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Firefox will show ads on the new tab page based on browsing history

geeksnack.com

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Re: Firefox will show ads on the new tab page based on browsing history

#41

Post by ama729 »

thristian wrote: post #37
Confiks wrote: post #22

Maybe the more relevant page is Mozilla's own announcement, instead of some random site. See https://blog.mozilla.org/futurereleases/2015/05/21/help-test... I think Mozilla needs to do a better job explaining why there is "no tracking involved in delivering Tiles". They now just state that, with no information on how it's implemented, and people will get scared if they don't hear specifics. I can imagine this being i…

A better blog-post to link to would be https://blog.mozilla.org/advancingcontent/2015/05/21/providi... which links to an infographic describing how user privacy is protected: https://blog.mozilla.org/advancingcontent/files/2015/05/How-... For people who don't like infographics, there's also a textual description: https://blog.mozilla.org/privacy/2015/05/21/putting-our-data...

From your first link:

> This is still one of our early steps towards our goal of improving the state of digital advertising for the Web – delivering greater transparency for advertisers, better, more relevant content experiences and, above all, greater control for Firefox users.

At least one would hope they could be honest in their goal, I don't think anybody care about the state of digital advertising except marketers.

Re: Firefox will show ads on the new tab page based on browsing history

#43

Post by bad_user »

romanovcode wrote: post #7

The problem is that nobody is funding Firefox and they need money to continue development. If any of you "goodbye firefox" have a better idea feel free to speak up. Also, you can leave firefox for google, but it collects way more data anyway. Maybe Microsoft Edge will be good so Windows users can just use default browser.

You're joking, right? Windows now phones home even with your "encryption" keys, Bing search is integrated into the start panel and you're somehow hoping that a still closed source IExplorer will better respect your privacy. My sarcasm detector must be malfunctioning.

Re: Firefox will show ads on the new tab page based on browsing history

#44

Post by kozukumi »

Sigh. I was worried this would happen. I know Mozilla need to make money and with their market share shrinking that is getting harder but these kind of "features" put me off wanting to use Firefox all together. I would rather use Chromium over a version of Firefox with targeted advertising built in.

For now at least it looks like being able to disable it is still possible but I cannot find any mention if disabling this also disables the whole analysing my history bit?

Re: Firefox will show ads on the new tab page based on browsing history

#45

Post by kropotkinlives »

kibibu wrote: post #39
kropotkinlives wrote: post #4

For once, it appears Microsoft are the only browser vendor moving in the right direction and that is scary.

It's happened in the past. I still have positive memories of IE4 - at least compared to the horror of Netscape 4

Fair point! I'd forgotten about Netscape 4 and eternal Bus Errors on the SPARCstation 20 I had back then :(

Re: Firefox will show ads on the new tab page based on browsing history

#46

Post by FooBarWidget »

hiamnew wrote: post #28
elorant wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well you know the saying. When something is free, you're the product. Personally I don't mind. I love Firefox and the work they've done all these years and if that's the only way to keep them afloat then so be it. I just hope the implementation won't be too intrusive.

There is a whole cosmos of FLOSS software that utterly destroys that argument.

As an open source developer myself, I say that you are way too optimistic about it. With a few exceptions, open source projects tend to be consistently underfunded. I get the feeling the HN crowd doesn't realize/appreciate/care about this fact.

Let's take a look at two contrasting open source projects: Ruby and the V8 Javascript interpreter. Ruby is dog slow in comparison to V8. They both languages are extremely dynamic and present similar optimization challenges. Why? Because Google has enough cash to hire world-class experts to make V8 fing fast. One of the guys behind V8 has 20 years of experience with writing JITs for dynamic languages. The guy practically invited JITs for dynamic languages, and was also one of the main contributors of the Hotspot JVM JIT.

In contrast, Ruby does not. I met up with a panel of Ruby core developers a couple of months ago. It became extremely clear that Ruby is underfunded. Ruby has maybe 2 full time paid developers. They are skilled, but are nowhere near as skilled as the V8 guy when it comes to optimizing dynamic languages. They also lack funding for infrastructure projects.

Web browsers are one of the most complex pieces of software in human history. Mozilla literally spends millions per year on developing Firefox. Sure, a browser might exist in a completely free, lowly-funded FOSS form. But at what expense? Just look at Ruby vs V8. You can't just hand-wave away the importance of money.

Re: Firefox will show ads on the new tab page based on browsing history

#48

Post by icebraining »

binarymax wrote: post #42

I hate ads. I love Mozilla. I understand Mozilla needs the money. I don't mind supporting them with cash. Why not have a freemium option for folks to subscribe to Firefox and hide the ads?

You have. Disable the feature (yes, it's easy to disable) and donate.

Re: Firefox will show ads on the new tab page based on browsing history

#49

Post by vegancap »

dannypgh wrote: post #30
vegancap wrote: post #5

They're a business, just like anyone else. Unless we all start throwing thousands of donations at them, they have to find ways to monetise to keep up the awesome work they do. If it's both relevant and intuitive, then no harm done. Remember, your browsing history isn't exactly a big secret. That's why incognito modes exist in most browsers.

Firefox isn't a business, it's an open source/free software project. Mozilla is a nonprofit entity which pays some people to work on it. This is an important distinction, no?

Not particularly, they still have to gain some form of revenue to keep their core ventures. Their revenue in 2012 for example was $311 million.

Re: Firefox will show ads on the new tab page based on browsing history

#50

Post by vdaniuk »

ama729 wrote: post #41
thristian wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A better blog-post to link to would be https://blog.mozilla.org/advancingcontent/2015/05/21/providi... which links to an infographic describing how user privacy is protected: https://blog.mozilla.org/advancingcontent/files/2015/05/How-... For people who don't like infographics, there's also a textual description: https://blog.mozilla.org/privacy/2015/05/21/putting-our-data...

From your first link: > This is still one of our early steps towards our goal of improving the state of digital advertising for the Web – delivering greater transparency for advertisers, better, more relevant content experiences and, above all, greater control for Firefox users. At least one would hope they could be honest in their goal, I don't think anybody care about the state of digital advertising except markete…

>At least one would hope they could be honest in their goal, I don't think anybody care about the state of digital advertising except marketers.

So users wouldn't care if most ads would be popups and autoplay sound, right? Oh, they would? Who is being dishonest then?

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