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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

#151

Post by lucideer »

chairmanwow wrote: post #122
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

I think I'm only surprised to see this comment and not that Firefox bundled analytics into their app. What's controversial about anonymized usage statistics in 2017?

I'm not sure from your comment whether you're just being pedantic in pointing out that while regrettable this isn't surprising (in which case your comment is not very constructive), or whether you actually think it's OK for Firefox to do this.

Since you've used the term "anonymised" quite pointedly, I'm guessing the latter. I do find it surprising that anyone would assume data Google is collecting on your usage is somehow anonymous.

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

#153

Post by [deleted] »

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.

[deleted]

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

#154

Post by moosingin3space »

vfclists wrote: post #145
r00fus wrote: post #119

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Required for iOS or Apple won't allow it on the store.

Why hasn't the EU charged Apple for abusing the monopoly position? Didn't they do that to Microsoft, or has Apple sweetened them up in some other way?

Technically, Apple does not have a monopoly, unless you want to argue they are the monopolist of the market for iOS devices. They don't even have a majority market share of smartphones in most jurisdictions. That being said, I still believe it is an abuse of market position, and I'm not sure how we can fight it.

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

#155

Post by retox »

lol768 wrote: post #27
piotrkubisa wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> " Firefox Klar is a version of Firefox Focus for Germany, Austria and Switzerland with user activity tracking disabled by default." [1] > "For clients that have "send anonymous usage data" enabled Focus sends a "core" ping and an "event" ping to Mozilla's telemetry service. Sending telemetry can be disabled in the app's settings. Builds of "Focus for Android" have telemetry enabled by default ("opt-out") while buil…

What's special about Germany, Austria and Switzerland that they don't get the user activity tracking?

Their governments care about privacy.

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

#156

Post by _delirium »

kristianp wrote: post #150
notnarb wrote: post #115

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Because Firefox Focus isn't itself a browser, but rather a wrapper around Android and iOS's built in browsers. That is why the underlying engine in blink/webkit and not gecko. I am probably drastically simplifying things but the primary components of the app are just a content blocker and a preferences page.

I would guess that's only true on IOS, because apps are forced to use the operating system's webview?

It's currently also true on Android, because Gecko doesn't yet provide a WebView style embeddable component, so Firefox Focus uses the default Android WebView instead.

There's a bug tracking work to migrate to Gecko though: https://github.com/mozilla-mobile/focus-android/issues/13 (see also the linked https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1322573)

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

#157

Post by kuschku »

lucideer wrote: post #146
kuschku wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm a developer, and I've worked with this before, but the library included here has only the purpose of analytics, and is not required for anything else.

Google has recently been moving GCM over to FCM, since the Firebase acquisition, and FCM has a hard dependency on the analytics library for some reason (even if you're not availing of the service - perhaps as a veiled upsell attempt). It seems very likely that Firefox would be making use of GCM/FCM - I think most major apps do - so this could be it. Incidentally, this same topics is one of the main controversies arou…

> Unfortunately, unless you've rooted your phone, GCM/FCM is the only battery-efficient way to provide push to Android phones.

But, and this is the interesting part, the userspace library of FCM can be easily reversed and cloned (the information required for that is here https://gist.github.com/justjanne/153bd4886f92be0ee57fb40842...), and the system-side part of FCM has been cloned in an open way (see the µG project).

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

#158

Post by computator »

This would have been perfect for iPad 2's and 3's on which Safari and the normal Firefox keep crashing under the weight of the current bloated web.

But alas, the "simple and lightweight" Firefox Focus actually requires a heavyweight 64-bit processor:

> Why aren't older Apple products supported? Safari Content Blockers (which include Firefox Focus) are only available on devices with an A7 processor (64-bit) or later. Only 64-bit processors can handle the extra load of content blocking, which insures optimal performance. For example, since the iPad 3 has an A5 processor, Firefox Focus is incompatible.[1]

Come on, iPad 2's and 3's are less than 5 years old. There has to be some way to keep the iPad 2 or 3 alive if all you want to do browse the web.

[1] https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/focus

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

#159

Post by kuschku »

vfclists wrote: post #145
r00fus wrote: post #119

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Required for iOS or Apple won't allow it on the store.

Why hasn't the EU charged Apple for abusing the monopoly position? Didn't they do that to Microsoft, or has Apple sweetened them up in some other way?

In most parts of the EU Apple has a marketshare around or below 15%. That’s about the same that Windows Phone 7 had at its peak.

So, think about how much of a monopoly position Windows Phone 7 had, and try to imagine Apple had that. You can probably imagine why Apple is not in any shape to abuse their position.

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

#160

Post by EpicEng »

Max_Mustermann wrote: post #58
EpicEng wrote: post #54

After nearly a decade of using Chrome I decided to give FF another shot, having initially switched over due to slowness, an insatiable thirst for memory, and the single process model. I installed on both Windows (10 Pro) and Mac OS. Initial impressions were good; it seemed snappy, I liked the UI, and it was using less memory than Chrome with the same number of tabs open. A couple of days in things went downhill. On M…

You probably used version 55. If you're willing to give it another try, it might work quite differently once is on version 57, Nov 14, from what I last read: massive changes are coming, but mainly starting from that version.

I did, I'll give it a try
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