MOmonista·Mar 30, 2026
I don't use the VPN, but I still happily use their privacy-oriented (Firefox-based) Mullvad browser.
https://github.com/mullvad/mullvad-browser/
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mullvad-browser
Shell2023–2026
mullvad / mullvad-browser
mullvad-browser
Privacy-focused browser for Linux, macOS and Windows. Made in collaboration between @torproject and @mullvad
7Distinct people
7Mentions
0Explicit recommenders
2.7KGitHub stars
What to know before exploring
What it is
Privacy-focused browser for Linux, macOS and Windows. Made in collaboration between @torproject and @mullvad
GitHub
Where it is used
No documented product use has been verified yet.
What people are saying
No recommendation phrase was found in the indexed comments.
No classified warning is attached to this page. Read the discussions before treating silence as approval.
Also in these discussions
No other repository is repeatedly linked in the same discussions.
This week on Hacker News
Nov 7–Nov 14 UTC · Direct repository links and separately labeled related project stories. Indexed through 11/14/2026, 3:56:07 PM UTC.
No direct repository links were found in the indexed HN discussions over the past seven days. Older discussions are available below.
Mentions over time
HN mentions by year7 dated mentions
Observed mentions: 2023-04-03 10:40:53 UTC to 2026-03-30 00:24:49 UTC.
* An incomplete calendar period is marked with an outlined bar. Its count is not directly comparable with a full period.
Counts come from the repository’s dated source evidence. Index cutoff: 2026-11-02 08:16:59 UTC.
View mention counts and date ranges
| Period | Start (UTC) | End (exclusive, UTC) | Mentions | Submissions | Comments |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2023 | 2023-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2024-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 5 | 0 | 5 |
| 2024 | 2024-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2025-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 2025 | 2025-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2026-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| 2026 (partial) | 2026-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2027-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 1 | 0 | 1 |
What Hacker News says
7 sources> Helium is based on Chromium
> Best privacy by default
Sorry, pass...
Even with un-googled Chromium I do not think these statements are self-consistent. We need browsers that do not allow Google to control the ecosystem. We need legitimate competition. So what, our choices are Firefox (Gecko), Safari (WebKit), and Ladybird?
Personally I go with Firefox on most devices and Orion (WebKit) on my iPhone and iPad.
> Helium anonymizes all internal requests to the Chrome Web Store via Helium services.
This seems like something pretty easy to mess up. Maybe it is good now, but it sure is going to be a cat and mouse game.
I really would be curious to have some breakdown comparison with something like the Mullvad browser (Gecko). I have a lot of trust for both the Mullvad and Tor teams. They have a much longer history working with this kind
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of stuff and have been consistently updating it since release. Launched in early 2023[0] and last update was last week[1].
[0] The Mullvad Browser (mullvad.net) https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=35421034
[0.5] Mullvad Browser (torproject.org) https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37159744
[1] https://github.com/mullvad/mullvad-browser
Mullvad browser certainly exists in part to advertise a VPN, but offers more privacy protections than Librewolf.
See this response from the mullvad-browser developer on exactly this:
> There are two main reasons, one which you preemptively answered:
> - the privacy model is about having a same fingerprint per platform for Mullvad Browser users, so you're not uniquely identifiable (which will be the case by following privacy hardening guides)
> - it is much easier to recommend to user a browser pre-configured for an optimal privacy: some users will want to tinker, but if you don't have the time or knowledge, it's hard to do the right thing
> There are also more differences than "just a fork of Firefox", I encourage you to read the following page which goes more into the details: https://mullvad.net/en/browser/hard-facts
source: https://git
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hub.com/mullvad/mullvad-browser/issues/1
A librewolf contributor and arkenfox developer chimes in as well stating that it's no competition that mullvad-browser is more secure here:
https://github.com/mullvad/mullvad-browser/issues/1#issuecom...
So as much as I despise companies putting low effort into software rebrands that offer no value, all the facts point towards that very much not being the case here.
Edit: However https://privacytests.org/ shows mullvad-vpn and librewolf as being very similar wrt privacy.
the librewolf maintainers are trustworthy - i know user fxbrit, the librewolf macos maintainer, is also, if i'm not mistaken, the macos maintainer of mullvad browser, the browser collaboration between mullvad vpn and tor
further reading, for anyone looking for an alt browser/config: arkenfox (af) v librewolf (lw) v mullvad browser (mb) from the af owner, mb maintainer, and lw, ff, & tor contributor: https://github.com/mullvad/mullvad-browser/issues/1#issuecom...
In Alert HN: Mozilla puts advertising into Firefox AGAIN[1] WebGL finger print is device specific and persistent.
[2] Font finger print is device specific and persistent.
[3] TLS finger print is device specific and persistent.
[4] DNS is routed into USA by default. Incidentally, there are frequent dropped requests using this browser [5].
These are just a few that I spotted. Let's proceed with the discussion as though the above issues were not present.
After looking at the issue tracker, this project wants each Mullvad Browser user to look the same, per OS [6]. Blending into a crowd on the surface seems like a good idea, assuming the crowd was large enough, but that "per OS" detail is a big gotcha.
I personally don't see why a source-modified browser shouldn't be able to achieve perfect uniformity. It's especially suspicious to me that the Tor project never achieved it, despite having had multi
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ple years of developer effort dedicated to this goal, and backed by funding. IMO, browsers should never have been flooded with so many uncontrolled privacy breaking features in the first place.
Modification of the browser is discouraged for any reason, including enhancing privacy features [6]. Now read that again, and this time assume hostile intent.
I mentioned in a different comment that the alternative to uniform blending is randomness. Some of the fingerprints in the browser are already randomized. Plausible randomness is far superior to trying to build up a large enough crowd and simultaneously solving the uniformity issues. The entire javascript engine should be ripped apart and reassembled so that all privacy invading features can only function for client-side specific tasks but cannot speak with the networking and storage features.
[1] https://browserleaks.com/webgl
[2] https://browserleaks.com/fonts
[3] https://browserleaks.com/ssl
[4] DNS Leak test: https://browserleaks.com/ip
[5] https://github.com/mullvad/mullvad-browser/issues/23
[6] https://github.com/mullvad/mullvad-browser/issues/1
"The Mullvad Browser is a privacy-focused web browser developed in a collaboration between Mullvad VPN and the Tor Project. It’s designed to minimize tracking and fingerprinting. You could say it’s a Tor Browser to use without the Tor Network."
https://github.com/mullvad/mullvad-browser
So basically like... hardened Firefox?
In The Mullvad Browser