Set Your Calendars and Contacts Free
Chrome to Firefox
Illustration by Florian Biege
The web browsers Google Chrome, Microsoft Edge, and Safari (Apple) dominate the internet. They are almost all based on the same technology (Chromium) – meaning that Google sets the standards on the web. Firefox is one of the last major bastions (open source, provided by the non-profit organisation Mozilla Foundation), committed to an open web. If you‘d like to switch to Firefox, you can get started:
Different ways to cook
Our digital switch recipes provide an easy, simple way to give Big Tech the push, but there are other options available. We have tried to make it easy by focusing on a single approach and a small number of options, but there are other alternatives that are just as good. After all, what we mean by ‘good’, ‘not so good’ and ‘bad’ is open to debate: DI.DAY is about easy ways to give Big Tech the push (without getting into purism or being preachy). Our decisions are based on advice from our advisory panel.
An overview of the alternatives is available on the next page:
Ingredients
1 computer or smartphone
The download link
Preparation
1 Download Firefox and start the installation
2 The most important step (import)
The first time you launch Firefox (or later under Settings → Import and Backup), it will ask you if you want to import data from another browser. Select Chrome or Edge.
3 Tick the boxes for bookmarks, passwords, and history
4 Click import
And just like that – everything is where it should be, safe and sound in a loving home.
5 Set Firefox as your default browser
(system settings)
Dessert
1 Ad blocker
Install the uBlock Origin ad blocker as an add-on in Firefox. Chrome plans to technically restrict such effective blockers – Firefox guarantees that you will continue to have complete control over ads.
2 Alternatives
Info on other browser alternatives, such as Brave or Tor browsers, can be found in this blog, for example. Incidentally, the author Mike Kuketz also takes a rather critical view of the Vivaldi browser here.
Enjoy your meal! You have just taken a big step towards a more independent digital existence.
Once you #DIDit – share our post about the digital switch and inspire others to take control of their own digital lives!
Topping
By default, Firefox prevents “fingerprinting” (the identification of your device by third parties). By using Firefox, you‘re helping to ensure that the internet doesn‘t fall completely into Google‘s hands. Are you already using Firefox? Excellent! But Mozilla is increasingly integrating marketing features and telemetry. For true independence, you can switch to LibreWolf, the Firefox that doesn’t “phone home“. And for those who want to dive deeper into the technical side, there’s the Ungoogled Chromium browser, which uses Chrome’s source code but has been surgically stripped of all Google services, tracking, and phone-home functions. If you want to go even deeper, you’ll find detailed browser reviews here.
Important: Where possible, don’t use any of the new AI browsers, as they fail on data protection! Browsers that have AI deeply integrated (such as Comet, Arc with Arc Max, or Edge with Copilot) are based on a trade-off: convenience in exchange for data.
The problem: For the AI to summarise your website or answer questions about it, the content of the website (and your context) has to be sent to the servers of the AI providers (OpenAI, Anthropic, Microsoft).
