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Each Firefox download has a unique identifier

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Re: Each Firefox download has a unique identifier

#181

Post by GekkePrutser »

kaba0 wrote: post #129
kreeben wrote: post #103

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It gives Mozilla the opportunity to connect my IP address with my browser with my Mozilla account. Mozilla needs to bow down to the US govt and supply them with this information should they have stored it, if the govt feels they need it.

You log into your mozilla account from your browser through the goddamn internet. They literally have to have your IP address for that and that adds absolutely zero information than necessary. It is just “people want to be outraged over nothing” yet again.

You don't have to log in there, and when you do at least you know you're doing it and are aware of the tracking consequences.

It's very different from sneaking this in under the radar.

Re: Each Firefox download has a unique identifier

#182

Post by throwaway48375 »

I'm seriously considering switching from Firefox. I put a lot of effort into avoiding advertisements on all my devices and then Firefox goes and hijacks my system to show me an advertisement for some Disney+ movie and now this.

I was able to disable the ads with an about:config modification and I always get my installers from ftp.mozilla.org so this didn't even personally effect me, but still I feel betrayed.

Re: Each Firefox download has a unique identifier

#183

Post by GekkePrutser »

Arnavion wrote: post #5
whatshisface wrote: post #2

Package manager installations wouldn't have this problem because everybody gets the same copy of the same binary and associated files, rights?

Yes. Just like with the Audacity kerfuffle some time ago, it's not a problem for distro packages, only when you get your binaries from upstream.

Which is what 95% of users would do though.. the average user will use Windows or Mac and has never heard of Chocolatey. Firefox is not in the Mac app store and I guess not on Windows either.

Re: Each Firefox download has a unique identifier

#184

Post by Mathnerd314 »

rodamaral wrote: post #170
Mathnerd314 wrote: post #166

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The mistake is at step 1 when you downloaded Firefox instead of Tor Browser.

Some people use Tor within Firefox via a SOCKS proxy. This might defeat the protection given by Tor.

Right which is why the Tor FAQ says using a browser besides Tor Browser is dangerous and not recommended: https://support.torproject.org/tbb/tbb-9/

It's like how when you're baking a cake, the easiest way to do it is to buy a cake mix and follow the directions on the back. Yes, maybe you can make a tastier cake by changing the directions or using better ingredients, but you also introduced the possibility of the cake exploding. Particularly with anonymity, the trick is to do what everyone else who wants to be anonymous is doing.

Re: Each Firefox download has a unique identifier

#185

Post by GekkePrutser »

russdpale wrote: post #81

The state of web broswers is so pathetic I wish the government would step in and limit the amount of out right spying that is going on. We have created an entire society which thinks that so long as the data is simply 1 degree removed from anonymity, that everything is ok. Privacy is largely a mirage, where are our representatives to protect our privacy when the "free" market cannot, and indeed will not, do it for us…

It's not on the radar of politics. We have some parties in Europe that care about it, but they are all under the flag of pirate parties which is self-defeating IMO. By associating themselves with piracy they always add a negative association to any debate about privacy. Which allows opponents to easily dismiss them with the "people only want privacy because they have something to hide" fallacy.

If they want to be taken seriously they have to grow up and call themselves the privacy party.

Of course there's also a lot all of us could do to make our interests know to mainstream politicians. Because don't forget, our adversaries are spending millions on lobbyists preaching the holy book of big data.

Re: Each Firefox download has a unique identifier

#186

Post by rackjack »

abandonliberty wrote: post #174
car_analogy wrote: post #62

Suppose you want to do something anonymously. 1. Download installer from Mozilla from your home network - Mozilla now has your home IP and installer ID. 2. Transfer it via USB key to a secure, anonymous computer - one not linked to you, on a network not associated with you, such as public WiFi. 3. Install Firefox using that installer on said computer. It transmits the installer ID to Mozilla, which matches the one gi…

I can't believe the apologists commenting on this. Firefox put a lot of effort into tracking download to install behavior. Maybe this is the only violation you know about. There's no reason to continue to believe in Mozilla's good faith. They've been captured, and are 90% dependent on Google revenue. Discussion here: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=28954390 Firefox is dead. It's time to move past denial. It does…

What're the alternatives to Firefox? The only ones that come to mind are Opera and Brave, and Brave had some controversy too.

Re: Each Firefox download has a unique identifier

#188

Post by matheusmoreira »

causality0 wrote: post #59
LordDragonfang wrote: post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Firefox was successful when it was the alternative, better, option to the dominant Internet Explorer. Now the dominant browser is Chrom(e|ium). The two scenarios are very different.

Precisely. Firefox is never going to defeat Chrome in the "being Chrome" category. If it wants to exist as more than a tool for Google to avoid antitrust lawsuits, it can't keep playing that game. It has to differentiate. Privacy is not differentiation because it's invisible and HN commentators are 90% of the people who care about it. I want the sense of power back. I want the feeling that Firefox gave me a decade ag…

I too want my power back. I want my user agent back. I especially want total inalienable power over the websites I'm browsing. The kind of power I'd have if I were to write a custom client for each website: the power to freely script, copy, save, edit, block and delete, whether the site's owner wants it or not.

Re: Each Firefox download has a unique identifier

#189

Post by GekkePrutser »

noAnswer wrote: post #63
ahmedfromtunis wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have no idea what the actual answer is, but one can image that they want to understand where are people getting these copies of ff if they do not download them themselves. Why would this be important, again just speculating: to try to leverage whatever channel this might uncover to distribute even more copies of the browser. Is this ID thing the best way to do it, though? Probably.

> but one can image that they want to understand where are people getting these copies of ff if they do not download them themselves. These people are getting it obviously from their admins! (Like myself. I push Firefox updates to close to 1000 PCs. I thought (amongst other things) I'm doing them a favour by saving them traffic.) They obviously know that! The real reason they are doing this is simply because they sta…

I pushed it to tens of thousands of endpoints in the past :P

Though we have long since moved it to optional. First we moved to Chrome as the "standard browser" due to user requests and eventually our management caved in to Microsoft's constant pushing to make Edge the standard browser. Not that I cared because both are bad for privacy obviously.

But the amount of lobbying for edge that they do makes me really sceptical. It's clearly not about having their pet project succeed, they must have some serious strategy hinging on this. Edge doesn't make them any money on its own as it's a free product so the revenue must come from side channels of its use instead.

Which, considering MS' past with IE and their recent ventures into tracking and advertising in the OS is probably bad news for the end user :(

Re: Each Firefox download has a unique identifier

#190

Post by ygjb »

d110af5ccf wrote: post #114
zagrebian wrote: post #88

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why would Mozilla need the IP address? It doesn’t seem useful for their telemetry.

Even if they don't (currently) feel that they need them, they could be compelled by law enforcement to retain logs and forbidden from revealing this fact publicly. Or their network could get infiltrated.

How do you propose to prevent a user from leaking their home IP address to Mozilla without undermining the ability to: * Download the browser * implement a safe browsing mechanism * support automatic updates (which are a critical security feature)
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