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Firefox to Block All 3rd Party Trackers by Default

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Re: Firefox to Block All 3rd Party Trackers by Default

#161
post #81

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I, and probably many other users, have begun blocking all first-party cookies by default. I only permit it on sites I sign into and want to remember me, which are very few. If Mozilla wants to make a real difference, they'd study uMatrix and figure out how to create UX that would give that degree of flexibility and power to non-technical users.

> I only permit it on sites I sign into and want to remember me, which are very few. I don't know if I'm an outlier, but I hate having to resign back into sites I use even semi-regularly unless its for administrative access or purchase confirmation. Regular "auto sign outs" already happens with a few due to a snafu somewhere along the stack, for me The Economist and Foreign Affairs are the major ones where it seems l…

> I don't know if I'm an outlier, but I hate having to resign back into sites I use even semi-regularly unless its for administrative access or purchase confirmation.

Having set up a master password in Firefox, resigning usually takes me a single click (as the login info is filled in by the browser). Would this be useful in your case?

Re: Firefox to Block All 3rd Party Trackers by Default

#162
post #127
post #82

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I wish DNT was honoured, but it's as good as a "do not commit crime" sign.

DNT should have been part of GDPR as explicit opt-out

Or GDPR could allow users to send "DNT: 0" (aka "Do Track") to auto-accept all those GDPR cookie prompts. :)

Re: Firefox to Block All 3rd Party Trackers by Default

#163
post #151
post #123

Earlier quoted context omitted.

DNT is practically defunct. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Do_Not_Track#History In January 2019 W3C Tracking Protection Working Group concluded work on Do Not Track standard citing "insufficient deployment of these extensions" and lack of "indications of planned support among user agents, third parties, and the ecosystem at large." In February 2019 Apple Safari 12.1 was released without support for DNT to avoid it bei…

You can tell how bad the lack of support / teeth is when people start using the flag to not track them as an extra way of tracking people. That's extremely telling... but sadly not unexpected by many of us.

Should Mozilla remove the DNT header from Firefox like Apple did in Safari? When DNT does nothing except give trackers one more bit of fingerprint entropy, is there any value in users still allowing users to send DNT? "DNT: I am one of those people who does not want you to track even though I know you will."

Re: Firefox to Block All 3rd Party Trackers by Default

#164
post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sorry never used it but one advantage of tridactyl is that the creator lurks here and is extremely responsive and kind. I will tell you what 3-fin can and can't do- Can: Js, key bindings, can show alpha and numeric hints. In numeric mode, behaves like vimp- type char of link text. ;; for link info. ; for hover. C-d/C-f et al work. H, L navigate history. Edit in vim. C-i Cannot: Self limitation - No way to stop page l…

You can stop page load with `stop`, bound to x, provided that the page has loaded enough for Tridactyl to be running. Search - we actually have our own find mode now. Instructions on how to set it up are on the changelog. The default Firefox one has find next / previous bound to Ctrl-G / Ctrl-Shift-G. You can add readline binds to text regions if you want. It's mentioned and linked to on the help page somewhere near…

You'll have to pardon me for not finding time to read the manual and spouting nonsense! I'm going to get around to it real soon, just too much backlog!

Re: Firefox to Block All 3rd Party Trackers by Default

#165
post #95

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't believe that many users are blocking first-party cookies. Source: I'm a web analyst managing large sites and can see how many visitors block all cookies. It's minimal. Also blocking first-party cookies requires a degree of tech-savviness and it prevents many websites from working properly.

To add with that the parent comment said, I do as well, in two ways: - IE prompts me if I want to block cookies on a website, so unless I trust it, I block by default. - I have an extension on Firefox that is "Cookie Autodelete", so I visit a site and unless I whitelist it, all cookies will be deleted when I leave. I wondering if you are not seeing blocked cookie because of the second one. I'm not blocking it, but as…

One thing I want to add regarding "Cookie Autodelete" that tripped me up, unlike it's predecessor it does not default at the start to deleting everything, so you may end up running it for a year thinking it's clearing everything and than realize you have a multi-megabyte list full of tracking cookies.

Re: Firefox to Block All 3rd Party Trackers by Default

#166

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If people can't afford paying, then it follows that they can't afford being advertised at in order to stimulate their consumption beyond what they actually need. If the answer to that is that people are of course in their right to ignore advertisements (as if that is possible), then by extension blocking them outright is morally defensible as well, and we are right back to where we are now. Either that, or on-line ad…

> If people can't afford paying, then it follows that they can't afford being advertised You know the answer to that. People can pay with their data, their interests. And if you put the question to people if they want a free web which sells their data or pay for every site then most people will choose the first.

And what is that data used for, if not targetted advertising?

The data is a means to an end: the ability to provide advertisers with a way to reach very specific groups of people, and a way for advertising platforms to track not just the same user, but a very detailed user profile.

Knowing what people's interests are is worth diddly-squat until you use that knowledge to push ads to them that are likely to resonate with them.

Re: Firefox to Block All 3rd Party Trackers by Default

#167

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah the UX of Multi-Account Containers is awful. The number of steps the user is required to follow to make a website always open in a particular container is absurd. 1) Create a new container 2) Open a new tab with that container 3) Open the website in that container 4) Check "Always open in [container name]" 5) Open a new tab and load that page again. 6) Click "Remember my decision" 7) Click "Open in [container na…

> Also, why a limit of 8 colors and 12 icons? Why not an arbitrary number of colors and user definable icons? This commonly called the paradox of choice. Satisfaction is often higher when choosing from a limited set of good options than choosing from a large set of options with varying quality. (YMMV, it is also used as an excuse for being inflexible, or for forcing bad options on users a.l.a. a false dilemma, and to…

It's pretty crap in practice. Which of those icons am I to choose for HN? Dog? Fork and knife? Apple? Sunglasses? Briefcase? Gift?

I chose 'Dollars' as the closest fit due to the association between the tech industry and greed, but really shouldn't there be at least one tech-themed icon? Of the 12, two are food themed, two or three are shopping related, etc. The icon set is redundant with poor conceptual coverage.

Okay, maybe I'm a nerd who cares about tech and Mozilla thinks most firefox users who use Multi-Account Containers will be regular joes who aren't interested in tech. I disagree, but maybe that's their theory. What icon am I to use for youtube? Everybody uses youtube. Is youtube conceptually a briefcase? Trees? Dog? Is it a dog because everybody watches dog videos on youtube? I chose sunglasses, because sunglasses are associated with eyes and eyes are associated with videos.. it's a pretty tenuous association. And which color? Red makes sense, youtube brands itself with the color red. Yet red isn't on the color list. Two shades of orange are on the list, but not red. What the fuck? So youtube is "dark orange sunglasses". Great, just great.

Re: Firefox to Block All 3rd Party Trackers by Default

#168
post #10

What is a "tracker" here? How will Firefox determine that?

Whatever they feel like it being. Including images.

For some reason, this keeps getting flipped to "on" for me, and I have to keep turning it off, to get images to load correctly in both my RSS reader and via a convenience user script.

Re: Firefox to Block All 3rd Party Trackers by Default

#169
post #81

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I, and probably many other users, have begun blocking all first-party cookies by default. I only permit it on sites I sign into and want to remember me, which are very few. If Mozilla wants to make a real difference, they'd study uMatrix and figure out how to create UX that would give that degree of flexibility and power to non-technical users.

> I only permit it on sites I sign into and want to remember me, which are very few. I don't know if I'm an outlier, but I hate having to resign back into sites I use even semi-regularly unless its for administrative access or purchase confirmation. Regular "auto sign outs" already happens with a few due to a snafu somewhere along the stack, for me The Economist and Foreign Affairs are the major ones where it seems l…

The list of sites I sign into in the first place is very short. Most of the time websites remembering me is used to implement anti-features.

Re: Firefox to Block All 3rd Party Trackers by Default

#170

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I, and probably many other users, have begun blocking all first-party cookies by default. I only permit it on sites I sign into and want to remember me, which are very few. If Mozilla wants to make a real difference, they'd study uMatrix and figure out how to create UX that would give that degree of flexibility and power to non-technical users.

>> I, and probably many other users, have begun blocking all first-party cookies by default. So this change should have no effect on you right? You're blocking all cookies? I like that idea, but how many things does it break?

> many things does it break?

Almost nothing, surprisingly enough. Of course it breaks websites I sign into, so I simply whitelist those.

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