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AHHH Telemetry! I feel like there is a group of people who freak out to any form of telemetry, I just wanted to highlight them using it to track bugs. It's supe

AHHH Telemetry! I feel like there is a group of people who freak out to any form of telemetry, I just wanted to highlight them using it to track bugs. It's super beneficial to any form of changes, especially something like switching an entire language for a component.

Manishearth 10y ago
IIRC the telemetry involved here was only run on the nightly/developer edition versions. Or something like that. The restrictions on telemetry on release versions are pretty stringent. It's possible this was measured on release, I'm not aware of the details, but I suspect it wasn't.
- kevincox 10y ago
  From my understanding release is opt-in only. (My understanding is based upon whenever I install Firefox it promts me to enable telemetry, which is disabled by default)
  - Manishearth 10y ago
    Right, but I think even then you opt in to a very restricted subset. Again, ICBW here.
  - cpeterso 10y ago
    You are both correct. :) Firefox telemetry is opt-out on the Nightly, DevEdition, and Beta channels, but (mostly) opt-in on the Release channel. The opt-in telemetry from the Release channel has limited use because it is not representative of all users. Here is a list of Firefox's telemetry measurements. Those that are opt-out on the Release channel are tagged "releaseChannelCollection": "opt-out". Adding a new opt-out measurement requires an additional privacy review. https://hg.mozilla.org/mozilla-central/file/tip/toolkit/components/telemetry/Histograms.json https://hg.mozilla.org/mozilla-central/file/tip/toolkit/comp...
nathancahill 10y ago
I make a point of enabling Telemetry for Mozilla products. It's probably the easiest way to support the work they are doing.
throwaway7767 10y ago
"Freak out" is a bit strong, but it's not illogical to dislike telemetry. It's an extra bit of tracking being broadcast by your devices, and as we know from the Snowden docs, the NSA uses collected windows error reporting (telemetry) to help target their exploits. That someone is worried about these issues does not imply that they don't understand the value of telemetry data for developers. It's just a question of tradeoffs, and it's a decision the user should make. I don't dislike error reporting in programs. I dislike it when programs call home without asking permission.
Esau 10y ago
I don't have a problem with telemetry, provided it is opt-in.
- dymk 10y ago
  This makes telemetry effectively useless for developers though, unless a big intrusive "Click here to opt in" button is presented during startup. Nobody is going to enable it on their own accord.
  - dbaupp 10y ago
    Last time I installed Firefox (a month or two ago) it in fact did pop-up a button asking if you wanted to send telemetry back to Mozilla.
  - Esau 10y ago
    I find your comment disturbing because I feel that "Opt-Out" features have become a real problem. The reasons for setting something as opt-out are often self-serving and, even when not, it is still an affront to informed consent (since as we all know that most people will take the defaults).
Sylos 10y ago
I think a big portion of those people come from the fact that it's essentially impossible to verify what each and every piece of telemetry does. And ultimately, you as a user don't directly gain anything from enabling it / leaving it enabled, so it's perfectly reasonable to stay ignorant in this case.

Manishearth 10y ago

IIRC the telemetry involved here was only run on the nightly/developer edition versions. Or something like that. The restrictions on telemetry on release versions are pretty stringent. It's possible this was measured on release, I'm not aware of the details, but I suspect it wasn't.

kevincox 10y ago
From my understanding release is opt-in only. (My understanding is based upon whenever I install Firefox it promts me to enable telemetry, which is disabled by default)
- Manishearth 10y ago
  Right, but I think even then you opt in to a very restricted subset. Again, ICBW here.
- cpeterso 10y ago
  You are both correct. :) Firefox telemetry is opt-out on the Nightly, DevEdition, and Beta channels, but (mostly) opt-in on the Release channel. The opt-in telemetry from the Release channel has limited use because it is not representative of all users. Here is a list of Firefox's telemetry measurements. Those that are opt-out on the Release channel are tagged "releaseChannelCollection": "opt-out". Adding a new opt-out measurement requires an additional privacy review. https://hg.mozilla.org/mozilla-central/file/tip/toolkit/components/telemetry/Histograms.json https://hg.mozilla.org/mozilla-central/file/tip/toolkit/comp...

nathancahill 10y ago

I make a point of enabling Telemetry for Mozilla products. It's probably the easiest way to support the work they are doing.

throwaway7767 10y ago

"Freak out" is a bit strong, but it's not illogical to dislike telemetry. It's an extra bit of tracking being broadcast by your devices, and as we know from the Snowden docs, the NSA uses collected windows error reporting (telemetry) to help target their exploits. That someone is worried about these issues does not imply that they don't understand the value of telemetry data for developers. It's just a question of tradeoffs, and it's a decision the user should make. I don't dislike error reporting in programs. I dislike it when programs call home without asking permission.

Esau 10y ago

I don't have a problem with telemetry, provided it is opt-in.

dymk 10y ago
This makes telemetry effectively useless for developers though, unless a big intrusive "Click here to opt in" button is presented during startup. Nobody is going to enable it on their own accord.
- dbaupp 10y ago
  Last time I installed Firefox (a month or two ago) it in fact did pop-up a button asking if you wanted to send telemetry back to Mozilla.
- Esau 10y ago
  I find your comment disturbing because I feel that "Opt-Out" features have become a real problem. The reasons for setting something as opt-out are often self-serving and, even when not, it is still an affront to informed consent (since as we all know that most people will take the defaults).

Sylos 10y ago

I think a big portion of those people come from the fact that it's essentially impossible to verify what each and every piece of telemetry does. And ultimately, you as a user don't directly gain anything from enabling it / leaving it enabled, so it's perfectly reasonable to stay ignorant in this case.