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Firefox Focus: A Fast Private Mobile Browser from Mozilla

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Re: Firefox Focus: A Fast Private Mobile Browser from Mozilla

#21

Post by yeukhon »

aceoflala wrote: post #19
fwdpropaganda wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ok, Google, Apple, whatever. When I see the Firefox brand I'm hoping for a product that focuses on privacy. Not an Apple product with a Firefox sticker on top. Apparently this is just my misconception. EDIT: I say "google, apple, whatever", but I should clarify. There's this talking point on HN that Apple is so good for user's privacy. It's not, hence "google, apple, whatever".

Right now, after the Cliqz and remotely installed addon controversies, and the fact that Firefox Focus sends analytics data to a third party (Adjust Inc.), I'd say Apple is more privacy focused than Mozilla.

I am sure the mobile devs will jump in and give an authoritative answer, but you can refuse to send usage data to Mozilla by toggle off in Focus’s settings.

Re: Firefox Focus: A Fast Private Mobile Browser from Mozilla

#22

Post by akkat »

freeflight wrote: post #17
akkat wrote: post #12

I have been using Firefox focus for a while and I have 2 main problems with it. The adblocker is worse than ublock origin (eg. try to google Kindle) and there is no simple way to use tabs. I still use it to open links, but a lot of the time I end up having focus open it on Firefox.

> The adblocker is worse than ublock origin (eg. try to google Kindle) Could you elaborate on this? Granted I'm using ublock origin only on Desktop, but I'm still kinda confused what's the issue there for you because for me ublock mostly does what it's supposed to and when it doesn't it's usually an issue of "not blocking enough".

That is exactly the issue, focus doesn't block enough. I am not at home so I cannot give you a visual comparison but when googling "Kindle" with ublock origin the first link I see is to the Amazon website, while on focus I see 3 big ads that require me to scroll down to see the search results. Obviously this is a constructed example but there are other websites (I can't remember which exactly) with lots of ads that origin doesn't block.

Re: Firefox Focus: A Fast Private Mobile Browser from Mozilla

#23

Post by planb »

yeukhon wrote: post #13
corysama wrote: post #9

A nice trick with Focus on iOS is that you can set it to be the adblocker for mobile Safari. So, you install it, but don’t have to switch browsers to partially benefit from it. There are apparently paid adblockers that route your web requests for all apps through a VPN. Personally, I’m not interested in any aspect of that last sentence. Filtering just Safari locally for free is good for me. I’ve been against adblocke…

Incidentally I enabled this yesterday because I was grtting tired of “Congraulation! You won an Amazon gift card!”. I feel the loading speed has improved since. I am not sure how effective Focus will be against popups but let’s see... 1. Search “Safari” on the phone under “Settings” 2. Find “Content Blockers” 4. Choose “Focus” If you don’t see “Focus” in the list, or if you want to configure “Focus”, open the “Focus”…

If you long-press the refresh button in mobile safari, you will get the option to reload the current page without content blockers.

Re: Firefox Focus: A Fast Private Mobile Browser from Mozilla

#24

Post by paulhilbert »

dotdi wrote: post #7

I've been using Firefox alongside Firefox Focus (Klar, since I'm from a German speaking country) for a few months now and I like the setup. Focus is registered as the default browser on my Android device, so all normal links open up there. When I need to do something where I'd like to keep logins active (or something like that), I manually open up Firefox. The only thing that bothers me is that there are no tabs, so…

There are tabs. To open links in new tabs hold instead of tap. Couldn't find out how to open an "empty tab" though...

Re: Firefox Focus: A Fast Private Mobile Browser from Mozilla

#25

Post by aceoflala »

yeukhon wrote: post #21
aceoflala wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Right now, after the Cliqz and remotely installed addon controversies, and the fact that Firefox Focus sends analytics data to a third party (Adjust Inc.), I'd say Apple is more privacy focused than Mozilla.

I am sure the mobile devs will jump in and give an authoritative answer, but you can refuse to send usage data to Mozilla by toggle off in Focus’s settings.

The usage data is not sent to Mozilla but to a marketing company called "Adjust Inc.": https://github.com/mozilla-mobile/focus-ios/wiki/Install-Tra...

Firefox sending my data to a marketing company should not be on by default... Heck, it should not even be an option.

Re: Firefox Focus: A Fast Private Mobile Browser from Mozilla

#26

Post by fwdpropaganda »

aceoflala wrote: post #19
fwdpropaganda wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ok, Google, Apple, whatever. When I see the Firefox brand I'm hoping for a product that focuses on privacy. Not an Apple product with a Firefox sticker on top. Apparently this is just my misconception. EDIT: I say "google, apple, whatever", but I should clarify. There's this talking point on HN that Apple is so good for user's privacy. It's not, hence "google, apple, whatever".

Right now, after the Cliqz and remotely installed addon controversies, and the fact that Firefox Focus sends analytics data to a third party (Adjust Inc.), I'd say Apple is more privacy focused than Mozilla.

> Right now, after the Cliqz and remotely installed addon controversies, and the fact that Firefox Focus sends analytics data to a third party, I'd say Apple is more privacy focused than Mozilla.

Could you clarify what is the third party that Mozilla is sending analytics to?

Re: Firefox Focus: A Fast Private Mobile Browser from Mozilla

#27

Post by yeukhon »

planb wrote: post #23
yeukhon wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Incidentally I enabled this yesterday because I was grtting tired of “Congraulation! You won an Amazon gift card!”. I feel the loading speed has improved since. I am not sure how effective Focus will be against popups but let’s see... 1. Search “Safari” on the phone under “Settings” 2. Find “Content Blockers” 4. Choose “Focus” If you don’t see “Focus” in the list, or if you want to configure “Focus”, open the “Focus”…

If you long-press the refresh button in mobile safari, you will get the option to reload the current page without content blockers.

Thank you! I am glad I know this trick now! I cited your comment in my other comment. This trick is so thoughtful from Apple - I have to mention this.

Re: Firefox Focus: A Fast Private Mobile Browser from Mozilla

#28

Post by adrianN »

fwdpropaganda wrote: post #18
yeukhon wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Chromium-based browsers such as Google Chrome run on Blink rendering engine. Blink was forked from Apple’s Webkit, Safari’s rendering engine. But Apple does not allow third-party rendering engines on iOS, so Mozilla and other vendors have to build theirs on top of Webkit. Google has made iOS code available in Chromium repository by supporting both Blink and Webkit. See [1]. Not sure about Mozilla. Note you cannot rea…

Ok, Google, Apple, whatever. When I see the Firefox brand I'm hoping for a product that focuses on privacy. Not an Apple product with a Firefox sticker on top. Apparently this is just my misconception. EDIT: I say "google, apple, whatever", but I should clarify. There's this talking point on HN that Apple is so good for user's privacy. It's not, hence "google, apple, whatever".

I might be mistaken, but I don't think the rendering engine is the part with which you need to be concerned if you worry about privacy. So Mozilla could very well make a Webkit based browser that cares about your privacy just as much as the vanilla Firefox.

Re: Firefox Focus: A Fast Private Mobile Browser from Mozilla

#29

Post by Vinnl »

yeukhon wrote: post #16
fwdpropaganda wrote: post #11

Wasn't there someone on HN a while ago saying that Focus was built on WebKit which makes it basically a Google thing?

Chromium-based browsers such as Google Chrome run on Blink rendering engine. Blink was forked from Apple’s Webkit, Safari’s rendering engine. But Apple does not allow third-party rendering engines on iOS, so Mozilla and other vendors have to build theirs on top of Webkit. Google has made iOS code available in Chromium repository by supporting both Blink and Webkit. See [1]. Not sure about Mozilla. Note you cannot rea…

I think Focus uses WebKit (or at least the regular webview) on Android as well, due to Gecko not being that amenable to embedding yet and this being a quicker way to get to market.

That said, I believe they do intend to switch to Gecko at some time in the future, but no idea how soon that would be...

Re: Firefox Focus: A Fast Private Mobile Browser from Mozilla

#30

Post by dustincoates »

akkat wrote: post #12

I have been using Firefox focus for a while and I have 2 main problems with it. The adblocker is worse than ublock origin (eg. try to google Kindle) and there is no simple way to use tabs. I still use it to open links, but a lot of the time I end up having focus open it on Firefox.

For me, the lack of easy tabs is a feature. I don't ever have more than four or five tabs open on desktop, but I have twenty open continuously on mobile Chrome and it encourages idle browsing.
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