerned about. What precautions should I be taking?

Risky as such, no, unless your browser has fallen victim to some kind of malware or other. But as you're only viewing local files, you could always disconnect from network/internet and work offline, just for added comfort. Also, even in 'Always Private' mode, recent-ish versions of Firefox don't delete all cached data/files when you exit the program so it's good practice to manually delete everything inc. all history before closing the browser, and if you're really paranoid - I am! - do the same again when starting/re-starting FF.

I have a couple of specific questions:

1-Is there any chance that my browser could send what I'm viewing on my local webpages to anyone on the internet?

Virtually zero chance, unless some kind of malware is operating and even then, remote chance.

2-Could Mozilla or any third parties potentially access or see my documents through some kind of security leak?

Mozilla isn't anything to worry about - if there was anything in the code to facilitate this we'd know about it pretty quickly. However, third parties can't be entirely discounted, but then if you're working offline, nothing can go out.

I keep my browser up to date and I've customized the 'Privacy & Security' settings. For instance, I've set Enhanced Tracking Protection to 'Custom', enabled 'Tell websites not to sell or share my data', and turned on 'Send websites a "Do Not Track" request', among other tweaks.

Do you think these measures are sufficient? I've also been considering using a dedicated browser just for viewing my local files - something like LibreWolf or Pale Moon. Is it a good idea?

Thank you

Firefox is fast falling out of favour with me, what with the settings now including an "option" to send advertisers all kinds of data albeit 'anonymised'. Most of my browsing takes place in TOR browser but I'm now trying out various other privacy browsers to replace FF. You may well prefer to switch to something like Librewolf or Pale Moon for general use.