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Firefox about:config privacy settings

gist.github.com

141–150 of 154 posts

Re: Firefox about:config privacy settings

#141

Seriously, again? Applying all of the changes at this list will harm users and increase the chances of threats compromising the browser. Don’t be shortsighted and use this blindly. Especially do not punish some poor unwary non-tech user by altering these settings on their behalf.

> Applying all of the changes at this list will harm users and increase the chances of threats compromising the browser. How so?

browser.safebrowsing.phishing.enabled = false

These instructions disable phishing lookups, rather than pointing users to a list of alternatives. This is unsafe and harmful to bury in this list.

network.cookie.alwaysAcceptSessionCookies = false

They will immediately lose the ability to login to their password manager, which requires session cookies.

browser.cache.disk.enable = false browser.cache.memory.enable = false

They will start loading every resource on a page on every visit to every page, as no resources will be cached. One hour of browsing will use a month's data quota and the glorious no-caching detail of every pageview will be closely observed by the server-side logging metrics that are so desperate these days to extract targetable marketing data.

webgl.force-enabled = true

Browsers disable WebGL in some scenarios to protect users from hardware, software, and/or driver bugs that cause crashes when WebGL is enabled. This setting overrides that which increases their risk of GPU, browser, and system crashes. Additionally all crashes are either "exploitable" or "not exploitable", so bypassing crash mitigation processes increases your risk of one such vector being used against your browser.

network.dns.disableIPv6 = true

Over the next ten years, the user will see that more and more of the web breaks down and mysteriously fails in their browser. Sites only load partially, videoconferencing never works properly, video streaming is jerky and slow. Providers shipped IPv6 to their customer endpoints years ago. Disabling it has potential downsides and no upsides either for "privacy settings" or anything else.

Re: Firefox about:config privacy settings

#142
post #59

Do these settings sync? Or do I need to do this on every one of my machines which has firefox installed?

Probably not. OTOH, you can put the changes into a file called 'user.js'. Go to the folder of the FF profile you're using. Backup the file 'prefs.js' to restore in case you don't like the result. Then drop 'user.js' into that folder and restart.

When you're sure you're happy with the changes, then you can just drop 'user.js' into the profile folder(s) on your other machines.

The process is detailed here. https://www.ghacks.net/2015/08/18/a-comprehensive-list-of-fi...

Edit: I haven't personally tested this past FF59.

Re: Firefox about:config privacy settings

#143

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Applying all of the changes at this list will harm users and increase the chances of threats compromising the browser. How so?

browser.safebrowsing.phishing.enabled = false These instructions disable phishing lookups, rather than pointing users to a list of alternatives. This is unsafe and harmful to bury in this list. network.cookie.alwaysAcceptSessionCookies = false They will immediately lose the ability to login to their password manager, which requires session cookies. browser.cache.disk.enable = false browser.cache.memory.enable = false…

Not to mention the infamous `privacy.resistFingerprinting` option, which leads to a lot of random breakage and confused users. It's not ready for non-Tor Browser users yet, or else it would be default!

Re: Firefox about:config privacy settings

#144
After a number of experiments with Panopticlick, the single biggest fingerprint was ... screen depth and resolution. Even after disabling most of the other main fingerprinting mechanisms, my maximized browser window on a 30" display was a very small subset of the last 45 days test results. This was surprising to me.

Re: Firefox about:config privacy settings

#145

Earlier quoted context omitted.

uMatrix lets you set policies per domain / subdomain, while being very easy to use (for someone who knows web technologies). Highly recommend it.

Isn't that the same as blocking scripts with uBlock Origin?

It is, but I have easier time understanding what uM does over uBo.

Re: Firefox about:config privacy settings

#146
post #145

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Isn't that the same as blocking scripts with uBlock Origin?

It is, but I have easier time understanding what uM does over uBo.

Thanks. Just wanted to make sure I was understanding things right. Will check out uMatrix.

Re: Firefox about:config privacy settings

#147

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Applying all of the changes at this list will harm users and increase the chances of threats compromising the browser. How so?

browser.safebrowsing.phishing.enabled = false These instructions disable phishing lookups, rather than pointing users to a list of alternatives. This is unsafe and harmful to bury in this list. network.cookie.alwaysAcceptSessionCookies = false They will immediately lose the ability to login to their password manager, which requires session cookies. browser.cache.disk.enable = false browser.cache.memory.enable = false…

This is HN. Advanced knowledge is not an issue.

People making changes to user.js will have some knowledge of what they are doing, and handle the issues.

The post points some security/privacy extensions to complement. Nothing that a user changing user.js wouldn't already know.

Re: Firefox about:config privacy settings

#149

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have a new 2018 MBP with an i9. I've noticed I can squeeze upwards of six hours battery out of it using Safari. With Firefox I'm lucky to get three. I made this change just to see. So far it does appear to have lowered the energy impact score a bit, but I'm not sure it's enough to matter yet. I guess we'll know in a couple hours. Edit: 20 minutes in and I've watched my Time Remaining estimate creep up from 3 hours…

I use Firefox. I've found the big battery hit has come from streaming services (Netflix, Pandora, Spotify, Youtube, etc). One small change I made was streaming music to my phone, and that had a big impact. I know that streaming will use some battery life, but the amount of CPU being used by say, Pandora, was rather extreme.

I wonder if it's DRM related?

Re: Firefox about:config privacy settings

#150

Earlier quoted context omitted.

browser.safebrowsing.phishing.enabled = false These instructions disable phishing lookups, rather than pointing users to a list of alternatives. This is unsafe and harmful to bury in this list. network.cookie.alwaysAcceptSessionCookies = false They will immediately lose the ability to login to their password manager, which requires session cookies. browser.cache.disk.enable = false browser.cache.memory.enable = false…

This is HN. Advanced knowledge is not an issue. People making changes to user.js will have some knowledge of what they are doing, and handle the issues. The post points some security/privacy extensions to complement. Nothing that a user changing user.js wouldn't already know.

Presuming intimate knowledge of second- and third-order consequences from seemingly-innocuous preference changes is guaranteed to be a losing bet, even among tech enthusiasts and experts.

I missed the high risk resist-fingerprinting setting and had no idea it would cause so many problems. Those problems certainly are not documented in the gist and I would have fallen prey to them if I had applied it unaware.

Advanced knowledge is not the issue. Misrepresented knowledge is the issue. A document about “privacy settings” contains non-privacy settings and does not contain any mention of the lasting harmful side effects due anyone who uses any of the settings within it.

EDIT: This is how to approach changing one of these settings with the respect and care due to such a suggestion:

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17944991

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