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

Firefox Private Browsing mode upgrade

blog.mozilla.org

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

101–110 of 321 posts

Re: Firefox Private Browsing mode upgrade

#101

Post by BitwiseFool »

throwoutway wrote: post #10
jrootabega wrote: post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah. There's nothing of substance here. All it is is a shortcut for private mode and a default to dark theme when you're in private mode. Not really noteworthy. It's a user-hostile update, even. Dark theme by default when private? I'll control my own themes, thanks. If people are unsure whether they're in private mode, put a permanent private mode indicator in the UI. And what about people who will now confuse dark…

The corp speak at Mozilla is getting even weirder. It sounds like something my HR VP would say: > new desktop feature that allowed our users to express their most authentic selves and bring joy while browsing the web. No, it’s just another color theme setting.

Marketing prose is to be expected, but this is just too much. I suspect there aren't enough people at Mozilla with the courage to tell the marketing/brand management folks to tone it down. I don't necessarily blame them, though. It isn't easy to give criticism to creative folks with a great deal of enthusiasm.

Re: Firefox Private Browsing mode upgrade

#102

Post by traveler01 »

I want to like and use Firefox. Seriously, I really do. But when will they fix the performance of the browser?

They're spending devs time on useless crap instead of being improving the engine, which clearly needs improvements. For example, I wanted to send some thousands of pictures to Proton Drive (doesn't have a sync App yet) and tried doing it in Firefox. It literally started to take all the computer RAM (my computer has 32 GB) while with Brave it uploaded the entire thing without me even noticing in the computer performance.

Re: Firefox Private Browsing mode upgrade

#103

Post by chrisjc »

eis wrote: post #15

Shouldn't a post about a new release mention the version number? (It's 106) I really like Firefox from a usability and features point of view. Multi-account containers are fantastic! I want it to succeed. But a private browsing shortcut and colors don't excite me. I'd love to see improvements in speed and efficiency because FF is still behind the others for me. FF is also the only browser that frequently crashes. Sub…

Better color/theme support would interest me if it extended to containers. I've searched but I never found a theme switcher that worked with containers. It would be nice to have a little more control over customizing the colors/themes based on the container you're current open on.

Re: Firefox Private Browsing mode upgrade

#104

Post by zamubafoo »

coldpie wrote: post #85
freediver wrote: post #79

Earlier quoted context omitted.

All telemetry at the very least transfers your IP address which is legally considered personal information. A browser can not therefore be considered privacy-respecting if it has telemetry turned on by default. Respecting users' privacy at a fundamental level is important for a tool that is our most intimate window to the web (a web browser) even if you personally have 'nothing to hide'.

Can you please describe a theoretical attack on your privacy by Mozilla learning that your IP address launched a Firefox instance?

It's sufficient to identify you since there is still all other tracking data any browser supplies as part of the HTTPs connection handshake [1].

It's also not necessary to have Mozilla be the bad actor. Anyone who has access to the information in the future is a possible bad actor as they might be able to cross-reference the allegedly "innocuous" information with some future, more-pervasive data.

---

[1] - https://github.com/salesforce/ja3

Re: Firefox Private Browsing mode upgrade

#105

Post by jrootabega »

traceroute66 wrote: post #51

What I want to know is have Firefox fixed the show-stopper bug with their implementation of Private Windows yet ? In Firefox, if I login to something in one Private Window, and open a second Private Window, my session is maintained (e.g. login to Protonmail on one, I open a second private window and I'm already logged in). So I assume Firefox is sharing cookies and whatnot between Private Windows. Brave doesn't do th…

It's a miscommunication/misalignment of expectations. Private windows have privacy (more than non-private windows, at least), but they do not have privacy or isolation from each other. Unless you use add-ons, the isolation boundary is the profile. You need multiple profiles to keep them from sharing with each other.

The main problem then, IMO, is that it is not well-supported for a user to use template profiles or automation to manage or create multiple profiles with common settings. Copying profile directories to a separate user account (on platforms that allow that kind of thing) is the closest strong approach I can think of.

Re: Firefox Private Browsing mode upgrade

#106

Post by authpor »

saint-loup wrote: post #94
hbn wrote: post #9

> Last year we launched Firefox Colorways, a new desktop feature that allowed our users to express their most authentic selves and bring joy while browsing the web > “‘Independent Voices’ are the voices of the past and present that create a better future,” said Keely Alexis. “I chose this [analogy] as my inspiration for the collaboration because it feels authentic to me but it also aligns with Firefox and the vision…

I observed the change in tone in Mozilla blog posts, from experts talking about their craft to marketspeak. Even posts I should be professionally partial to, like those about UI design, rub me of the wrong way. It's often full of "creating delightful experiences" and "streamlining a seamless flow".

No post body was provided.

Re: Firefox Private Browsing mode upgrade

#107

Post by vntok »

emptyparadise wrote: post #93
s_ting765 wrote: post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Why don’t you give power users at the very least in about:config an option to disable ALL phoning home by Firefox upon launch and exit. Biggest reason I refuse to use Firefox no matter how bad Chromium is. I sometimes use Firefox Focus for doing searches on my phone and the thing is always pinging mozilla services. Some of them location related. No way to turn any of these off on what is supposed to be an incognito…

I find it hard to believe Chromium pings any less than Firefox. Would love to get more info on this.

Here you go: https://twitter.com/jonathansampson/status/11658588961766604...

> What I found were dozens of requests, which loaded nearly 16 MB in data. Lets break down what I saw.

> I also reviewed Google Chrome, for those interested: When I launched Google Chrome for the first time (and let it sit for a minute), 32 requests were made, and 7.26 MB of data downloaded.

Presumably Chromium would ping even less than Google Chrome.

Re: Firefox Private Browsing mode upgrade

#108

Post by _wolfie_ »

sabellito wrote: post #86
causi wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Jesus, can you just say "we've got themes?" No one is going to remember Firefox as the next MLK Jr because they let you turn the window chrome orange. Meanwhile Firefox Android is still a slow, unstable garbage pile. How many years now since Mozilla began developing exclusively for headline writers instead of their users?

I use FF Android every day, including watching videos, and haven't noticed the "unstable garbage pile". Are you being hyperbolic?

Well it's useable, I use it as well, but definitely worse then before this "new" version. And I want the extension support back.

Re: Firefox Private Browsing mode upgrade

#109

Post by denton-scratch »

There are things about Firefox that need attention; more UI bling isn't one of them.

Also, the Private Browsing upgrade appears to be just a theme change and a button. Most of the article is nothing to do with Private Browsing, so the title of the post is incorrect.

Re: Firefox Private Browsing mode upgrade

#110

Post by zeppelin101 »

sabellito wrote: post #86
causi wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Jesus, can you just say "we've got themes?" No one is going to remember Firefox as the next MLK Jr because they let you turn the window chrome orange. Meanwhile Firefox Android is still a slow, unstable garbage pile. How many years now since Mozilla began developing exclusively for headline writers instead of their users?

I use FF Android every day, including watching videos, and haven't noticed the "unstable garbage pile". Are you being hyperbolic?

Me too. It's my main browser on Android for years now and it works great.
Post reply on HN