@Obscurequokka I personally don't mind. A link is just bringing you to information so I don't see what's bad about it? Privacy wise using a vpn negates any privacy issues with links as well.
Common sense obviously is key here to. Don't clink on suspicious links and you're usually OK. I also run no script in my browser so they can't trigger anything anyway. 🗝️
@Wetrix @Obscurequokka Just a few things to mention in the off case that you didn't know. VPNs offer very little in the way of privacy, and hardly mask your IP (they're full of problems and things you have to do if you don't want to leak your IP,also the company can see everything). Also of note is the fact that every website you visit now is in possession of your (almost always) unique browser fingerprint. JS isn't the only thing with exploits, CSS has them and so does just stock HTML5.
1/3
HTML5 can also give a lot of information on your resolution, how your browser renders elements, etc, all things that can be collected and matched to a database with or without a VPN and are done in plain HTML+CSS. There's no silver bullet, Tor has anonymity (if you take other steps) but its security is some of the worst in a browser,
2/3
UGC amazing security and great privacy from the browser but certainly no anonymity and the whole system of plugins is obtuse, Firefox isn't private or secure no matter what you do, etc. So theres no way around it - like you said, common sense is really the only way to effectively and reliably stay safe.
Stay safe and have an amazing rest of your day!
3/3