3 ms·

If I remember correctly, the first time you run Firefox with a new profile you get a message about data gathering with an option to opt out.

by gbuk2013 10y ago

vog 10y ago
> with an option to opt out. Ouch. I'm pretty sure that here in Germany they could be sued for that. Regarding privacy law there we have a general consensus that out-out is too weak in almost all cases. You need opt-in, or in some cases double opt-in. Also, I wonder why Mozilla is playing the game that way. Aren't they afraid that actions like this may damage their reputation? On the other hand, this may simply be the continuation of their "pragmatic" policy that led them into feeding Google Analytics with their sites and making Google the default search engine (instead of privacy-friendly alternatives).
- rebelwebmaster 10y ago
  All telemetry probes have to go through a Data Review which includes Mozilla's Legal team vetting it. https://wiki.mozilla.org/Firefox/Data_Collection https://wiki.mozilla.org/Firefox/Data_Collection There's also a Medium post that went out with the Hardware Report that details more about the process behind it. https://medium.com/mozilla-tech/https-medium-com-mozilla-tech-how-its-built-the-firefox-hardware-survey-5a44dc167315 https://medium.com/mozilla-tech/https-medium-com-mozilla-tec...
  - cpeterso 10y ago
    Most of Firefox's telemetry is opt-in for the Firefox Release channel. You can see the few opt-out metrics by searching for "releaseChannelCollection": "opt-out" in https://hg.mozilla.org/mozilla-central/file/tip/toolkit/components/telemetry/Histograms.json https://hg.mozilla.org/mozilla-central/file/tip/toolkit/comp....
- Sylos 10y ago
  AFAIK you only need opt-in for personally identifiable data. Firefox would also definitely not be the first piece of software to run in Germany that has opt-out instead of opt-in. Most software does it that way and usually much sneakier than Firefox.
- rockdoe 10y ago
  What you say is only true for personal information, for which you do need to opt-in in Firefox. Broad stats about the users' system wouldn't fall under that. You already leak most of this information to every web site fwiw.
- hobarrera 10y ago
  They're not sending any identifiable information, which is what makes the huge difference. Just hardware stats and alike.

If I remember correctly, the first time you run Firefox with a new profile you get a message about data gathering with an option to opt out.

vog 10y ago

> with an option to opt out. Ouch. I'm pretty sure that here in Germany they could be sued for that. Regarding privacy law there we have a general consensus that out-out is too weak in almost all cases. You need opt-in, or in some cases double opt-in. Also, I wonder why Mozilla is playing the game that way. Aren't they afraid that actions like this may damage their reputation? On the other hand, this may simply be the continuation of their "pragmatic" policy that led them into feeding Google Analytics with their sites and making Google the default search engine (instead of privacy-friendly alternatives).

rebelwebmaster 10y ago
All telemetry probes have to go through a Data Review which includes Mozilla's Legal team vetting it. https://wiki.mozilla.org/Firefox/Data_Collection https://wiki.mozilla.org/Firefox/Data_Collection There's also a Medium post that went out with the Hardware Report that details more about the process behind it. https://medium.com/mozilla-tech/https-medium-com-mozilla-tech-how-its-built-the-firefox-hardware-survey-5a44dc167315 https://medium.com/mozilla-tech/https-medium-com-mozilla-tec...
- cpeterso 10y ago
  Most of Firefox's telemetry is opt-in for the Firefox Release channel. You can see the few opt-out metrics by searching for "releaseChannelCollection": "opt-out" in https://hg.mozilla.org/mozilla-central/file/tip/toolkit/components/telemetry/Histograms.json https://hg.mozilla.org/mozilla-central/file/tip/toolkit/comp....
Sylos 10y ago
AFAIK you only need opt-in for personally identifiable data. Firefox would also definitely not be the first piece of software to run in Germany that has opt-out instead of opt-in. Most software does it that way and usually much sneakier than Firefox.
rockdoe 10y ago
What you say is only true for personal information, for which you do need to opt-in in Firefox. Broad stats about the users' system wouldn't fall under that. You already leak most of this information to every web site fwiw.
hobarrera 10y ago
They're not sending any identifiable information, which is what makes the huge difference. Just hardware stats and alike.