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Tor browser removing various Firefox AI features

blog.torproject.org

101–110 of 241 posts

Re: Tor browser removing various Firefox AI features

#101
post #32
post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The AI integrations, AFAIK, work only if you provide an API key.

Yes, however it still means that the browser is phoning home to somewhere. To be able to make use of that API key, it has to send some data out. Is that data routed over TOR? Does it even matter given that an API key can be used to deanonymize you?

My understanding (and this may have changed), is that you have to initiate the AI features each time (e.g. clicking on "Summarize This").

But yes, your point is valid. For Tor, if you enter an API key, you could be identified. Still, does the Tor Browser prevent you from installing addons which are no more secure than these AI features? It didn't years ago - not sure if that's changed.

Re: Tor browser removing various Firefox AI features

#102
post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> This is wasting the time of accessibility engineers If only Mozilla felt the same about wasting people's time. We wouldn't be having this discussion.

It's the same as you screaming at a McDonalds worker for not serving all day breakfast.

[deleted]

Re: Tor browser removing various Firefox AI features

#103
post #57

Since we're all here to complain about Firefox, I want to add that at this point I'm a firefox user out of principle, but I swear I get so many weird performance issues with firefox on ubuntu that it feels like self-flagellation in service of the gods of the free and open Internet. Unfortunately they're the kinds of problems that are really hard to submit tickets for: gradual degradation of performance over the cours…

That last delay bit might not be a Firefox bug but rather something in the Debian/Ubuntu stack. I get that same type of freeze up about once a week. I typically have FF open but it can happen while I’m working in something else.

In my case I’ve chalked it up to running Debian on a MS Surface device. I’m using the standard kernel though since the Surface kernel only adds touchscreen for my device and I don’t really want it.

Re: Tor browser removing various Firefox AI features

#105
post #14
post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The Mission is to make enough money to keep existing.

GNU Emacs doesn't make money, yet it exists. And yes, it contains a web browser. You can launch it using `M-x eww RET`.

GNU Emacs actually self funds from the essence of the universe. You can launch that feature with the command `C-x b r r r`

Re: Tor browser removing various Firefox AI features

#107
post #20

I file a ticket with Firefox whenever an unwanted dialog pops up covering content. If you tag these as being accessibility related they get bounced back and forth between a few people before getting closed and thus pour just a little bit of sand in the gears.

This is wasting the time of accessibility engineers who are doing very important work. Please don't.

There are only a few options here.

You can file the ticket claiming that the shiny new promoted thing is actually an antifeature and that you hate the popup. You can then hope that the PM or exec who is currently receiving adulations or making speeches in the hope of a bonus or promotion after the rollout gets assigned the ticket, rather than some lowly volunteer. Then, the next time they get asked to make something, they'll think "wait, maybe I shouldn't advertise this new thing by forcing a popup on every Firefox user?" If that happens often enough to become part of the shared zeitgeist at the organization, they may be able to enact a Mozilla-wide policy against such popups and stop building antifeatures. Good luck, I hope it works for you.

Or you can throw sand in the works. When the accessibility department complains that people keep filing tickets and wasting their time whenever a new feature includes a popup, that component of the organization can push back

Every time I inadvertently find myself at a gas station with those horrific advertisement kiosks installed at the pumps, I either look around for a nearby station that doesn't have ads playing, or I stab the "Help" button to page the cashier. I am well aware that the minimum wage employee stocking the shelves and helping people prepay does not have the phone number of the GSTV producers or the executive decision makers at ExxonMobil or whoever, and I have no animus against that person - I'm infallibly polite with the individual. But I ask them to keep the line open to mute the ads, and they usually do. My only hope for eliminating those ads is either shopping at different gas stations - but how are they ever going to distinguish that microscopic boycott from the noise - or hoping that this communication filters up through the organization.

Re: Tor browser removing various Firefox AI features

#108
post #50

An AI sidebar doesn't bother me. But it should be an extension, not an inescapable part of the browser.

I'd love to be able to open up an arbitrary web page in this sidebar. It would be super valuable for research. They can obviously do it, since the AI sidebar also loads a web page, but the functionality is locked for some reason, and vertical splitting extensions are pure jank. I really wish Mozilla would focus on addressing some of the numerous user feature requests, rather than whatever the current trend is.

Bugzilla: Fuck you, closed as wontfix.

Re: Tor browser removing various Firefox AI features

#109
post #76
post #4

Good! I do not want nor need AI in every single aspect of my life. I mean, I've seen AI hygiene products out there. How does that even work? Don't answer that ... I know it's a marketing scheme, akin to the "HD" craze of five to 10 years ago.

What "HD craze" was there from 2015-2020?

"HD" as a marketing buzzterm for products where "High Definition" technically doesn't make sense. Like adding 2.0 everywhere.

Re: Tor browser removing various Firefox AI features

#110
SIDEBAR! The invention straight from the 90s. Fucking browsers and their antiquated approach. NEW THING? Put it on a SIDEBAR! pffffffff

Make the fucking old and ugly browser interface customizable. And expose this to webpages, so banks could force you to use the default view.

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