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Firefox Now Available with Enhanced Tracking Protection by Default

blog.mozilla.org

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Re: Firefox Now Available with Enhanced Tracking Protection by Default

#261

Post by deadbunny »

ghusbands wrote: post #259
deadbunny wrote: post #240

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Bullshit. If I install privacy respecting software over non privacy respecting software then you have to assume I want to keep my privacy and don't want you tracking me.

I'm not tracking anyone. But the majority of Firefox users aren't choosing it for privacy reasons, so these privacy-preserving features are not a good signal that the user actually wants that privacy. It was worse for do-not-track, as all the major browsers enabled it by default, making it not at all a signal of user preference.

> I'm not tracking anyone

Context is fun eh.

> But the majority of Firefox users aren't choosing it for privacy reasons

I'd like some stats on that please. Given the market share Firefox has why are people installing Firefox?

> so these privacy-preserving features are not a good signal that the user actually wants that privacy.

I consider installing privacy protecting software a pretty good signal but maybe I'm being generous.

> It was worse for do-not-track, as all the major browsers enabled it by default, making it not at all a signal of user preference.

Seems like a pretty strong signal that people don't want to be tracked to me, if a browser impliments something as a default then it would suggest to me that they know more than 50% of their userbase would think not being tracked online is a pretty fucking good idea.

Re: Firefox Now Available with Enhanced Tracking Protection by Default

#262

Post by floatingatoll »

chronogram wrote: post #31
floatingatoll wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The WebRender team seems to be rolling out very gradually and is, if I remember a recent blog post correctly, restricting based on specific GPUs and specific platforms that are proven to work without e.g. crashing or breaking out various things (like window toolbars). If you set these options, and then later on, you find that your Firefox is super buggy and won't render anything properly and has weird crashes, it cou…

I did definitely notice much better WebRender performance on Nvidia than on Intel, so I turned off WebRender on the Intel laptop.

I went looking at the WebRender blog and they are apparently still making performance improvements every time they post an update, so make sure to clear your override and let the defaults take effect in a few weeks - either it’ll be better or (I assume) the telemetry data will highlight your OS+GPU+driver pairing as needs-improvement (which it can’t with it force-disabled).

Re: Firefox Now Available with Enhanced Tracking Protection by Default

#263

Post by reissbaker »

jeena wrote: post #77
hn_throwaway_99 wrote: post #69

It appears this would block pretty much all the major analytics tracking cookies (e.g. Google analytics, mixpanel, etc.) based on the linked Disconnect list, https://disconnect.me/trackerprotection . While I realize that's kind of the point, in my mind there is somewhat of a difference between "the site I'm on is tracking me to figure out how I use their site" vs. "any site I visit is essentially aggregated data beca…

They could ask me how I use their site, instead of giving the data about every step I do to 3rd parties.

Unfortunately, many common adblockers also block first-party tracking where your data is only being sent to the company whose site you're interacting with. For example, I know that uBlock Origin blocks Airbnb's tracking code on the Airbnb website — even though it just sends data back to Airbnb-owned domains.

Re: Firefox Now Available with Enhanced Tracking Protection by Default

#264

Post by a1369209993 »

stkdump wrote: post #196
a1369209993 wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's worth noting that this isn't actually inconsistent. If your browser does security properly, blog.mozilla.org saying "here, have some malware" doesn't matter because it will be ignored. If it doesn't , one more website serving (functionality-irrelevant) malware makes it that much marginally more painful to keep using a defective browser.

Wait, are you saying that blog.mozilla.org serves malware?

Well, I'm not, but temac is saying that Firefox's Enhanced Tracking Protection is saying that blog.mozilla.org serves malware. I'd call that plausible and presumed true for the sake of discussion but unconfirmed.

Re: Firefox Now Available with Enhanced Tracking Protection by Default

#265

Post by brigandish »

ken wrote: post #160
rukshn wrote: post #155

Unpopular opinion on HN - Majority regular net users don't care about tracking and the FF focus on privacy will not give them the browser landscape they are losing daily. They should be focused on giving a better smooth UI, make it faster, remove unwanted extensions like pocket, make all the sites work. Let's see how valid this comment is in couple of years.

Agreed (except for those specific examples). User experience is the gateway drug. As long as the standard keyboard shortcuts and preferences panel don't work right in Firefox, it doesn't matter how fast or standards-compliant the HTML rendering engine is. Privacy is vegetables -- I know I should eat more, but I'm not going to go out of my way for it.

How about "Privacy is vegetarianism" instead? Just 20 years ago I'd have trouble going out for a meal in London because there was maybe one (one!) dedicated veggie restaurant in the whole city and lots of places didn't even offer an option on their menu.

Now, everywhere offers a vegetarian option, it's normal. What it took was dedication by fanatics* and to increase mindshare amongst the young. I'd venture that the same conditions would reap the same rewards with privacy.

* that's a wee joke… or is it? :-)

Re: Firefox Now Available with Enhanced Tracking Protection by Default

#266

Post by feanaro »

rukshn wrote: post #167
m45t3r wrote: post #158

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Firefox is fast enough for most people, it has a UI as good as Chrome (that maybe is shit for some people, however most people don't care), most people don't care if Pocket is included or not (it is not like Firefox keeps nagging you to use it either). The only point I concur with you is that all sites should work, however the majority of times I see a site broken in Firefox is because of the developer not testing in…

Why should the developers worry about a browser that is only covering 10% as I remember that is the cover ? Specially if you have a small team who has time and people to make multiple versions to run on different browsers? You can just put a banner saying this website works well on chrome. FF should be more active in making all the sites work on their browser.

Or perhaps don't design your site with browser-specific features from the start? The web is interoperable by default.

Re: Firefox Now Available with Enhanced Tracking Protection by Default

#267

Post by Spiritus »

joshuakarjala wrote: post #221
whizzkid wrote: post #4

It is funny how my browser preferences has changed over last 5 years. 2014 me as a developer had Chrome as number 1 browser for both development and all rest. Firefox once a month just to check cross browser compatibility. And Safari was just installed without me using it. 2019 me uses Safari for everything except development. Excellent power consumption and UX. Firefox for development. And lastly Chrome for all web…

What do you recommend for adblocking on Safari?

Wipr: https://giorgiocalderolla.com/wipr.html

Re: Firefox Now Available with Enhanced Tracking Protection by Default

#268

Post by ghusbands »

deadbunny wrote: post #261
ghusbands wrote: post #259

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm not tracking anyone. But the majority of Firefox users aren't choosing it for privacy reasons, so these privacy-preserving features are not a good signal that the user actually wants that privacy. It was worse for do-not-track, as all the major browsers enabled it by default, making it not at all a signal of user preference.

> I'm not tracking anyone Context is fun eh. > But the majority of Firefox users aren't choosing it for privacy reasons I'd like some stats on that please. Given the market share Firefox has why are people installing Firefox? > so these privacy-preserving features are not a good signal that the user actually wants that privacy. I consider installing privacy protecting software a pretty good signal but maybe I'm being…

> I'd like some stats on that please. Given the market share Firefox has why are people installing Firefox?

I don't have any stats, but I think many of the people choosing Firefox are doing so because Google is getting scary and Microsoft's offering is always warned against for security reasons, and that sums up the main browsers. In this choice between three things, you're barely getting one bit of user preference information.

> they know more than 50% of their userbase would think not being tracked online is a pretty fucking good idea.

Which in the mind of advertisers means the other less than 50% don't mind being tracked and so they should be allowed to track. But maybe they'd just go with any excuse.

I'm personally hoping that the EU at least slightly fixes things for Europeans when it starts enforcing the GDPR with big fines. Once every site has the required 'No, you may not track me' simple button, the nags will be less irritating because they'll actually be working.

Re: Firefox Now Available with Enhanced Tracking Protection by Default

#269

Post by misrab »

rukshn wrote: post #155

Unpopular opinion on HN - Majority regular net users don't care about tracking and the FF focus on privacy will not give them the browser landscape they are losing daily. They should be focused on giving a better smooth UI, make it faster, remove unwanted extensions like pocket, make all the sites work. Let's see how valid this comment is in couple of years.

I hear you, but that's why the greedy optimisation of convenience above all gradually leads to the local mininum of a Brave New World.
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