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Each Firefox download has a unique identifier

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Re: Each Firefox download has a unique identifier

#211

Post by mardifoufs »

KennyBlanken wrote: post #86
zagrebian wrote: post #75

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Mozilla now has your home IP Since when does Mozilla collect IP addresses?

You seem to be unaware that intelligence services have been hoovering up internet traffic wholesale for decades, and that telcos do it internally as well. Verizon's "supercookie" is a great example.

On the other hand, if intelligence agencies are personally targeting you it's already over. This might help them, but even they can probably get everything they need on you with way less effort.

Re: Each Firefox download has a unique identifier

#212

Post by mmis1000 »

b215826 wrote: post #157

Is this true about the x64 Linux tarball [1] that Mozilla distributes? It's difficult for Mozilla to create new tarballs for each download. [1]: https://download.mozilla.org/?product=firefox-latest&os=linu...

tarball don't really have a footer or header that contains info of all files. To add a file to a tarball, all you need is remove the end-of-file marker, append to it and make a new marker. And that works extremely well with stream compressors (you just remake the last section).

Re: Each Firefox download has a unique identifier

#213

Post by bofh23 »

Over the years, I’ve enjoyed reading many ghacks articles about browsers. However, I find it ironic that every link in the OP article reporting on user tracking practices is wrapped in opaque googleadservices links. By opaque, I mean the destination link is hidden.

Re: Each Firefox download has a unique identifier

#214

Post by PascLeRasc »

GekkePrutser wrote: post #183
Arnavion wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Windows actually knows about the Firefox installer tracker and blocks it: https://www.techradar.com/news/microsoft-edge-blocks-firefox...

Re: Each Firefox download has a unique identifier

#215

Post by unnamed76ri »

ashwagary wrote: post #192
ipaddr wrote: post #150

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The average person fears the domestic intelligence service and is not as concerned with local police.

The thousands of people a year murdered by local police (many of whom are unarmed and innocent) would probably disagree.

you’re only off by whatever number of thousands over a thousand you are implying here.

Re: Each Firefox download has a unique identifier

#216

Post by dendriti »

detaro wrote: post #140
d110af5ccf wrote: post #132

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> do you seriously consider counting how many installs are triggered from a download "spying"? Yes. It is a unique identifier that they are fully capable of associating with telemetry data and other personal activity. It could be used by various parties to deanonymize me. That is spying. You are playing dishonest semantic games. Effective privacy may well be complicated. Perhaps you can maintain effective privacy in…

There is a very large difference between "X is spying on Y" and "X could spy on Y if they started to record and correlate things". And even "I don't trust them not to" is not the same as "they are". A lot about privacy involves not looking at things you could look at. E.g. picking the example mentioned repeatedly in this discussion: Network transfers annoyingly involve IP addresses. That doesn't mean every server you…

Just because you don't spy on your neighboors means that Mozilla can and should spy on their users? What?

Re: Each Firefox download has a unique identifier

#217

Post by moistly »

rackjack wrote: post #186
abandonliberty wrote: post #174

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Opera was sold off to Chinese investors, and I recall stories about it offering sketchy banking/bitcoin services.

Re: Each Firefox download has a unique identifier

#218

Post by 0xBAADA555 »

GekkePrutser wrote: post #183
Arnavion wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

It is on the Windows Store.

https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/p/mozilla-firefox-browser/9n...

Re: Each Firefox download has a unique identifier

#219

Post by jl6 »

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…

How about we try and fix this rather than walking away? All the alternatives are even worse.
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