Firefox’s Super-Private Browser Is Obvious, and That’s Why I Like It

Without the tending of specialised tools , everything you do online ( and plenty of things you do n’t realized you ’re doing ) is being tracked . Desktop browsers have the benefit of elongation and add - ons that block pages from go after you , but mobile browsers tend to be a little less innovative . That ’s what makes Focus , Firefox ’s privacy - forwardiOS web browser , so refreshing .

By default , Focus block social and analytics tracker , as well as ads . Every pageboy charge with an “ Erase ” release trail to the top right corner for whenever you feel inclined to solve your browsing story . Further selection allow blocking for subject matter trackers or web fonts for a faster , if maybe bad - looking experience . And those features ( minus the ‘ nuke history ’ button ) can be added onto Safari through a on-off switch in the Focus menu .

While its privateness options are robust for a nomadic web web browser , Focus is very barebones , and lacks many of the features users have fare to expect . There ’s no tabbed browsing , no bookmarker , and no choice to easily apportion a page — a function I use regularly to send thing to read - late apps like Instapaper . What looks like a share clitoris in the bottom carte merely enter the same pageboy in Safari when tapped .

Argentina’s President Javier Milei (left) and Robert F. Kennedy Jr., holding a chainsaw in a photo posted to Kennedy’s X account on May 27. 2025.

A lack of features is to be expected : after all , Focus is essentially an address bar tacked onto a content blocker . The app , originally address Focus by Firefox , stripped Safari of annoying ads . Now rebranded as Firefox Focus , it has the ability to voyage to web page and not much else .

Firefox have it off it ca n’t beat Apple ’s pre - installed browser app , or Google Chrome , by far the most democratic alternative . And yield , Apple has give up ad - blockers in browserssince iOS 9 . But nonpayment seclusion configurations are so obvious and so imperative that Firefox ’s new web internet browser might as well exist solely to dishonor the competition .

Were it not for Focus ’s inability to crowd to read - later apps , I ’d switch to it immediately . As it stands , I ’ll be using it to beef up privacy on Safari — something Apple should have done on its own a foresighted time ago .

William Duplessie