Of course I did not expect the old(?) browser would work, but I thought Firefox ESR has in the past.
Now my bank site says it doesn’t like either of them.
Tried to install Chrome but it comes up with a dependency error. Don’t feel like dealing with that. Not sure what I have to do to install regular Firefox from the tar.bz2 file they had me download. What’s an alternative?
I think the linux version is “Chromium”, I also use it when a website balks. Then I use bleachbit afterward. Although I wouldn’t go so far as to reset my cable modem and hope for a new IP with DCHP with my provider I may get the same one anyway.
Whenever I swap routers, I get a different IP address.
NOTE: The following is just my opinion via my observations and is not supported by anyone anywhere. I need to get this off my chest 
I doubt anyone has a safe alternative. I think, from experience, you may need to unprotect your device privacy for any bank.
I am in the same boat, except I took it further.
I just checked my bank CIBC login page the count of stalkers 
went from 0 to 99+ peeping under my rights to privacy. Once logged in, it went from 0 to 49. In order to access my account, I must permit the bank to report to other places that my device has visited CIBC, at what time, for how long, from what location, using what devices; plus the M.A.C, addresses for GPU, CPU, APU, and Font fingerprinting and more.
SUMMARY: I’d wager that the reason they want you to use a different browser is because they need to Stalk your device, Monitor your devices locations, when and where it did things, dates, times etcetera. They also need a easy method of Injecting code in to your device for better monitoring. They need to Record your device and what you do with it, so they can better Control you - what you see, hear, say and do. It’s called SMIRC, and FF won’t allow them to do that.
BTW, TD Bank only used 6 stalkers. Scotiabank 9.
IMO: Banks and Skanks - can’t trust them. They share the same pillow.
~s
Being unbanked.
I thought it was kind of cool to get Brave Browser on my Librem 5 at one point, because the install process was really easy and all I did was download Brave Nightly from a GitHub build. But I don’t know if you want to use that; I know different people have different opinions on different browsers.
I’ve had a lot of success with going to the bank in person. It seems pretty nice.
Why not change Bank, then?
I’m sure there must be some better Banks that treat their customers well, respect their privacy and don’t capture and resell PII to third-parties.
I have one such Bank. It has not one single tracker. It only cares about doing banking stuff with me, not to monetize me.
If we want privacy-conscious businesses, we have to choose them and shun those that behave badly!
Some web sites may just be checking the User-Agent string … hence installing a Firefox extension that allows you to override the User-Agent and then cloning the User-Agent from a device that works may work around the problem. (So, as an example, if Firefox is accepted by your bank but Firefox ESR is not accepted because it is based on a version of Firefox that is too old then you can easily “upgrade” the Firefox version as reported to the web server in the User-Agent string.)
Have you tried Epiphany?
I have two browser choices that I am aware of. Firefox ESR and GNOME Web, which I believe is also called Epiphany. That gets flagged as too old.
I went to the PureOS store application on my phone and it does not appear in a search. However, after reading your post I decided to try again, this time by going to the web site for the PureOS Store. It shows up there and installs. And it works with my bank.
Good suggestion.
This means that the PureOS application I have does not list all available options, at least not by searching on their names or types. Searching on “browser” is a barren wasteland for example.
Perhaps this means someone needs to look at the PureOS Store application for the Librem 5?
Indeed. If you live in the USA, you can use a credit union instead of a bank. I’ve never noticed stalking issues with with a credit union, though perhaps I haven’t been as thorough as I should have been.
At least, I haven’t had function issues with the websites of the multiple credit unions where I have membership. The only feature I have missed is the online check deposit feature, which is missing from their websites, but present on their SpyDroid apps.
FWIW, “chrome” and “chromium” are two different things (different packages to install) on Linux and, on the desktop at least, both exist.
If Firefox isn’t doing the job on a random web site them chromium is preferable to try next (rather than chrome).
Yes they are. Although Chromium will have to do if you can’t get Chrome.
I’m surprised you have a bank! You mean it isn’t all in your mattress?
Although I would contend location monitoring prevents a sudden switches from one location to another. Like a sudden switch from North America to Mumbai or Lubyanskya Square.
Whether you end up using Firefox (or a fork), or a privacy-abusing Google-monopoly-promoting browser, be sure to install privacy extensions like NoScript, uBlockOrigin, and/or Privacy Badger. They will give you the ability to prevent abusive tracking and analytics scripts from running in the first place, and allow you to pick and choose the bare minimum of functional scripts that can run on any and every website.
Unfortunately, GNOME Web/Epiphany doesn’t currently have this extensible capability.
You could install Brave through Flathub or even install Librewolf
I agree. But this isn’t my bank being concerned for my Internet safety and my account from being hijacked. It’s not about my protection. It’s sending off data so the marketeers they share data with can build a profile so the sleaze-machine can pump out ads designed for me - so they think.
As consumers, we all pay for the ads and pay extra to have stalkers/smirc’ers on our back. Every time I buy a box of Cracker Jacks I know I also paid for the print, the box, advertising, shipping, fuel, lawyers, and internet stalkers/smirc’ers… It’s like paying to be stalked and privacy pimped out.
I pay peeps and perves to tell me what I need to buy.
Our profiles are out there but my profile is intentionally all over the map so when it’s sold, the banks cohorts have the wrong data.
Very rarely do I ever see ads. But when I do, I get a laugh out of what they try to sell me.
It’s the principal of matter - principals being something most businesses don’t have anymore.
On a positive note, summer is just days away.
~s
Been there, done that on my desktop. I do not have a working digital hand-held phone.
I already have Brave installed. But I looked for updates and there were none.
Next I loaded up Brave and it took to me to a YouTube video of the CBC announcing that " Acne, yeast infections and diaper rash can now be treated by Ontario pharmacists". And a load of fingerprint notices, plus Eval warnings.
Right now it’s trying to load up 5 extensions, that I did not request. Each tab Brave opened says
mybrowseraddon.comVerifying you are human. This may take a few seconds.
mybrowseraddon.comneeds to review the security of your connection before proceeding.
mybrowseraddon.comneeds to review the security of your connection before proceeding.
I closed it after 7 minutes of “take a few seconds”.
Yeah, I know, I’m curious too why Brave needs to repeat the hurry up and wait.
I opened a new tab, and closed the Yeast infection ads. Then went to CIBC.Com.
Brave only blocked “1” tracker. Disconnect blocked 2 and that’s it, compared to Chrome that blocked: 152 ads, profilers, CIBC reporting, stalkers, smirc’ers.
Granted, without the extra extensions Brave was trying to get, comparing the two is not fair. Yet
I’ll try Brave again it as it has grown up a bit since I last tried it. It would be especially good if I had a working digital phone. Working on that as well.
Thanks
Yeah, I may have spoken too soon. Tonight, my credit union web site ran me through a dozen captchas before I broke out to investigate. It was uBlockOrigin! Captcha wouldn’t let me pass if I didn’t let Google Analytics track me!
Now that should be downright illegal.