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Studying how Firefox can collect additional data in a privacy-preserving way

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Re: Studying how Firefox can collect additional data in a privacy-preserving way

#41
post #17

I've been using Firefox as my only browser for at least 12 years. If they go through with this, I'll switch to something else. I don't know how they could think that this is acceptable.

I think Mozilla's boldness in stating the plan to systematically leak user information, is a tipping point. Will increase usage of Opera, Midori, Chromium. As for Tor integration with Firefox, that really is a shame, I hope Tor integrates with something else.

Re: Studying how Firefox can collect additional data in a privacy-preserving way

#42
post #30

What I have not seen here is a discussion of how, exactly, collecting browsing behavior will help Mozilla improve Firefox.

Start by actually bothering to read the link: > One recurring ask from the Firefox product teams is the ability to collect more sensitive data, like how features perform on specific sites. > [for example]: "Which sites does a user see heavy Jank on?"

Ask for it. Don't just collect the data. Ffs, what has the team behind FireFox become? I need a new browser.

Re: Studying how Firefox can collect additional data in a privacy-preserving way

#43
The single largest advantage of Firefox over other browsers is that despite all odds and occasional missteps they managed to respect users' desire for complete privacy.

  For Firefox we want to better understand how people use our 
  product to improve their experience. 
Sure thing. But the fact that they are unhappy that some (many?) people are opting-out from the data collection is merely a sign that they don't want to understand why people are using Firefox in the first place. By opting out from the data collection people effectively tell them over and over again that they don't want for Mozilla "to understand how they use Firefox" or "to improve their experience", not at the expense of their privacy.

No phoning home. No telemetry, no data collection. No "light" version of the same, no "privacy-respecting" what-have-you. No means No. Nada. Zilch. Try and shovel any of that down people's throats and the idea of Firefox as a user's browser will die.

Re: Studying how Firefox can collect additional data in a privacy-preserving way

#44
post #27
post #12

I've removed all URLs from about:config and replaced them with localhost (search for "http"). This should help with privacy-related issues as long as no API endpoint is hardcoded.

I did the same, but used https://error.invalid/ , as that URL is guaranteed to never resolve.

Curious; I didn't know about that TLD: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/.invalid

Re: Studying how Firefox can collect additional data in a privacy-preserving way

#45
post #14

This is ridiculous. I use and recommend Firefox for pure ideological reasons, because frankly, Chrome/Chromium is miles ahead of them. If they start opt-out tracking using the same approach as Google I do not see any reason to use it nor install it for my friends and family. That's some data for you, Mozilla.

As you may have read in the feedback request, Mozilla is proposing to use differential privacy – differential is very different from tracking.

For more information, see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Differential_privacy for instance.

Re: Studying how Firefox can collect additional data in a privacy-preserving way

#46
post #30

What I have not seen here is a discussion of how, exactly, collecting browsing behavior will help Mozilla improve Firefox.

Start by actually bothering to read the link: > One recurring ask from the Firefox product teams is the ability to collect more sensitive data, like how features perform on specific sites. > [for example]: "Which sites does a user see heavy Jank on?"

That is, however, not a sufficient analysis of the problem domain and how the data gathering is offset by potential privacy intrusions. Right now it reads as if dev comfort is prioritized over user privacy, which might not be the case, but you cannot suggest sweeping changes like this in a few lines on a message board without proper analysis and communication. Mozilla should know better by know, especially since their market share is diminishing and target audiences are increasingly disappointing with Firefox.

Re: Studying how Firefox can collect additional data in a privacy-preserving way

#47

This might not be so bad as I expected from the title, but implementation details will really matter. If, for instance, they collect exact homepage URLs, they cannot make it anonymous (some site include username as URL components).

They are only considering collecting "eTLD+1, e.g. facebook.com or google.co.uk" so this should almost certainly not be an issue.

My homepage is my self-hosted reader, at rss..com :)

Re: Studying how Firefox can collect additional data in a privacy-preserving way

#48
post #17

I've been using Firefox as my only browser for at least 12 years. If they go through with this, I'll switch to something else. I don't know how they could think that this is acceptable.

I think Mozilla's boldness in stating the plan to systematically leak user information, is a tipping point. Will increase usage of Opera, Midori, Chromium. As for Tor integration with Firefox, that really is a shame, I hope Tor integrates with something else.

It's not "stating the plan", it's calling for feedback. If you disagree, provide feedback :)

Re: Studying how Firefox can collect additional data in a privacy-preserving way

#50
"If Firefox is dedicated to preserving privacy, then no Opt-in data feature should be added. "

I really don't understand this of the user, while previous sentence he writes:

"but I will say that I believe Opt-in is pro-privacy, while Opt-out is anti-privacy."

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