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Firefox Focus – A new private browser for iOS and Android

blog.mozilla.org

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Re: Firefox Focus – A new private browser for iOS and Android

#131

Post by JadeNB »

mgberlin wrote: post #103
nkkollaw wrote: post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Mh. It's amazing how far apart I got from every single one of Mozilla's visions, from using Firefox as my main browser 8 years ago. I love the fact that—as an example—as I travel Google shows me tools that I'll be interested in, like a currency converter, translate + word of the day in the local language, etc. etc. I would absolutely hate having my main browser constantly forget who I am. I feel almost blessed every…

I absolutely could not agree less. Every time Google shows me some sort of "magic" that I know involves their massive compendium of personal data, I'm reminded of how much I been detest that they've stolen that information from me. No matter how much I opt out, say no, and turn things off, they continue to extract wealth from my need for basic modern services. I can't tell you much much I appreciate Mozilla understan…

> Every time Google shows me some sort of "magic" that I know involves their massive compendium of personal data, I'm reminded of how much I been detest that they've stolen that information from me.

So just use something else! Oh, wait, you want to check your official university e-mail? That's provided by Google now. Oh, wait, you wanted to check city transit information? That's provided by Google now.

(I'd probably use Google for the latter anyway, but it'd be nice to be able to pretend that I had a choice.)

Re: Firefox Focus – A new private browser for iOS and Android

#132

Post by tylersmith »

bigbugbag wrote: post #106
fourthark wrote: post #86

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is this FUD or serious? Because they are certainly claiming to be the opposite of that these days.

This is simply history. The proprietary module (now long removed) is among the reasons the iceweasel project was born (not the debian one but the GNU one that has been renamed icecat when debian took over the iceweasel name). It is a known fact that for years 90% or more of mozilla money came from google in exchange for making its search engine the default including tracking through an additional parameter in the URL…

Iceweasel was born out of trademark issues not telemetry.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/GNU_IceCat#history

Re: Firefox Focus – A new private browser for iOS and Android

#133

Post by st3fan »

gnicholas wrote: post #113

I love Focus and now use it for almost all of my mobile googling. One thing that would be nice is a share extension, so that when I'm in Safari and see a link I want to open I can share it to Firefox Focus. Right now I have to "share" it to [copy], open Focus, and paste it in. Not a huge hassle, but would be nice to streamline.

Share extension eh ... :-)

Re: Firefox Focus – A new private browser for iOS and Android

#134

Post by JadeNB »

trendroid wrote: post #98
nkkollaw wrote: post #47

So, if I understand this correctly... It's a regular browser, but like you're always in private mode + it's got a built-in ad blocker? If I want to check Hacker News let's say 5 times throughout the day and feel like leaving a comment, I have to login again, without autocomplete..? Maybe I'm missing something.

>Maybe I'm missing something. The features you explained are exactly what I was looking for in a mobile browser. In fact, i wish they launch Focus for Desktops operating systems too.

> In fact, i wish they launch Focus for Desktops operating systems too.

Yes, I was just thinking the same thing. I can almost imagine a world where software believes me about what kind of experience I want, "full site" on mobile or "mobile site" on the desktop, rather than browser sniffing followed by awkward clicking around to correct its misapprehensions.

Re: Firefox Focus – A new private browser for iOS and Android

#136

Post by quazeekotl »

soapdog wrote: post #110
bigbugbag wrote: post #62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Maybe, but Mozilla has a quite a record for using firefox for surveillance and spying purpose, the early versions of firefox had a proprietary modules just for this purpose and the recent version have 'telemetry'. AFAIK f-droid always had a warning about firefox containing and promoting non free in addition of tracking users from https://f-droid.org/wiki/page/org.mozilla.firefox : This app has the NonFreeAdd Antifeat…

It is not surveillance or spying ffs!!!! It is telemetry, which is anonymized data for the purpose of statistics and crash analysis. remember, you can check the source code. You can build your own version. Telemetry helps people. Telemetry helps Mozilla deliver better firefox. STOP SPREADING FUD.

Im sure ad companies claim much the same thing, tracking is just telemetry for statistical anonymized bulk purposes, that is really just benefiting the user!

The point is you cant have it both ways, both decrying tracking of users and then actively enaging in it, and agressively defending it when it comes to light.

Re: Firefox Focus – A new private browser for iOS and Android

#137

Post by my_ghola »

gnicholas wrote: post #113

I love Focus and now use it for almost all of my mobile googling. One thing that would be nice is a share extension, so that when I'm in Safari and see a link I want to open I can share it to Firefox Focus. Right now I have to "share" it to [copy], open Focus, and paste it in. Not a huge hassle, but would be nice to streamline.

Is there a good share to clipboard app? I tried the only one I found once and it tried to open google drive when I tried to use it. I'm not giving Google all the things I copypaste. Now I share to some notepad app and then copy from there.

Re: Firefox Focus – A new private browser for iOS and Android

#138

Post by enigmango »

justinzollars wrote: post #36
progval wrote: post #7

According to F-Droid [1], it contains `com.google.android.gms:play-services-analytics`. [1]: https://gitlab.com/fdroid/rfp/issues/171#note_30410376

not sure this is related but I notice by default analytics are sent to firefox in the options. On IOS it says "send anonymous usage data to firefox"

Same option on Android - I'm curious if this is related as well, or if there are separate Google analytics being sent.

Re: Firefox Focus – A new private browser for iOS and Android

#139

Post by JadeNB »

wnevets wrote: post #85

I've been using it as my default browser for Android for a while and I like it. The only thing I don't love is the notification saying the browser is open, it triggers my "OCD" . I understand why it's there but I wish there was some way around it.

> The only thing I don't love is the notification saying the browser is open, it triggers my "OCD" .

Why not just turn off notifications for Firefox Focus? At least on Samsung-skinned Marshmallow, that seems to do the trick.

(Grumble grumble, but it still reminds me that I'm running in power-saving mode, which is a vital notification that only applies whenever the phone's on. Thanks, Samsung!)

Re: Firefox Focus – A new private browser for iOS and Android

#140

Post by exceptione »

As an alternative, you can install the regular Firefox (for android at least) and install the uBlock extension. If you don't like the telemetry, like myselves, you just

  type about:config in the address bar, and
  search telemetry (just by typing) -> disable
done
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