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Firefox search update

blog.mozilla.org

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Re: Firefox search update

#61

Post by mrob »

red_admiral wrote: post #46

As far as I can tell, this is about collecting aggregate data - they say at the country level - for example "U.S. users search a lot more for 'government' but less for 'education' than Mexican ones". This particular initiative doesn't seem to be about profiling individuals. And, of course, you can turn it off (even if you're not in a country covered by the GDPR). If you want to do some kind of high-level data collect…

The ethical way of doing this is opt in. It could be done like Debian's Popularity Contest[0], where you're offered a chance to install the data collection software, with the default being don't install. Firefox could do this with an extension.

[0] https://popcon.debian.org/

Re: Firefox search update

#62

Post by bloopernova »

I don't want to be given a "browsing experience".

I don't want to be treated as a product, sold to data brokers without my knowledge.

My browsing experience is already tailored to me by my own actions.

I guess I'll be migrating to LibreWolf.

Re: Firefox search update

#65

Post by saganus »

stronglikedan wrote: post #26
atomicfiredoll wrote: post #7

Just a shortcut for anybody trying to find it. "Remember, you can always opt out of sending any technical or usage data to Firefox. Here’s a step-by-step guide [0] on how to adjust your settings." --- 1. Click the [hamburger menu button] and select Settings. 2. Select the Privacy & Security panel. 3. Scroll down to the Firefox Data Collection and Use section. 4. Check or uncheck the box next to Allow Firefox to send…

I wonder if you'll have to remember to do this after each update, like you have to do for most of Chrome's unwanted and unwelcomed features.

Apparently not, at least for this update.

I had the settings disabled, then updated to the latest version ("126.0 (64-bit)") and settings were kept disabled.

So at least for now it looks like it respects your current settings.

Re: Firefox search update

#66

Post by medstrom »

fallingsquirrel wrote: post #21

Stuff like this makes me wonder why I still cling to Firefox instead of switching to one of the actually privacy-focused Chromium forks. I've been using Arkenfox to turn off all the telemetry/etc but it increasingly feels like a game of whackamole. https://github.com/arkenfox/user.js

Really? Arkenfox user too and it seems to have stabilized the last couple of years. The moles have been whacked.

Re: Firefox search update

#68

Post by beretguy »

I’d rather they make Firefox subscription based. I’d rather pay $5 a month and have no ads or tracking of any kind. They can even run a separate fork of Firefox or something for this purpose. If Firefox goes down Google will lock internet behind a DRM and we gonna need another rms or Torvalds to deliver us from this hell.

Can you imagine a world without Linux, with Windows and Mac pretty much the only mainstream alternative? I’d rather pay a small fee not to have that.

Re: Firefox search update

#69

Post by stevenicr »

dylan604 wrote: post #50
SllX wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Privacy first is just not collecting the data. Everything else is just a compromise and an excuse.

I don't have a problem if the server side is tracking metrics on what queries are being made. When it becomes a problem is trying to associate the queries based on a single user regardless on anonymization attempts. Of course there's no money in that.

Wasn't like 15? years ago with the AOL search data anonymized release that people found multiple ways to connect dots to whittle it down to just one person or a small subset of people?

Wasn't this also shown with anonymized taxi-cab data (released in NY?) many moons ago?

Would it not be possible with knowing that you are tracking this data to funnel people into doing searches in a way that would reveal things?

Directions to the out of state reproductive health clinic, combined with card data would be all it takes to do serious things to people in some states.

Defaults matter. A lot.

Anonymized data is not always anonymous, collected server side or otherwise.

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