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Make Firefox Private Again

make-firefox-private-again.com

71–80 of 348 posts

Re: Make Firefox Private Again

#71

I recently switched to LibreWolf[0] and, after tweaking a few settings that were more zealous that I'd like, it has been just as good as vanilla FF. 0: https://librewolf.net/

Have used it as my secondary browser (~everything that doesn't need login: documentation, news, etc) for a couple of years now and it is great.

Also always looking for someone to create a paid version of Firefox that:

- stays up to date with development of FF

- turns off all the stupid ideas

- gradually re-implement the most important parts that certain old extensions dependend on: scrapbook, scheduled website update checker (have forgotten the actual name), those kinds of things

I know many people here say: "everyone say they will pay for this or that but nobody does", but I am one of those persons who actually do pay for software that changes my life for the better or has the potential to do so.

So far I can only remember a single one (Logseq is good for now) in the last category that hasn't either collapsed in an honest way (rip sandstorm) or rewarded my early support by doing something really stupid, like typically breaking the thing that made me support them in the first place, but I guess I will continue trying.

If someone makes the thing I mention above at a reasonable price and I don't show up, please contact me, I might have missed it. (Reasonable = don't expect me to pay the same for bundling a set of patches as I pay for Jetbrains bundle or MS Office.)

Re: Make Firefox Private Again

#72

wasn't aware that 'anonym' existed. I don't care if PII is stripped or not. the answer to 'helping advertisers' or anything with advertisement metrics in any fashion is always 'No.' - training things so that there's better data on how to best manipulate our psyche / give people data to psychologically manipulate us in to buying/doing things is a hard 'No.' > Asked whether Mozilla has any concerns that its user base,…

Also advertising is certainly not the reason the web is free. It was free before the insane amount of advertising.

Maybe for platforms like Youtube or similar sites advertising is part of their business model. But the primary reason here is foremost people creating content.

That Youtube has insane infrastructure costs is secondary and we certainly don't need Browsers to help advertising at all.

If it doesn't stay optional, Firefox should be forked. It is not a wanted feature. Danger is that Firefox gets gimped because of bad business decisions, because other features regarding privacy aren't as good as they could be.

Re: Make Firefox Private Again

#73
post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Without advertisements, the internet would only have content worth paying for and content people want to share for reasons other than financial gain. How awful (/s).

That's the thing... people would still make free content, and since there wouldn't be as many shady ways to monetize, it would cut down on low-effort (and AI-generated) garbage. The internet would be such a better place. We would probably lose some good stuff, or see it moved behind paywalls. That would be a shame, but I think it would be worth it.

I remember an internet without ads. It was hardly all low-effeort garbage.

Re: Make Firefox Private Again

#74
post #40

Here's the Firefox CTO explaining the motivation behind the experiment controlled by this setting, and the measures taken to ensure that it actually is private: https://old.reddit.com/r/firefox/comments/1e43w7v/a_word_abo...

He doesn't explain how it works though, or why it is private. Only that we should trust them.

Re: Make Firefox Private Again

#75

wasn't aware that 'anonym' existed. I don't care if PII is stripped or not. the answer to 'helping advertisers' or anything with advertisement metrics in any fashion is always 'No.' - training things so that there's better data on how to best manipulate our psyche / give people data to psychologically manipulate us in to buying/doing things is a hard 'No.' > Asked whether Mozilla has any concerns that its user base,…

Also advertising is certainly not the reason the web is free. It was free before the insane amount of advertising. Maybe for platforms like Youtube or similar sites advertising is part of their business model. But the primary reason here is foremost people creating content. That Youtube has insane infrastructure costs is secondary and we certainly don't need Browsers to help advertising at all. If it doesn't stay opt…

> It was free before the insane amount of advertising.

It was better before the insane amount of advertising.

Re: Make Firefox Private Again

#76
post #73
post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's the thing... people would still make free content, and since there wouldn't be as many shady ways to monetize, it would cut down on low-effort (and AI-generated) garbage. The internet would be such a better place. We would probably lose some good stuff, or see it moved behind paywalls. That would be a shame, but I think it would be worth it.

I remember an internet without ads. It was hardly all low-effeort garbage.

That's the GP's point too.

Re: Make Firefox Private Again

#77

Really sad to see Firefox’s direction but also not sure how they should be funded to avoid these things. I’m also not sure that the web can be made into something different unless web standards aren’t freed of influence by giants like Google

I'd donate to Mozilla if the money was actually going towards browser development, and not whatever idiotic bullshit the corp side of it decides to buy (like Pocket, for example) next.

Re: Make Firefox Private Again

#78

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> There is Safari. Or whatever is based on WebKit on Linux webkit was forked from the kde browser, not the other way.

So? Epiphany is based on WebKit now, KDE Browser doesn't exist anymore. (I needed to check it first.)

Its called Konqueror, and exists, but it uses a webkit fork now!

Webkit was forked from KHTML which has been discontinued.

Re: Make Firefox Private Again

#79
post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If HN didn't exist people would gather on another link aggregator.

And yet no successful link aggregator has ever been "free" or "open" in a meaningful sense. Matrix, Lemmy, and many others exist, work well, are free from centralized control, and are well-known to the crowd that frequents this place. And yet users prefer to stick to one of the least transparent platforms of its kind, which could be turned off, or turned into something else entirely, at the whim of a small group of p…

I think the problem is simply the network effect. Reddit and Twitter are just hard to beat, maybe threads, utilizing the massive Instagram user base managed but I haven't heard anyone use it and I don't think you can force it

Re: Make Firefox Private Again

#80
post #40

Here's the Firefox CTO explaining the motivation behind the experiment controlled by this setting, and the measures taken to ensure that it actually is private: https://old.reddit.com/r/firefox/comments/1e43w7v/a_word_abo...

The hypocrisy in this post is astonishing.

> The Internet has become a massive web of surveillance

And Mozilla are contributing to it in all but name.

> primary reason many of us are at Mozilla.

If that is the case, and this is the best fight you can muster give up, go home and hand over the fight to better people. A mission to create the weapons people need to fight online surveillance requires guile, a strong will, a strong stomach, a clear understanding of who the enemy is and the ability to stick to some basic principles,

> Digital advertising is not going away

What kind of a defeatist attitude is that? People want it to go away. That's why they use Firefox. Mozilla are supposed to be defending that corner. What a lame cop out!

> but the surveillance parts could actually go away if we get it right.

We had a working system for digital advertisement in the 1990s. Go back to that and figure where you got lost.

The linked post is a sad masterpiece of appeasement, cowardice and snivelling apologetic. Mozilla is abandoning it's mission and selling out. The CEO should step down.

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