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Firefox 128 enables "privacy-preserving" ad measurements by default

mstdn.social

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Re: Firefox 128 enables "privacy-preserving" ad measurements by default

#181

Post by yjftsjthsd-h »

pasc1878 wrote: post #72
tgvaughan wrote: post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My problem with this is that ideally, software I deign to run on my computer acts with only my interests in mind. The overarching goal of these changes is not to preserve my privacy, but rather to help advertising companies to learn something about how I interact with their ads. I don't care that Mozilla's particular implementation is not as bad for my privacy as it could be, I only care that their motivation has swi…

Fine. Then pay for the tools you use rather than force them to get money from another source. The toolmakers work to earn a living.

> Then pay for the tools you use rather than force them to get money from another source.

Nobody is forcing them to do anything, they literally will not take my money.

Re: Firefox 128 enables "privacy-preserving" ad measurements by default

#182

Post by yjftsjthsd-h »

krelian wrote: post #66

There is a lot fire directed at Mozilla on HN. I'm not saying I support or can make sense of all of their decisions but I'd love for someone in the criticizers camp to explain what steps they would take to make Mozilla and the continued development of Firefox a financially sustainable and independent endeavour.

> but I'd love for someone in the criticizers camp to explain what steps they would take to make Mozilla and the continued development of Firefox a financially sustainable and independent endeavour.

Let me give them money. Either straight-up take donations to fund firefox development, or sell a "Firefox Pro" that doesn't have these stupid anti-features. But don't refuse to take money from users and complain that because you don't take money from users you're "forced" to screw them over.

Re: Firefox 128 enables "privacy-preserving" ad measurements by default

#183

Post by puppycodes »

The truely scary part of this isn't even the default "feature", It's the utter failure of Mozilla to read the room. Knowing their users would feel betrayed and doing it anyway is what freaks me out. To me it spells trouble for them monitarily that they are willing to anger their core userbase for cash on hand.

Re: Firefox 128 enables "privacy-preserving" ad measurements by default

#184

Post by omoikane »

mrweasel wrote: post #8

I was looking at this when I upgraded and that setting does not need to be there. If it was off by default, no one would feel the need to locate that check box and enable it. So just turn it off, remove it from settings and yank the code. The language is even rather vague and Mozilla seems to good a long way to avoid explaining that this is the alternative Google has designed for Chrome to replace tracking via third…

I didn't even know that setting was there until I saw this post. Seems pretty sneaky to have a thing like that enabled by default.

In comparison, when Chrome pushed out ad privacy setting update[1], there was a popup that asked users to make a choice before moving on, so there was no surprise as to what changed.

[1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37401909 - Google Chrome pushes browser history-based ad targeting (2023-09-06)

Re: Firefox 128 enables "privacy-preserving" ad measurements by default

#185

Post by EasyMark »

doe_eyes wrote: post #30

The scare quotes here are uncalled for: it is privacy-preserving. The approach allows measurement without disclosing who, specifically, did what with the ad. The best objection to these proposals isn't privacy, it's that a browser vendor is lifting a finger for advertisers. I guess the fundamental question there is if we prefer to outright shut down online advertising, or give it the tools it needs to be less bad. Op…

the big deal is it should have been opt in.

Re: Firefox 128 enables "privacy-preserving" ad measurements by default

#186

Post by EasyMark »

grantith wrote: post #78
PedroBatista wrote: post #69

I've been using Firefox for more than 20 years since the Phoenix days, even when it was cleary slower than Chrome (it still is but the diferences are minimal ) I'm not acting surprised, but I think it's more than time to start looking into a viable alternative. It's "Chromium" (?) still a thing? Do you guys know if there is a browser based on Firefox that doesn't have any of the BS Mozilla is putting into their brows…

One Firefox based alternative https://floorp.app/en

what does floorp bring to the table other than a more configurable UI, split tabs, etc. Does it have privacy enhancements over regular firefox like librewolf, et.al. ?

Re: Firefox 128 enables "privacy-preserving" ad measurements by default

#187

Post by EasyMark »

cobertos wrote: post #79
PedroBatista wrote: post #69

I've been using Firefox for more than 20 years since the Phoenix days, even when it was cleary slower than Chrome (it still is but the diferences are minimal ) I'm not acting surprised, but I think it's more than time to start looking into a viable alternative. It's "Chromium" (?) still a thing? Do you guys know if there is a browser based on Firefox that doesn't have any of the BS Mozilla is putting into their brows…

Chromium is still a thing, I use it at work, considering all the corporate-ware that gets installed into Chrome by default now. Waterfox and Librewolf seem to exist, and I imagine there's more Firefox forks out there. No idea on the state of things though

doesn't chromium still phone home to google though? Don't you have to use something like brave or ungoogled chromium to stop that from happening?

Re: Firefox 128 enables "privacy-preserving" ad measurements by default

#188

Post by EasyMark »

bozey07 wrote: post #45

I suppose I should finally switch to Librewolf. I really don't like Firefox forks, for the slow updates and because I do genuinely use some bleeding edge features, but I'm tired of Mozilla.

I believe librewolf updates very quickly, to be fair, it's really stock firefox with just some privacy/performance tweaks that are probably automatically enabled and then run through CI and then released.

Re: Firefox 128 enables "privacy-preserving" ad measurements by default

#189

Post by prepend »

pasc1878 wrote: post #103
prepend wrote: post #96

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Firefox is open source. I do pay for it as a tool. Toolmakers also work out of desire to practice their craft. Many projects are written, not to “earn a living.”

True but Firefox is mainly written by people who want to earn a living. Much FOSS is actually written by people who are being paid to do it, How do you fund the producers of Firefox and the infrastructure needed to get it built and released. Currently the only way is that the sellers of the adverts you read give money to fund Firefox. Now if you paid for Firefox then they don't need to get money from advertisers. Sim…

> True but Firefox is mainly written by people who want to earn a living.

Not, originally. Wasn’t Brandon Eich like 17 or something when he rewrote Firefox?

And lots of people put out ad-free web content for free. It’s not that it doesn’t exist, just check out all the blogs and whatnot from HN profiles. Very few people with ads or even making money off their pages.

Ads are one way to get content. Not the only way.

Re: Firefox 128 enables "privacy-preserving" ad measurements by default

#190

Post by prepend »

happyraul wrote: post #98
prepend wrote: post #93

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Web needs to make money I don’t think this is true. No one “needs” to make money. Museums don’t need to make money. OSS doesn’t need to make money. The web has value without making money. But even if it does make money, it doesn’t need to maximize profits at the expense of user privacy and joy.

How do OSS devs support themselves without money?

I have an employer who pays me to do thing X. And they don’t care that I also work on thing Y a little bit.

I think there’s lots of software written by people who have jobs and code because it’s fun.

For example, Linus Torvalds made Subsurface [0] as open source. He had a job while he made this. He didn’t get paid for it directly, but it’s not like paying him extra would make it better.

[0] https://subsurface-divelog.org/

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