How many browser extensions would be considered the "safest" ?
Title. How many extensions would be the average to not be profiled? Obviously not having any or having 23 will make you pretty easy to fingerprint, so how many is the average or safest?
On FireFox browser, the best privacy extension is uBlock Origin. I wouldn't use any other extension for ad blocking or privacy unless it is for something specific you need that uBlock Origin cannot do on its own. NoScript is another privacy extension that is sometimes recommended.
There may also be some benefit to using the extension for your password manager, as it may help you identify phishing links and prevent you from filling in your password on fake or scam sites. I strongly recommend Bitwarden as a password manager.
Installing extensions is unlikely to help you defend against fingerprinting. If you are concerned about fingerprinting, then you should enable resist.fingerprinting in the about:config on FireFox, or use either Tor or Mullvad Browser (which you should not install any extensions on).
can someone explain extension fingerprinting to me? i’ve always heard about it, but to my layman brain it doesn’t make sense that a locally executed modification of css (in the case of dark reader) gives any kind of data to the site host. i guess for ublock it makes more sense since i’m guessing that has to do with blocking specific requests from going out in the first place, or what?
"What is a digital fingerprint?
A digital fingerprint is essentially a list of characteristics that are unique to a single user, their browser, and their particular hardware setup. This includes information the browser needs to send to access websites, like the location of the website the user is requesting. But it also includes a host of seemingly insignificant data (like screen resolution and installed fonts) gathered by tracking scripts. Tracking sites can stitch all the small pieces together to form a unique picture, or "fingerprint," of your device." - https://coveryourtracks.eff.org/learn
you can also test your browser there to see what information you are exposing
but where do extensions come into the picture? i apologize if i’m missing something obvious here, but the only thing that article says about extensions is that blocking specific trackers counts as fingerprint data. but the VAST majority of my extensions aren’t blocking anything, they just customize the pages