5 ms·

Is this FUD or serious? Because they are certainly claiming to be the opposite of that these days.

kuschku 9y ago
They just recently had a PR disaster because Firefox included Google Analytics in the Addon menu. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14753546 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14753546
- st3fan 9y ago
  I don’t think that was a “pr disaster” - vocal minority is loud but not that loud.
bigbugbag 9y ago
This is simply history. The proprietary module (now long removed) is among the reasons the iceweasel project was born (not the debian one but the GNU one that has been renamed icecat when debian took over the iceweasel name). It is a known fact that for years 90% or more of mozilla money came from google in exchange for making its search engine the default including tracking through an additional parameter in the URL. There is waterfox a project to build a firefox version free of the mozilla tracking and crap: https://www.waterfoxproject.org/ https://www.waterfoxproject.org/ Disabled Encrypted Media Extensions (EME) Disabled Web Runtime (deprecated as of 2015) Removed Pocket Removed Telemetry Removed data collection Removed startup profiling Allow running of all 64-Bit NPAPI plugins Allow running of unsigned extensions Removal of Sponsored Tiles on New Tab Page Addition of Duplicate Tab option Locale selector in about:preferences > General For the android version, the f-droid page does not exist anymore since firefox has been removed from f-droid, but there the wiki archive I linked earlier: https://f-droid.org/wiki/page/org.mozilla.firefox https://f-droid.org/wiki/page/org.mozilla.firefox There used to be a collection of privacy patches to remove all the tracking, leaking and privacy issues but I can't find it through web search, it seems to have been replaced by https://github.com/williex/firefox-privacy https://github.com/williex/firefox-privacy Mozilla insist it is health report, analytics and telemetry which is marketing words for tracking and spying.
- JadeNB 9y ago
  > The proprietary module (now long removed) is among the reasons the iceweasel project was born (not the debian one but the GNU one that has been renamed icecat when debian took over the iceweasel name). Do you have a reference for this? The Wiki page, and the project application, seem just to refer to a desire to avoid non-free plug-ins: > ALL GNUzilla Programs will basically BE Mozilla Source Builds, with the major exception being the implementation of NO proprietary softwares, including plug-ins, according and adhereing to the GPL. (http://savannah.gnu.org/task/?4529 http://savannah.gnu.org/task/?4529). That's certainly not inconsistent with what you said, but it seems a stretch to deduce what you said without some other reference.
- tylersmith 9y ago
  Iceweasel was born out of trademark issues not telemetry. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/GNU_IceCat#history https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/GNU_IceCat#history
tylersmith 9y ago
Mozilla have used various telemetry tools over time to assist with product development. It's possible they're trying to covertly track users but unlikely. It should certainly be known and public but does not necessarily equate to spying.
- jopsen 9y ago
  > It's possible they're trying to covertly track users but unlikely. No, it's not possible. Mozilla employees and community members are very talented and capable people, but they are not capable for keeping a nefarious secret :) hehe
- jasonkostempski 9y ago
  Intent makes absolutely no difference. If an application is sending any information, anywhere that is not controlled by the user, and only the user, even if the user can clearly see all of it, it is, by definition, not private. No matter what Mozilla says, anonymity cannot be guaranteed. If they want feedback, they should ask for permission after a crash is detected locally. It should offer the options "No"; "No, never ask again"; and "Yes, ask again for future errors". It should explicitly not offer "Yes, always send" and "Always send" sure as hell should not be the default in a "private browser". The only way you can truly trust someone is when you don't have to.

They just recently had a PR disaster because Firefox included Google Analytics in the Addon menu. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14753546 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14753546

st3fan 9y ago
I don’t think that was a “pr disaster” - vocal minority is loud but not that loud.

bigbugbag 9y ago

This is simply history. The proprietary module (now long removed) is among the reasons the iceweasel project was born (not the debian one but the GNU one that has been renamed icecat when debian took over the iceweasel name). It is a known fact that for years 90% or more of mozilla money came from google in exchange for making its search engine the default including tracking through an additional parameter in the URL. There is waterfox a project to build a firefox version free of the mozilla tracking and crap: https://www.waterfoxproject.org/ https://www.waterfoxproject.org/ Disabled Encrypted Media Extensions (EME) Disabled Web Runtime (deprecated as of 2015) Removed Pocket Removed Telemetry Removed data collection Removed startup profiling Allow running of all 64-Bit NPAPI plugins Allow running of unsigned extensions Removal of Sponsored Tiles on New Tab Page Addition of Duplicate Tab option Locale selector in about:preferences > General For the android version, the f-droid page does not exist anymore since firefox has been removed from f-droid, but there the wiki archive I linked earlier: https://f-droid.org/wiki/page/org.mozilla.firefox https://f-droid.org/wiki/page/org.mozilla.firefox There used to be a collection of privacy patches to remove all the tracking, leaking and privacy issues but I can't find it through web search, it seems to have been replaced by https://github.com/williex/firefox-privacy https://github.com/williex/firefox-privacy Mozilla insist it is health report, analytics and telemetry which is marketing words for tracking and spying.

JadeNB 9y ago
> The proprietary module (now long removed) is among the reasons the iceweasel project was born (not the debian one but the GNU one that has been renamed icecat when debian took over the iceweasel name). Do you have a reference for this? The Wiki page, and the project application, seem just to refer to a desire to avoid non-free plug-ins: > ALL GNUzilla Programs will basically BE Mozilla Source Builds, with the major exception being the implementation of NO proprietary softwares, including plug-ins, according and adhereing to the GPL. (http://savannah.gnu.org/task/?4529 http://savannah.gnu.org/task/?4529). That's certainly not inconsistent with what you said, but it seems a stretch to deduce what you said without some other reference.
tylersmith 9y ago
Iceweasel was born out of trademark issues not telemetry. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/GNU_IceCat#history https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/GNU_IceCat#history

tylersmith 9y ago

Mozilla have used various telemetry tools over time to assist with product development. It's possible they're trying to covertly track users but unlikely. It should certainly be known and public but does not necessarily equate to spying.

jopsen 9y ago
> It's possible they're trying to covertly track users but unlikely. No, it's not possible. Mozilla employees and community members are very talented and capable people, but they are not capable for keeping a nefarious secret :) hehe
jasonkostempski 9y ago
Intent makes absolutely no difference. If an application is sending any information, anywhere that is not controlled by the user, and only the user, even if the user can clearly see all of it, it is, by definition, not private. No matter what Mozilla says, anonymity cannot be guaranteed. If they want feedback, they should ask for permission after a crash is detected locally. It should offer the options "No"; "No, never ask again"; and "Yes, ask again for future errors". It should explicitly not offer "Yes, always send" and "Always send" sure as hell should not be the default in a "private browser". The only way you can truly trust someone is when you don't have to.