I had 1Blocker setup, but let my subscription lapse and have felt no need to resub. Today’s Safari is getting better and better at protecting me.
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Did anyone already receive their invite?
I applied for an invite about a month ago, but did not receive an invite so far.
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They send out invites in bunches, so it may be that the “cycle” still hasn’t come back around yet. I had to wait a few weeks before my iOS invite came, yet got a macOS invite fairly quickly; it seems to be related to the cyclic nature of their invite process.
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I basically rotate between Firefox and Brave. I have practically eliminated using Chrome. I find Firefox is better when I’m tweaking my website and want to see changes quickly. I keep on wanting to move to Safari exclusively but find the library of extensions lacking. There are other quirky and minor things with Safari that bug me, like it’s forward/back icons. Maybe I’ll try to use Safari exclusively for a month and keep notes on what is good and what bothers me.
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I only use a few extensions and have paid only $4 total for the ones I use. So it is not an issue at all for me. I like Safari because it is fast and simple, and I intend to keep it that way.
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This is the #1 gripe I have with Safari. There simply is no great AdBlocker for Safari. I have paid for Wipr and it does some things well, like bypassing some paywalls but doesn’t block most ads (e.g., YouTube) and is erratic. More importantly, I have found that it really slows down my browser.
I have also tried ghostery ( think that’s the name) and just about every other one available in the App Store. So far the only one that is half-decent is AdGuard but it is nowhere near as good as uBlock.
I would pay $100 per year for the equivalent of uBlock for Safari.
Edge, to me, is by far the best browser available now. I run it during the day and use it exclusively for work as I use the Office apps through it and many of the 3rd-party web apps I use for work do not run well in Safari or Firefox. But for personal browsing I try to stick with Safari, as painful as it can be, mainly because:
- I switched from linux to Mac about a year ago and have learned to stay within the ecosystem whenever possible, to gain the most benefit.
- Those sites that do render properly on Safari (which is the vast majority that I access for personal use) are visually nicer in terms of font etc. And the reader mode in Safari, which I use pretty often, is much nicer.
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Thanks for the heads up about Vivaldi, sounds nice. I will try it out.
I have to say I am tired of being watched really continually while doing my work online. Tired of constant ads on some sites, tired of being in the hands of private semi monopolies and companies all the time.
I am probably going to Tor soon, at least as a secondary browser, I use Safari because it works well on my mac obviously but lately it blocked a site, or helped Verizon block a site, I think as part of the copyright wars, which I coming to take a more radical stance on than I used to. Being forced into it almost.
Were it not for DEVONthink 3 and a couple of other apps I might be leaving Apple, that might happen anyway as I am getting uncomfortable about getting locked in too much to an ecosystem that really is fully in charge of my account and much of my life really.
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Again thanks for the heads up about Edge. I am finding for several reasons Safari is not helping me at times anymore. One wonders why the onus is on us to block ads and fight and struggle for privacy on line frankly. One would have thought the onus should be the other way around. Some reputable sites are now irritating with ads; vox and the New York Times to name two. One that i actually pay for and the other I have donated to.
One problem with using TOR is the attention you get from everyone from your ISP to various law enforcement and security agencies. I’m no expert but it seems you might be better off using a reliable commercial VPN.
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I use Safari almost exclusively. I hve a very old Firefox install just fo the now derprecatd SQLite tools that ar enot in newer versions.
I don’t use many extension. Used touse 1Password but ditched that for Strongbox so n my odler mac I cut and past PW. I do still usethe DEVONThink Rich Text capture but it’s getting worse and worse so I am starting t ditch it in facor of old school cut past and download imafges for hitngs I really need to save.
I’m not. I do however explicitly check any site 's cookies and refuse all but absolutely necessary ones. I also clean out the Safari storage on a regular basis.
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Yeah, you would think this would worry people more really. I hope I don’t over reply to you on a hobby horse here! 
Do you have a recommendation for a VPN? I heard ClearVPN was good? Thanks for the article it was interesting.
I am not aiming for privacy by the way: I abandoned any hope of that years ago, just not getting blocked and interfered with in general and avoiding involvement and fall-out from the gossipy, misinformed cess -pit that social media has become.
I also assume NSA have all my details as a matter of course.
As you know, security agencies and Military invented Tor along with the web anyway, know how it works and are pretty much present and active in there and use it themselves still. I won’t use it for privacy really, but for technical reasons to avoid blocks. None sinister or, beyond some marginal and arguable copyright issues, illegal in any way.
Safari can be too sensitive to ‘issues’ on websites for the most benign security reasons actually and I think responds to a lot of ‘false positives’. However do I want my banking activity on any other kind of browser? Hard needle to thread, what are your views?
It is time the copyright issues were addressed and taken up anyway in my view, though whether that is the hill I want to die on is another matter. To put it another register, I support Tor in principle, as I did when it was a Govt. initiative and I think it is useful to publicly say that and dispel some of the the disinformation around this.
The whole issue of privacy, copyright, ownership and the ‘open’ net should be taken a lot more seriously in the Republic in my view as a matter of urgency, we are sleep walking into disaster and playing individual technical games with software, algorithms and browsers is really, though I spend a lot of time on it, marginal.
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The last one I used was ExpressVPN. Performance was excellent and it had a great reputation. As you probably know, it was recently sold and I didn’t renew my subscription.
So does your ISP, your mobile provider, Amazon, Equifax, etc. I’ve seen commercial background reports and about the only thing not on them are your medical records and the last time you changed your underwear.
If I know your name, city, and state, I have about a 60% chance of finding your home address, mobile phone number, length of residency, and names of your immediately family, from free websites. If I only have your name and state, my odds drop to around 33%.
As individuals we have zero chance of keeping our information private. Most of what we think we are protecting is already public. The only solution are strong laws governing how our information can be used. IMO Scott McNealy was correct when he said "You have zero privacy anyway . . . Get over it!” 
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I have been using 1Blocker but am thinking of disabling it – or maybe using a blacklist rather than whitelist, if that’s possible – because the “please disable your adblocker” popups are arguably more annoying than ads!
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I just got my invite.
I received my Orion invite as well.
Only tried it briefly until now, but don’t see a reason to switch so far.
I disabled 1Blocker for this exact reason. So many websites are unusable with it running and this became a daily hassle. I’m not really that bothered, as I use a Workspaces account with Ad personalisation disabled and therefore only get generic, non targeted advertising.
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