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"Important Note: Neither Mozilla nor Pocket receives a copy of your browser history. The entire process of sorting and filtering which stories you should see ha

by aylons 8y ago

"Important Note: Neither Mozilla nor Pocket receives a copy of your browser history. The entire process of sorting and filtering which stories you should see happens locally in your copy of Firefox. " https://help.getpocket.com/article/1142-firefox-new-tab-recommendations https://help.getpocket.com/article/1142-firefox-new-tab-reco...

pnathan 8y ago
That only marginally makes it better...
- rhizome 8y ago
  Digging in your heels when your central point is refuted is not a great strategy, and your reply seems to indicate that you're prepared to move the goalposts.
  - pnathan 8y ago
    I don't want an analysis of my browsing habits by anyone not me, fundamentally. I don't want "popular sites" sent to my machine, I don't want my habits sent upstream. Either is not my desire. I really don't feel like having the debate as to whether its local or remote - both are quite compromiseable in terms of security. I don't want to have this integration into my browser. I don't like Green Eggs and Ham, Sam I am. I do not want it this way or that, online or off. That is the goalpost I expect Mozilla to hit, based on their general vision. If I want to have my browsing habits analyzed, I'd rather `cat` out the history file to a tool I wrote. Mozilla being an entity historically predicated on better practices choosing to deal this way is highly unpleasant. And, on topic, RSS is a good open practice that should be kept. Mozilla's choice to axe RSS and keep Pocket seems to all be in the same vein.
    - onli 8y ago
      > I really don't feel like having the debate as to whether its local or remote - both are quite compromiseable in terms of security. The moment that thing is local your concerns are not valid anymore. If a local browsing habits file can be exploited your browsing habits could also be detected by other means. Like you yourself said, that is just included in your browsing history (stored anyway by default). There is no point in expressing a dislike for a good solution when the thing they are doing does not at all conflict with their mission. Which is the thing with removing RSS support, but not with the site recommendation. If your main concern - not wanting that your history is uploaded - is met by the great solution Mozilla seems to have found here, it would really be the right thing to accept that.
- dralley 8y ago
  It makes it a lot better, tbh. It doesn't spy on anyone and it's trivial to disable. Hard to do it better.
  - tunap 8y ago
    Better than making it removable without digging/disabling through about:config or making it an optional add-on? All the while killing RSS for "bloat" and resource considerations? Riiiiight.
    - aylons 8y ago
      The same webpage I link shows that you can disable with a single option in the home page.
      - tunap 8y ago
        disable!=remove Google yourself how many times a disabled feature "accidentally" re-enabled(& tracked!) for providers' benefit. Throw Apple & Google un for the most nefarious "accidents". Or not... despite no proclamations of Moz employees posting (as of yesterday) this thread has the stink of astroturf.
        aylons 8y ago
        Well, you may look at my post history to see if there's any chance of astroturfing. Last time I saw, Mozilla did not have a RF hardware division. I just want to set things straight. Bad mouthing Mozilla for something they have not done does not help discussing the decisions they take. On tracking, well, you may always look the code. It's all client-side, I guess the most nefarious accident it could happen is you noticing the suggestion again and disabling it again.

by aylons 8y ago

pnathan 8y ago

That only marginally makes it better...

rhizome 8y ago
Digging in your heels when your central point is refuted is not a great strategy, and your reply seems to indicate that you're prepared to move the goalposts.
- pnathan 8y ago
  I don't want an analysis of my browsing habits by anyone not me, fundamentally. I don't want "popular sites" sent to my machine, I don't want my habits sent upstream. Either is not my desire. I really don't feel like having the debate as to whether its local or remote - both are quite compromiseable in terms of security. I don't want to have this integration into my browser. I don't like Green Eggs and Ham, Sam I am. I do not want it this way or that, online or off. That is the goalpost I expect Mozilla to hit, based on their general vision. If I want to have my browsing habits analyzed, I'd rather `cat` out the history file to a tool I wrote. Mozilla being an entity historically predicated on better practices choosing to deal this way is highly unpleasant. And, on topic, RSS is a good open practice that should be kept. Mozilla's choice to axe RSS and keep Pocket seems to all be in the same vein.
  - onli 8y ago
    > I really don't feel like having the debate as to whether its local or remote - both are quite compromiseable in terms of security. The moment that thing is local your concerns are not valid anymore. If a local browsing habits file can be exploited your browsing habits could also be detected by other means. Like you yourself said, that is just included in your browsing history (stored anyway by default). There is no point in expressing a dislike for a good solution when the thing they are doing does not at all conflict with their mission. Which is the thing with removing RSS support, but not with the site recommendation. If your main concern - not wanting that your history is uploaded - is met by the great solution Mozilla seems to have found here, it would really be the right thing to accept that.
dralley 8y ago
It makes it a lot better, tbh. It doesn't spy on anyone and it's trivial to disable. Hard to do it better.
- tunap 8y ago
  Better than making it removable without digging/disabling through about:config or making it an optional add-on? All the while killing RSS for "bloat" and resource considerations? Riiiiight.
  - aylons 8y ago
    The same webpage I link shows that you can disable with a single option in the home page.
    - tunap 8y ago
      disable!=remove Google yourself how many times a disabled feature "accidentally" re-enabled(& tracked!) for providers' benefit. Throw Apple & Google un for the most nefarious "accidents". Or not... despite no proclamations of Moz employees posting (as of yesterday) this thread has the stink of astroturf.
      - aylons 8y ago
        Well, you may look at my post history to see if there's any chance of astroturfing. Last time I saw, Mozilla did not have a RF hardware division. I just want to set things straight. Bad mouthing Mozilla for something they have not done does not help discussing the decisions they take. On tracking, well, you may always look the code. It's all client-side, I guess the most nefarious accident it could happen is you noticing the suggestion again and disabling it again.