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Firefox tracks users with Google Analytics in the add-on settings

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Re: Firefox tracks users with Google Analytics in the add-on settings

#21

Post by i80and »

joenathanone wrote: post #9
coldpie wrote: post #8

I hate these public bugs that blow up. They always turn into these dumb dogpile rants from uninformed users. Tofumatt's doing a good job, but they should really lock this bug report from commenters before it gets out of hand.

>dumb dogpile rants... Pot meet kettle You're comment hasn't added any value to the conversation, it's just a rant.

Thing is... he's right, though, and it IS rather on topic. Public bug trackers only function as long as the peanut gallery doesn't decide to descend. Once it DOES descend on an issue, the issue often becomes a cluttered off-topic mess of ill-informed nastiness.

Just look at any Mozilla bugzilla issue addressing Linux video acceleration, as an example.

Re: Firefox tracks users with Google Analytics in the add-on settings

#22

Post by michaelt »

Given Firefox's pro-privacy positioning vs Chrome [1] and the fact that, by virtue of being in about: these requests get sent even if the user is browsing in private browsing mode or has extensions installed explicitly to block this kind of traffic [2] it's surprising the Mozilla employees in that thread are so keen to dismiss this.

[1] https://mobile.twitter.com/meatcomputer/status/8813107782251... [2] https://github.com/mozilla/addons-frontend/issues/2785#issue...

Re: Firefox tracks users with Google Analytics in the add-on settings

#23

Post by coldpie »

davb wrote: post #19
coldpie wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Firefox is a good one. They're clearly implementing a fix for this bug.

I guess I'm interested in browsers who's developers wouldn't have done this in the first place - a browser which has privacy as a core principle and who's develop we wouldn't consider pushing any data, regardless of aggregation or commercial value, to a third party without explicit consent..

To be blunt, you're not going to find one. Developing a modern browser is extremely difficult, on the order of developing an entire operating system. Mozilla does respect privacy rights, and it is clearly treating this as a bug to be fixed. You're going to have to cut them some slack for not being 100% perfect always.

Re: Firefox tracks users with Google Analytics in the add-on settings

#24

Post by gcp »

davb wrote: post #19
coldpie wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Firefox is a good one. They're clearly implementing a fix for this bug.

I guess I'm interested in browsers who's developers wouldn't have done this in the first place - a browser which has privacy as a core principle and who's develop we wouldn't consider pushing any data, regardless of aggregation or commercial value, to a third party without explicit consent..

"performance, broad compatibility with websites"

These are things which are greatly helped by having good analytics (Telemetry for the browser, analytics on your sites). You have to realize that to some extent these goals aren't mutually compatible. Developer resources don't appear out of thin air, even for open source software. Note how in the threads Mozilla explicitly acknowledges alternatives to GA.

Re: Firefox tracks users with Google Analytics in the add-on settings

#25

Post by bjpbakker »

kuschku wrote: post #16

Notice: The mods just changed the title from "Firefox secretly tracks users with Google Analytics in the addon settings" to "Firefox tracks users with Google Analytics in the add-on settings" @mods: The "secretly" was used to signify the fact that Mozilla does not inform users about this fact, their Privacy Policy does not cover it, and at no point does any page, modal, or disclaimer tell this.

Honestly this has never been secret. It's even in the configure flags to enable/disable it. So you van easily disable it as you wish.

There's a page on the wiki aboit various forms of data collections [1]. It os pretty descriptive of the information they send.

[1] https://wiki.mozilla.org/Firefox/Data_Collection

Re: Firefox tracks users with Google Analytics in the add-on settings

#26

Post by drtillberg »

The Google Analytics scripts runs on a page that appears to be a system/UI page in Firefox, when you search for new add-ons. The response from Mozilla about Piwik being too much work is concerning.

The optional NoScript add-on does stop this script from running, even on that page. You'd have to configure NoScript to block Google Analytics. I, for one, globally block Google Analytics scripts.

Incidentally, I also block third-party-site Google.com scripts, but that is harder on websites like Hacker News, which will sometimes send for a Captcha check that only completes successfully with Google.com enabled in NoScript.

[edit: I am using the legacy add-on, which Mozilla I guess will disable in November 2017]

Re: Firefox tracks users with Google Analytics in the add-on settings

#27

Post by kuschku »

bjpbakker wrote: post #25
kuschku wrote: post #16

Notice: The mods just changed the title from "Firefox secretly tracks users with Google Analytics in the addon settings" to "Firefox tracks users with Google Analytics in the add-on settings" @mods: The "secretly" was used to signify the fact that Mozilla does not inform users about this fact, their Privacy Policy does not cover it, and at no point does any page, modal, or disclaimer tell this.

Honestly this has never been secret. It's even in the configure flags to enable/disable it. So you van easily disable it as you wish. There's a page on the wiki aboit various forms of data collections [1]. It os pretty descriptive of the information they send. [1] https://wiki.mozilla.org/Firefox/Data_Collection

The question is, will you be informed about it if you only read the information that is directly linked, or shown to you, when downloading, installing, and running Firefox?

No. That’s the big issue.

You have to actively search out if Firefox tracks you to find out that this happens. That’s pretty secret.

Re: Firefox tracks users with Google Analytics in the add-on settings

#28

Post by gcp »

kuschku wrote: post #16

Notice: The mods just changed the title from "Firefox secretly tracks users with Google Analytics in the addon settings" to "Firefox tracks users with Google Analytics in the add-on settings" @mods: The "secretly" was used to signify the fact that Mozilla does not inform users about this fact, their Privacy Policy does not cover it, and at no point does any page, modal, or disclaimer tell this.

The Privacy Policy seems to only cover '"personal information" means information which identifies you, like your name or email address."' So it's not surprising it doesn't mention GA.

The Firefox privacy policy is more explicit, but this is actually on a Mozilla page (which you can reach from other browsers), so I'm not sure it's relevant.

Re: Firefox tracks users with Google Analytics in the add-on settings

#29

Post by ianbicking »

gcp wrote: post #14
coldpie wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Firefox is a good one. They're clearly implementing a fix for this bug.

IMHO this should be blocked by Tracking Protection.

The general policy at Mozilla – which I'm pretty sure addons.mozilla.org follows (given https://github.com/mozilla/addons-frontend/blob/28410742c206...) is that we don't use Google Analytics on websites if you have Do Not Track on.

It's a little less clear here because we're embedding a website into an interface that appears to be part of the browser, which is why there was a suggestion by a maintainer in the first response that we should use both Do Not Track and a Firefox data collection flag. But the Do Not Track preference is just as well-exposed as other flags, so I doubt that would have an effect on many users who would object to this tracking (who are very likely to have turned on Do Not Track).

Re: Firefox tracks users with Google Analytics in the add-on settings

#30

Post by kuschku »

ianbicking wrote: post #29
gcp wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

IMHO this should be blocked by Tracking Protection.

The general policy at Mozilla – which I'm pretty sure addons.mozilla.org follows (given https://github.com/mozilla/addons-frontend/blob/28410742c206... ) is that we don't use Google Analytics on websites if you have Do Not Track on. It's a little less clear here because we're embedding a website into an interface that appears to be part of the browser, which is why there was a suggestion by a maintainer in the first…

The discovery.addons.mozilla.org page does not respect Do Not Track, but as a result of the thread, someone just made a PR to implement that feature: https://github.com/mozilla/addons-frontend/pull/2787

Currently, no matter what privacy settings you set, you are being tracked, without being informed about it, without opt-out. This is likely even illegal in the EU.

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