Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Firefox Focus – A new private browser for iOS and Android

blog.mozilla.org

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

291–300 of 352 posts

Re: Firefox Focus – A new private browser for iOS and Android

#291

Post by kuschku »

st3fan wrote: post #284
kuschku wrote: post #278

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You include an untrusted, proprietary binary from Google. Not directly, but as a recursive dependency: com.google.android.gms:play-services-analytics So, yes, you give data to Google. The Google analytics dependency you include could literally be malware, and you could not test, or know. And you never know if it doesn’t just decide to steal your data and transmit it all, be it by Google’s decision or because an NSL w…

> So, yes, you give data to Google. I'd like to see some actual evidence that we can act upon rather than a strong unsubstantiated opinion. If we really leak anything than I will stand corrected and the team will fix that promptly.

That's pretty simple. Don't use proprietary software.

That's the simple question you can act upon.

No proprietary software, and don't even think about doing any tracking until you have explicit opt-in.

Re: Firefox Focus – A new private browser for iOS and Android

#292

Post by mandelbulb »

mozoldie wrote: post #279
TekMol wrote: post #253

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This stuff is used for deciding what features to prioritise This is exactly what every company tells you why they collect data. "To serve you better ...". The hypocrisy to advertise "tracking protection" as a key feature and then send tracking data to your own servers is hillarious.

Hypothetical example... but what nefarious things can one do knowing that some anonymous user happens to e.g. refresh pages a lot (or even, how can that data be sold)? OTOH it does let the developers know whether removing the refresh button would affect a lot of users. Or whether moving it elsewhere is sensible (e.g. to the toolbar if used a lot, or into a deeper menu if rarely used). Sure, this example is contrived.…

The data that is sent doesn't contain any relatable information, but you still have to connect to the Mozilla server to deliver it which in turn could be associated with the content you sent.

Mozilla unlikely does that right now, but they have to advertise truthfully nonetheless. Even if the reason is merely that people won't turn on that feature otherwise, there is no need for us to tolerate such hypocrisy.

Why not do privacy properly? Then the first comment in any conversation won't be well, there is that in-house telemetry.

Re: Firefox Focus – A new private browser for iOS and Android

#293

Post by gardnr »

apeace wrote: post #285
rcthompson wrote: post #20

This is useful to use as your default browser. It has a quick way to open the same link in another browser, so you can use it as a sort of quarantine to vet unknown links before exposing your main browser and all its juicy user data to a new website.

If only it were possible to set a default browser on iOS.

Wasn't there a huge anti-trust lawsuit against Microsoft for preventing other browsers on their platform? How does Apple get away with it when MS couldn't?

Re: Firefox Focus – A new private browser for iOS and Android

#294

Post by gardnr »

computator wrote: post #158

This would have been perfect for iPad 2's and 3's on which Safari and the normal Firefox keep crashing under the weight of the current bloated web. But alas, the "simple and lightweight" Firefox Focus actually requires a heavyweight 64-bit processor: > Why aren't older Apple products supported? Safari Content Blockers (which include Firefox Focus) are only available on devices with an A7 processor (64-bit) or later.…

The claims don't sound like they are based if fact so much as they probably ran into a build issues and they couldn't justify committing the resources to enable supporting older platforms which made up X number of devices.

You could always try to build it yourself.

Re: Firefox Focus – A new private browser for iOS and Android

#295

Post by gardnr »

chrisper wrote: post #241
bdz wrote: post #68

I wish open source projects publish the compiled .apk file not just the source code. If I want to install this on my Fire HD I either have to download the .apk from some dodgy mirror site or install Google Play with some workaround on the Fire HD. Cause Firefox Focus is not available in the Amazon App Store. I mean yeah I can do both in the end, not a big deal, but I just want the .apk nothing else.

apkmirror.com is not dodgy. It is also the only apk website I'd trust.

Can you offer more information about why you trust it?

Re: Firefox Focus – A new private browser for iOS and Android

#296

Post by bdz »

AaronMT wrote: post #89
bdz wrote: post #68

I wish open source projects publish the compiled .apk file not just the source code. If I want to install this on my Fire HD I either have to download the .apk from some dodgy mirror site or install Google Play with some workaround on the Fire HD. Cause Firefox Focus is not available in the Amazon App Store. I mean yeah I can do both in the end, not a big deal, but I just want the .apk nothing else.

https://github.com/mozilla-mobile/focus-android/releases

Uh thanks... My fault!

Re: Firefox Focus – A new private browser for iOS and Android

#297

Post by mintplant »

st3fan wrote: post #262
mintplant wrote: post #243

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As mentioned elsewhere in this thread, the Google SDK is only used to record whether the app was installed by way of an ad campaign Mozilla is running on Google. All other telemetry data goes directly to Mozilla servers, and contains things like "feature X was used"—not browsing data. Since it's all free software, you can check what events are actually sent here: https://github.com/mozilla-mobile/focus-android/blob/m…

That is not actually what I said. The only component we use for campaign tracking is Adjust which has nothing to do with google services. Adjust has gone through a very tough vetting process.

Better to quote you directly:

> - Adjust SDK: an install attribution tool (aka install referrer tracking). This is only used to determine whether the app was installed as the result of a specific (google-hosted) ad campaign. Adjust depends on play-services-analytics. ( https://www.adjust.com/glossary/install-referrer/ ).

play-services-analytics is what I meant by "the Google SDK" in question; sorry if that was unclear!

Re: Firefox Focus – A new private browser for iOS and Android

#298

Post by gardnr »

nkkollaw wrote: post #244
newscracker wrote: post #236

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I personally don't see any advantage with incognito mode unless you want to hide porn from your spouse,... This is a very naïve view of what incognito/private browsing mode is for. Tor (not Torbrowser) is very different from incognito/private browsing. Even for your own use, it's another layer of defense to reduce the storage of information on the device about whatever you've been up to. Certainly porn is not the o…

> This is a very naïve view of what incognito/private browsing mode is for. Maybe I didn't word it correctly, I meant that all it's good for is to hide porn from your spouse. If you think incognito mode protects you in any way, than it's you who is naive. If anyone really wanted to track you, they can use your IP and see every single page you've visited. Even the size of your window is enough to track you. Tor is the…

I'd quit while you're ahead there niko. Your comments demonstrate a lack of understanding of the space which is totally OK. It is not OK to act in a retaliatory manner when you are not the master of a domain and are specifically called out on it. Humility is the most important skill a software developer can learn.

Thanks to leaks and other revelations we don't need to be paranoid because we have enough information to understand to what extend the overreach goes. We can be reasonably anxious and mistrustful of State run programs.

This is what Google stores for you based on your agreed privacy terms: https://myactivity.google.com/myactivity

You don't have a privacy agreement with secret spy programs. Yeah maybe they are just going after the terrorists but maybe they are sharing all data across agencies. Maybe those agencies are using that data in unsavory ways to further their own agendas. A documented example is the DEA using https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parallel_construction to make drug arrests based on data collected illegally.

My main problem is this leaky information/power. I generally trust the folks in the intelligence community to keep each other in check, but, by design there is no transparency for secret programs. There's an opaque group of people getting all the data and the funding. It is the weakest link and we can't inspect it to see how healthy it is. To me it is terrifying to think about the power in those tools and what the right wrong-person could accomplish with the information they have.

Firefox Focus just makes cookies and history ephemeral instead of durable. It looks like it blocks 3rd party scripts by default as well. Blocking 3rd party scripts with uMatrix has been better than using an ad blocker for me. Constantly having to adjust the permissions in uMatrix gives you a real idea of how much crap is tracking you all the time.

Install uMatrix, don't transport literal tons of cocaine across international borders, and you will probably be OK.

Don't be worried about leaving idiotic posts on social media. It apparently doesn't matter for high profile careers.

Re: Firefox Focus – A new private browser for iOS and Android

#299

Post by dredmorbius »

Manishearth wrote: post #276
TekMol wrote: post #253

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This stuff is used for deciding what features to prioritise This is exactly what every company tells you why they collect data. "To serve you better ...". The hypocrisy to advertise "tracking protection" as a key feature and then send tracking data to your own servers is hillarious.

Firefox is very judicious about collecting data. https://wiki.mozilla.org/Telemetry/FAQ It collects things like "how slow is rendering" or "do you use feature X?". It's all anonymized, and you can verify this from the source (you can also turn it off). Folks are very careful if adding new telemetry metrics. This isn't trackable data.

https://www.edge.org/response-detail/27195

Re: Firefox Focus – A new private browser for iOS and Android

#300

Post by [deleted] »

Manishearth wrote: post #276
TekMol wrote: post #253

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This stuff is used for deciding what features to prioritise This is exactly what every company tells you why they collect data. "To serve you better ...". The hypocrisy to advertise "tracking protection" as a key feature and then send tracking data to your own servers is hillarious.

Firefox is very judicious about collecting data. https://wiki.mozilla.org/Telemetry/FAQ It collects things like "how slow is rendering" or "do you use feature X?". It's all anonymized, and you can verify this from the source (you can also turn it off). Folks are very careful if adding new telemetry metrics. This isn't trackable data.

[deleted]
Post reply on HN