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Mozilla’s plan to fix internet privacy

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Re: Mozilla’s plan to fix internet privacy

#181

Post by mattmanser »

bilekas wrote: post #12
throwaway8291 wrote: post #3

I'm using Firefox for years, after Chrome started to ask me for a login (at around version 40). Never looked back. One day I woke up to a chart showing browser market share of FF at around 4%, which surprised me - as I thought many people would understand the implications and directions. Maybe I'm too optimistic. Update: Loved chrome, used it for years, I also love most Chrome engineering and all the innovation they…

I'm on my waay BACK to Firefox, there was a strange period when I left, Firefox just seemed really heavy on my machine, and it was super intensive for some dev tools. Now I say the same about chrome and find FF much lighter and efficient. Delighted that FF are taking a bit of a stronger stand here in the privacy dept too .

Firefox went through a long period of being awful performance wise, they really shot themselves in the foot as techies left them in droves because of it. And they'd often insist it'd improved when it was obvious that it was was nowhere near Chrome's level as soon as you opened the browser. I kept trying to get back to it, but every time it drove me away. Still feels laggy on desktop vs Chrome when I tried it 3 months ago. I have all the preload stuff turned off in Chrome and use DDG so it's not because of that.

I use it on my phone now as I don't support AMP at all, and it still has some weird issues compared to Chrome. The main annoyances for me are:

- Kinda hanging occasionally when you have 40 or 50 tabs open. Sometimes have to close and reopen it, sometimes it'll start being responsive again. Never had these problems in Chrome.

- Never ending loading bars. While it might be true that some script hasn't loaded, I don't need to know and it's just annoying to have a half complete blue bar at the top of the page. It adds to the perception that there's something wrong, and it feels like somethings wrong with Firefox Mobile not something's wrong with the web page.

- I want to pull down to refresh. I know it's silly but 6 months on I still do it out of muscle memory, and then remember you have to click the menu, then click the refresh. Pull down is just great, far superior to their solution.

- Thumbnails of old tabs that are still open get flushed, never happens in Chrome. What it means is that you can't scan the tabs for an old open tab you want by the look of the thumbnail. for example, I have a jambalya recipe I tried and like but haven't got round to transcribing and every two or three weeks have to hunt through the damn tabs to find it.

- Their tab solution is not as nice as Chrome's. I really don't like the layout, or find it as usable, even months on. When Chrome initially switched theirs I was sceptical, but really learned to love the concertina style.

I am also finding it quite hard to get proper ad blocking working. It's working for some sites, but no matter what I do I'm still getting google ads and now certain login pages hang completely including some google driven ones. Why is it so hard to do? I'm pretty competent with computers after all! (Yes, I've turned off things like acceptable ads and checked the whitelists).

Re: Mozilla’s plan to fix internet privacy

#182

Post by worldvision »

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Re: Mozilla’s plan to fix internet privacy

#183

Post by giggles_giggles »

outadoc wrote: post #170
avian wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I'm using Firefox for years, after Chrome started to ask me for a login It's funny because Firefox has been pushing their login thing pretty hard (the yellow "oh no" exclamation mark icon if you're not logged in, the account icon that keeps placing itself back onto my toolbar, occasional full-page ad/nag screen, ...).

The exclamation mark is only shown when you're logged in but got logged out because of a problem. You can just remove your account whenever you want.

You can also self host the upstream service if you want there features that come with logging in but don't want Mozilla to have the data:

https://blog.mozilla.org/services/2014/05/08/firefox-account...

Re: Mozilla’s plan to fix internet privacy

#184

Post by vengefulduck »

XCSme wrote: post #26
throwaway8291 wrote: post #3

I'm using Firefox for years, after Chrome started to ask me for a login (at around version 40). Never looked back. One day I woke up to a chart showing browser market share of FF at around 4%, which surprised me - as I thought many people would understand the implications and directions. Maybe I'm too optimistic. Update: Loved chrome, used it for years, I also love most Chrome engineering and all the innovation they…

I personally just like Chrome because the awesome syncing between all devices and always having the best Dev Tools ready to open at any second. I know my browser usage is used for marketing purposes, but as long as it doesn't harm me in anyway I can live with that.

Firefox also has sync and it’s end to end encrypted as well.

Re: Mozilla’s plan to fix internet privacy

#185

Post by SXX »

move-on-by wrote: post #83
throwaway8291 wrote: post #3

I'm using Firefox for years, after Chrome started to ask me for a login (at around version 40). Never looked back. One day I woke up to a chart showing browser market share of FF at around 4%, which surprised me - as I thought many people would understand the implications and directions. Maybe I'm too optimistic. Update: Loved chrome, used it for years, I also love most Chrome engineering and all the innovation they…

> One day I woke up to a chart showing browser market share of FF at around 4%, which surprised me - as I thought many people would understand the implications and directions. Its certainly low, but I also think FF usage is under reported due to built-in tracker blocking. For reference, FF uses the level 1 disconnect.me block list, which blocks StatCounter scrips from loading on 3rd party sites [1]. [1] https://githu…

> Its certainly low, but I also think FF usage is under reported due to built-in tracker blocking.

Of course it's not perfect source, but CloudFlare for instance have client detection purely by SSL handshake fingerprint and it's show 6-7% for Firefox:

https://malcolm.cloudflare.com/

Long ago Wikimedia also had own statistics that was pretty much relevant, but I guess it's discontinued.

Re: Mozilla’s plan to fix internet privacy

#186

Post by latortuga »

XCSme wrote: post #26
throwaway8291 wrote: post #3

I'm using Firefox for years, after Chrome started to ask me for a login (at around version 40). Never looked back. One day I woke up to a chart showing browser market share of FF at around 4%, which surprised me - as I thought many people would understand the implications and directions. Maybe I'm too optimistic. Update: Loved chrome, used it for years, I also love most Chrome engineering and all the innovation they…

I personally just like Chrome because the awesome syncing between all devices and always having the best Dev Tools ready to open at any second. I know my browser usage is used for marketing purposes, but as long as it doesn't harm me in anyway I can live with that.

Firefox has both of these things without intrusive marketing.

Re: Mozilla’s plan to fix internet privacy

#187

Post by blackearl »

wayneftw wrote: post #143
blackearl wrote: post #122

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've never seen the exclamation mark and I'm never signed in on my work computer. Meanwhile, Chrome signs you into the browser profile if you sign into any Google site and it's opt-out.

They've got it plastered around the UI. It's the very top menu item. It's also in the Pocket address bar button right under where they advertise to you to "Sign up for Pocket. It's freeeeeee!" Not only that, but on new installs and after some updates Firefox nags you to sign up whenever it can, for instance when you log into a website - right after you save the password it will show some animated crap in the address…

None of this is true on Windows

Re: Mozilla’s plan to fix internet privacy

#188

Post by judge2020 »

generalk wrote: post #33
XCSme wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I personally just like Chrome because the awesome syncing between all devices and always having the best Dev Tools ready to open at any second. I know my browser usage is used for marketing purposes, but as long as it doesn't harm me in anyway I can live with that.

I'm not sure if there's something outside my usage that Chrome does better, but for my needs Firefox's dev tools are great. Firefox also not only sync's between all of my devices, including my cell phone. Each device has the ability to send a tab to another device, which I don't recall Chrome having. Just some data points in case you're ever interested in trying something different.

https://support.google.com/chrome/answer/9430554

Re: Mozilla’s plan to fix internet privacy

#189

Post by VWWHFSfQ »

cobalt60 wrote: post #164
walrus01 wrote: post #60

Firefox on Android has become my go to choice now, because it supports the full set of desktop firefox plugins, including the essential ublock origin. I can't even imagine mobile browsing without full adblock functionality anymore.

AdguardHome/PiHole on DoT/DoH? Android 9+ supports private DNS.

yes, you could use those too.

Re: Mozilla’s plan to fix internet privacy

#190

Post by einpoklum »

Mozilla destroyed their own platform - by removing its most significant feature, which was deep extensibility, instead of fixing it to keep that feature.

> That's how Mozilla works: slowly, collaboratively, trying to speak for everyone.

I don't remember Mozilla works collaboratively. By the way - remind me where they publish their income sources again?

> "the power of the internet used to magnify divisiveness, incite violence, promote hatred, and intentionally manipulate fact and reality."

Yeah, well, so has the printing press. When someone suggests we should keep a "healty press", that's oligarchic censorship. Reminds me of the US Comics Code.

> Mozilla has spent the last several years fighting harder and louder than ever for the future of the internet.

Must not have been loud enough, because I believe few people have noticed this.

> the company's vision of a more user-centric, privacy-conscious web.

"user-centric" web? Don't know what that means. It's like "reader-centric books". As for privacy - when something like uBlock Origin and EFF Privacy Badger is installed by default, and when TOR is an easily-accessible option, and when Mozilla funds some TOR endpoint routers (in countries outside US reach of course), then we'll talk.

> But what if people could also use them to keep Facebook from snooping as they traveled the web?

If Facebook was prevented from snooping entirely, that would not be that much of an issue.

> Firefox has long held the not-entirely-flattering distinction of being the most popular browser not made by a huge corporation

It's bankrolled by huge corporations. IIRC it was mostly Google for a while. Also, see below about their new VP.

I am reminded how Mozilla had, for years, neglected its email client in favor of the browser, thus effectively helping to promote webmail, stored and spied on by these corporations. It certainly did nothing to promote end-to-end encryption of email, which has been quite possible with Thunderbird, and would have prevented (some of the) spying on users.

> So far, Firefox has blocked 1.6 trillion tracking requests

That means it doesn't block most tracking requests.

> Alan Davidson ... new VP of policy ... has been working ... at Google and then as President Barack Obama's director of digital economy

So one of the top people at the spying-B-us corporation and the "can't have privacy and security" administration is the new VP who'll help protect us from his former colleagues and bosses? Uh-huh.

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