Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Latest Firefox Brings Privacy Protections Front and Center

blog.mozilla.org

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

81–90 of 209 posts

Re: Latest Firefox Brings Privacy Protections Front and Center

#81

Post by ric2b »

zimbatm wrote: post #12
dajonker wrote: post #2

I see one risk for Firefox: if they block all trackers, e.g. Google Analytics, then it would appear to people viewing browser statistics in Google Analytics that no-one is using Firefox, and thus the developers will be told they don't need to test anything on Firefox.

Or just actively punishing Firefox because blocking tracking is also blocking ads, which is their revenue model. Why spend money optimizing for a browser that doesn't generate revenue? If Firefox becomes the bastion of privacy sensitive people it will become more and more like Tor users, all tainted with the same labels. I mean it's already the case that recaptcha will more likely trigger on Firefox than Chrome, aski…

> because blocking tracking is also blocking ads

It's not, the Internet is the only medium where it's assumed that tracking/targeting is necessary for advertising. TV, Magazines, radio, podcasts, cinema don't track users.

Re: Latest Firefox Brings Privacy Protections Front and Center

#83

Post by Zenbit_UX »

sucrose wrote: post #77
pitaj wrote: post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's probably just using your IP address.

So it's possible that by using a VPN, you're seeing ads recommended for other people using the same VPN?

Yes, that is exactly what happens when you use a VPN. Only services like primevideo and Netflix bother to detect VPNs and force you to get off, 99% of the web treats you like a regular user, but with an insane diversity of interests.

Re: Latest Firefox Brings Privacy Protections Front and Center

#84

Post by ric2b »

jakemal wrote: post #41
thrwn_frthr_awy wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This sounds like a risk for using Google Analytics to me. If your analytics suite isn’t representative of your site’s traffic and users, maybe you should look for a more ethical platform/solution?

Are there more ethical platforms that don't get blocked by default for Firefox users?

Server logs

Re: Latest Firefox Brings Privacy Protections Front and Center

#85

Post by ric2b »

newscracker wrote: post #55
lprd wrote: post #25

This is great! On another note, I'm wondering when I can remove uBlock Origin?

I don’t think Firefox will get into complete built-in ad blocking, like Brave does. But the days (or years) of uBlock Origin seem to be numbered because of the approach proposed by Chrome (called Manifest V3) to prevent extensions from modifying network requests, and being limited to just providing a block list of URLs for the browser engine to block (this design has been the case with Safari’s built-in content block…

> But the days (or years) of uBlock Origin seem to be numbered because of the approach proposed by Chrome (called Manifest V3) to prevent extensions from modifying network requests

Numbered on Chrome, you mean.

Re: Latest Firefox Brings Privacy Protections Front and Center

#86

Post by oldmanhorton »

re4ctor wrote: post #49
dmortin wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Why spend money optimizing for a browser that doesn't generate revenue? Maybe sites will move to a model that you'll be offered to pay for their services if you block trackers. So you'll have a choice of paying with your data or paying with your money. Either way someone has to foot the bill at the end. I guess in this case most users will let trackers work instead of paying.

That then gets into the ethics of should privacy only be for the wealthy

That's fair, but before computers, not much was available for free. Getting a newspaper would generally cost money, as would using the payphone to communicate, as would so many other things that are now freely available. So, while its definitely a problem, as long as it's cheap enough for "most" people to afford it, then I think we aren't really regressing?

Perhaps if we consider information on the internet to be vital to daily life, a program like food stamps could be implemented? It sounds rather over engineered but it's the only idea I've ever heard for working around the "privacy is only for the wealthy" concern.

Re: Latest Firefox Brings Privacy Protections Front and Center

#88

Post by mottosso »

zimbatm wrote: post #12
dajonker wrote: post #2

I see one risk for Firefox: if they block all trackers, e.g. Google Analytics, then it would appear to people viewing browser statistics in Google Analytics that no-one is using Firefox, and thus the developers will be told they don't need to test anything on Firefox.

Or just actively punishing Firefox because blocking tracking is also blocking ads, which is their revenue model. Why spend money optimizing for a browser that doesn't generate revenue? If Firefox becomes the bastion of privacy sensitive people it will become more and more like Tor users, all tainted with the same labels. I mean it's already the case that recaptcha will more likely trigger on Firefox than Chrome, aski…

> Why spend money optimizing for a browser that doesn't generate revenue?

A browser dedicated to websites that exists for reasons other than serving ads? Sign me up!

Re: Latest Firefox Brings Privacy Protections Front and Center

#89

Post by hospadar »

AdmiralAsshat wrote: post #21

The downside of all of this is that I feel like sites are now intentionally being designed to break if this kind of stuff is blocked. I used to be able to use Firefox Focus (which has tracking protection built-in) to pay most of my bills. This was convenient because I would just open up the one site in FFF, pay the bill, and then close it, with all browsing history automatically deleted. In the past month about 3 of…

I think helps expose the actual (bidirectional) flow of information - web sites give you stuff because you give them stuff.

Usually you give them personal info about what you do on their site so that they can monetize you, in return you get news, messaging, etc.

If you're unwilling to give them that stuff, maybe it's OK that they are unwilling to give you their (presumably valuable, because you're requesting it) stuff (articles, videos, etc).

Often when I get "we won't show this to you with an adblocker on", I simply turn it off for that page. I want to read that article and I'm happy to exchange some personal info to get it for free. At least in this context I have the chance to opt-in.

I agree that there are probably a lot of places where anti-content-blocking tools are overused (i.e. services that I have already actually paid $$ for), and probably other situations where I'd like more options ("plz disable adblocker OR pay us $0.05 for this article [obviously need some way to pay that doesn't in turn expose my personal info]")

Re: Latest Firefox Brings Privacy Protections Front and Center

#90

Post by elcomet »

c3534l wrote: post #70
svnpenn wrote: post #43

Honestly its getting out of hand. I have everything blocked I can think of [1], and even browsing in private mode, I still sometimes get the "recommended for you" on YouTube. Stop invading my privacy. [1] https://cup.github.io/rosso/youtube

I looked up some DevOps stuff on reddit through a proxy with adblockers in private mode and all of a sudden my front page was filled with posts about depression, men asking advice about how to talk to women, and advice about getting a job and moving out of your parents house. These were based on sessions cookies, but I was still kinda offended it pegged me as a sad loser just because I wanted to know more about NGINX…

Are you sure those weren't just regular ads without any personalization ? This seem like the kind of ad which is very broad and could fit most men (how to talk to woman, how to get a job, ...)
Post reply on HN