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Firefox built-in spyware that cannot be disabled
11–20 of 48 posts
Re: Firefox built-in spyware that cannot be disabled
#12I noticed this as well and blocked it in my local DNS. I also disable DoH. grep firefox /etc/unbound/override/combined.conf local-zone: "firefox-settings-attachments.cdn.mozilla.net" always_nxdomain local-zone: "firefox.settings.services.mozilla.com" always_nxdomain
> I also disable DoH Why? DoH is good for privacy.
He needs to disable DoH in order to avoid firefox using HTTPS to conduct the DNS queries. This is needed if he wants to block the request through his system hosts files or firewall.
Re: Firefox built-in spyware that cannot be disabled
#13yes, ff does a ton of background connections. use wireshark to see what it is doing. i tried to block all that crap once but after a while i just gave up. it is still my primary browser because it is now the only alternative to google's monopoly(even though mozilla is de facto living off of google's money).
They're not only living off google money, they also fired all their engineers, and google is required by court of law to supply money and engineers to help maintain Firefox, ridiculous!
Re: Firefox built-in spyware that cannot be disabled
#14This is why I use LibreWolf, which is a patched version of Firefox that removes pocket and stuff like this entirely, instead of regular Mozilla Firefox with something like arkenfox to harden it. There's only so much a config, no matter how extensive, can really do for you against what's been hard-coded into a program itself, and configs need personal maintenance, whereas a patch version of a piece of software can pul…
LibreWolf is not a fork, and rather a Firefox profile with branding and UI fixes on top.
The patches do not remove any telemetry. [1]
OP's argument still stands, as LibreWolf's telemetry and normandy integrations are identical to upstream Firefox.
[1] https://codeberg.org/librewolf/source/src/branch/main/patche...
Re: Firefox built-in spyware that cannot be disabled
#15I noticed this as well and blocked it in my local DNS. I also disable DoH. grep firefox /etc/unbound/override/combined.conf local-zone: "firefox-settings-attachments.cdn.mozilla.net" always_nxdomain local-zone: "firefox.settings.services.mozilla.com" always_nxdomain
> I also disable DoH Why? DoH is good for privacy.
If I do not disable it then I can not block nefarious domains for all devices on my network and I can not monitor what devices are doing DNS lookups.
I do not agree that it is good for privacy. Maybe one day if ESNI is implemented everywhere then there may be some truth in the idea, but that also assumes that we are not just moving the resolver from the local ISP to the big centralized platforms like Cloudflare or Google. Cloudflare and Google are by far the biggest and juiciest targets for state sponsored monitoring, much more than each individual ISP's DNS. As I have no control over their data retention and usage policies I just run my own DNS that talks directly to the root DNS servers and pre-resolves/caches all the domains name-servers that I talk to regularly. At best my tiny ISP would see my batch queries that run on a schedule. If some day my tiny ISP became nefarious I would put them out of business and hope that whomever acquires their infrastructure may be better behaived.
Re: Firefox built-in spyware that cannot be disabled
#16I swear there must be one person at Mozilla with power and a massive sunk cost complex surrounding their pocket acquisition. if they actually cared, it wouldn't be built-in and so offensively un-disableable.
Re: Firefox built-in spyware that cannot be disabled
#17Mozilla CEO needs this for that sweet Google payout. This is how you prove to advertisers number of active installs.
Re: Firefox built-in spyware that cannot be disabled
#18Is pocket actually spyware / telemetry or is this just conjecture?
Re: Firefox built-in spyware that cannot be disabled
#19Earlier quoted context omitted.
> I also disable DoH Why? DoH is good for privacy.
If I do not disable it then I can not block nefarious domains for all devices on my network and I can not monitor what devices are doing DNS lookups. I do not agree that it is good for privacy. Maybe one day if ESNI is implemented everywhere then there may be some truth in the idea, but that also assumes that we are not just moving the resolver from the local ISP to the big centralized platforms like Cloudflare or Go…
How does an application-specific configuration in firefox do anything about other devices on your network?
Re: Firefox built-in spyware that cannot be disabled
#20[deleted]