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Latest Firefox Brings Privacy Protections Front and Center

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Re: Latest Firefox Brings Privacy Protections Front and Center

#201

Post by GuB-42 »

ric2b wrote: post #85
newscracker wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don’t think Firefox will get into complete built-in ad blocking, like Brave does. But the days (or years) of uBlock Origin seem to be numbered because of the approach proposed by Chrome (called Manifest V3) to prevent extensions from modifying network requests, and being limited to just providing a block list of URLs for the browser engine to block (this design has been the case with Safari’s built-in content block…

> But the days (or years) of uBlock Origin seem to be numbered because of the approach proposed by Chrome (called Manifest V3) to prevent extensions from modifying network requests Numbered on Chrome, you mean.

Firefox tends to follow Chrome closely. And as time goes on, they limit extensions more and more. The latest preview of Firefox Mobile doesn't support them at all. Hopefully, it is just temporary but it used to be the killer feature of Firefox mobile.

It is not pure evil, there are security reasons behind that. Manifest V3 is also a security improvement so I wouldn't put it passed Mozilla to implement it.

Re: Latest Firefox Brings Privacy Protections Front and Center

#202

Post by PTcartelsLOL »

hellcow wrote: post #157
lacker wrote: post #143

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You can take a small action in support of privacy by complaining to your utility or your ISP that the website is not working in your browser.

We're talking about utility companies. It wouldn't surprise me if the answer is "Please use Internet Explorer 8"

Then our answer would be: fix your website or you lose a customer or maybe several of them.

Re: Latest Firefox Brings Privacy Protections Front and Center

#203

Post by purple_ducks »

catalogia wrote: post #122
purple_ducks wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

uMatrix defaults to blocking GA and indeed blocks the request for analytics.js on that page.

Really? I thought no extensions are permitted to run on that page.

i now realise you/parent were talking about the about:addons page, not the https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/ web page.

Re: Latest Firefox Brings Privacy Protections Front and Center

#204

Post by vunie »

brynjolf wrote: post #189
robbya wrote: post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I believe they are talking about an outdated issue: https://github.com/mozilla/addons-frontend/issues/2785#issue...

It is not outdated since it requires you to enable Do not track which makes you a target for tracking. It is bad design and they know it. They don't even respect their own disable analytics toggle.

Not only that, but Mozilla deliberately continues to send telemetry about your network, browser, and OS even when you explicitly disable telemetry: https://www.ghacks.net/2018/09/21/mozilla-wants-to-estimate-...

When Microsoft is more honest and upfront about user privacy then you are, then you have a problem.

Re: Latest Firefox Brings Privacy Protections Front and Center

#205

Post by lacker »

hellcow wrote: post #157
lacker wrote: post #143

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You can take a small action in support of privacy by complaining to your utility or your ISP that the website is not working in your browser.

We're talking about utility companies. It wouldn't surprise me if the answer is "Please use Internet Explorer 8"

I wouldn't expect it to succeed immediately. But there are often frontend developers within these companies that would prefer to build high-quality websites that work in many browsers, and if there are complaints from end users, it will help these people in their arguments that they should invest more time in quality.

Re: Latest Firefox Brings Privacy Protections Front and Center

#206

Post by DCoder »

rubyfan wrote: post #192
floatboth wrote: post #94

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That particular example is just extremely odd because… well, the business model of the utilities whose bills you pay (nor the bank's) shouldn't be based on advertising?? Maybe it's just a pile of web development fail, using 3rd party cookies for no good reason..

What I usually see if just poorly implemented tagging. For example, if Google Analytics javascript breaks then so do the links I want to click. I’ve seen it on my 529 plan website and in other places. I suppose tracking blockers could forge GA and other javascript objects to avoid this but what a battle this becomes.

Ghostery already does this kind of forging for many blocked gadgets.

Re: Latest Firefox Brings Privacy Protections Front and Center

#207

Post by newscracker »

GuB-42 wrote: post #201
ric2b wrote: post #85

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> But the days (or years) of uBlock Origin seem to be numbered because of the approach proposed by Chrome (called Manifest V3) to prevent extensions from modifying network requests Numbered on Chrome, you mean.

Firefox tends to follow Chrome closely. And as time goes on, they limit extensions more and more. The latest preview of Firefox Mobile doesn't support them at all. Hopefully, it is just temporary but it used to be the killer feature of Firefox mobile. It is not pure evil, there are security reasons behind that. Manifest V3 is also a security improvement so I wouldn't put it passed Mozilla to implement it.

Mozilla has officially said [1] that it has no immediate plans to implement this kind of content blocking and removing the requests API for extensions, but I think it’s a matter of time before this is done. Mozilla’s FAQ on this [1] is extensive enough for the moment.

[1]: https://blog.mozilla.org/addons/2019/09/03/mozillas-manifest...

Re: Latest Firefox Brings Privacy Protections Front and Center

#208

Post by newscracker »

ric2b wrote: post #85
newscracker wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don’t think Firefox will get into complete built-in ad blocking, like Brave does. But the days (or years) of uBlock Origin seem to be numbered because of the approach proposed by Chrome (called Manifest V3) to prevent extensions from modifying network requests, and being limited to just providing a block list of URLs for the browser engine to block (this design has been the case with Safari’s built-in content block…

> But the days (or years) of uBlock Origin seem to be numbered because of the approach proposed by Chrome (called Manifest V3) to prevent extensions from modifying network requests Numbered on Chrome, you mean.

Please see my reply below at https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21341599

Re: Latest Firefox Brings Privacy Protections Front and Center

#209

Post by Kaiyou »

dhimes wrote: post #150
Kaiyou wrote: post #82

Meanwhile, Firefox won't selectively delete hundreds of cookies, despite all the options indicating that it would be possible. Instead, it hangs and fails to delete selected cookies.

But it also doesn't delete my passwords, like Chrome does every single damn update I think. It's been an issue for 10 years. [And don't start with me about lastpass, etc. ...]

I agree that it is the least worse browser, hence I'm using it. Though, that will change once Addon support is added to qutebrowser.
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