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Stop Firefox leaking data about you

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Re: Stop Firefox leaking data about you

#51

Post by TheLoneWolfling »

wodenokoto wrote: post #5

While visiting google every 30 minutes or so is a way of leaking, you aren't leaking much more than ip and the fact that this up is in Firefox. Isn't reader an offline functionality?

You're missing that any blacklist hits are rechecked against Google.

So it leaks a heartbeat, and any hits against the blacklist.

Re: Stop Firefox leaking data about you

#52

Post by ploxiln »

akavel wrote: post #48
dao- wrote: post #25

Seems like lots of FUD; how do Firefox Hello, Pocket and Geolocation "leak data about you" if you don't explicitly use them? How do DRM and Reader mode leak data at all? Also, Safe Browsing, DRM, Search suggestions, Telemetry and Health report can be disabled in the preferences UI. Don't need sensationalist about:config protips for that.

Also, from the description of the Safe Browsing feature (as linked on the above page), it seems that it doesn't actually send (and thus leak) URLs; rather, it downloads a blacklist from Google periodically (~30min), and checks URLs against it locally ... https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/how-does-phishing-and-m... (Though, for file downloads , some meta information seems to be sent if I'm reading correctly.)

I've worked with safebrowsing (v2) data/api before. It downloads and maintains lists of hash prefixes, which it checks locally for hashes of various versions of the url. When it gets a match, it downloads a chunk of all full hashes that start with that prefix, to see if the full url/variant hash is one of them. Usually that list very short, just one or two full hashes for a particular prefix.

Re: Stop Firefox leaking data about you

#53

Post by Sanddancer »

amq wrote: post #31
detaro wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

http://kb.mozillazine.org/Browser.safebrowsing.remoteLookups That's configured here

I couldn't find Browser.safebrowsing.remoteLookups in my about:config. Does it still apply? upd: I am searching for it in the Firefox sources now. Just for curiosity: there are 117512 files in 8610 directories totaling 743 MB, and search in files is really slow even on SSD.

A key that's not in the config file uses the defaults. You can just add the key by going into about:config , right clicking anywhere in the list, and choosing New, and in this case, boolean, and set it to false.

Re: Stop Firefox leaking data about you

#54

Post by driverdan »

ep103 wrote: post #41
Animats wrote: post #32

Mozilla has an annoying pattern of removing items from the user preferences to "avoid user confusion", an excuse companies often use when deceiving customers. (Example: Microsoft dropping the "RT" designation. [1]) "Accept/reject third-party cookies", for example, doesn't always appear in the preferences any more. Mozilla's new "social" features don't have a turn-off option in the Preferences. You can disable them by…

Yeah, Google never does this with their interfaces (/sarcasm)

OP said nothing about Google. What Google does isn't necessarily relevant to what Mozilla does.

Re: Stop Firefox leaking data about you

#55

Post by driverdan »

garrettr_ wrote: post #27

Please for the love of god do not disable the Google SafeBrowsing preferences. SafeBrowsing protects you from a lot of malicious websites, and does not leak much information to Google. For most people the security benefits of SafeBrowsing far outweigh the privacy concerns. It is important to remember that malicious websites and malware in general may negatively impact your security and privacy in extremely harmful wa…

In the history of the malicious site blacklist I've only ever tried visiting one or two sites that were flagged. For your average non-technical person sure, keep it enabled. For someone browsing HN and editing config values it's not a problem.

Re: Stop Firefox leaking data about you

#58

Post by brador »

RexRollman wrote: post #37
dao- wrote: post #25

Seems like lots of FUD; how do Firefox Hello, Pocket and Geolocation "leak data about you" if you don't explicitly use them? How do DRM and Reader mode leak data at all? Also, Safe Browsing, DRM, Search suggestions, Telemetry and Health report can be disabled in the preferences UI. Don't need sensationalist about:config protips for that.

I would prefer it if they stripped out Hello and Pocket. They don't need to be there and their inclusion makes me wonder whay Mozilla's Firefox goals really are.

Mozilla is reliant on the money integrations bring. The search engine integration alone brings in millions.

Re: Stop Firefox leaking data about you

#59

Post by madez »

brador wrote: post #58
RexRollman wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I would prefer it if they stripped out Hello and Pocket. They don't need to be there and their inclusion makes me wonder whay Mozilla's Firefox goals really are.

Mozilla is reliant on the money integrations bring. The search engine integration alone brings in millions.

That's the crux of this situation. Mozilla needs money. Unless they find another way to finance themselves, they will continue selling user data, directly or indirectly. This will not change however we cry out.
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