7 ms·
I'm not a fan of telemetry in any browser (I love Lynx because of this), but Mozilla is definitely more trustworthy than Google or Microsoft. Edit: I'm not say
by StableAlkyne 3y ago
I'm not a fan of telemetry in any browser (I love Lynx because of this), but Mozilla is definitely more trustworthy than Google or Microsoft.
Edit: I'm not saying that Lynx should be a daily driver or that it's more secure, but it's a neat little project that avoids some of the bad patterns in modern browsers.
- smegsicle 3y ago> Mozilla definitely hold a public perception of being more trustworthy than Google or Microsoft 100% true, definitely
- deleted 3y ago[deleted]
- noman-land 3y agoMozilla, the legally registered non-profit foundation with a mission statement[0], for sure is more trustworthy than a for-profit data behemoth whose sole revenue comes from collecting as much data a possible, or a for-profit tech company with a history of corporate abuse and user hostile behavior. [0] https://www.mozilla.org/en-US/about/manifesto/ https://www.mozilla.org/en-US/about/manifesto/
- footlose_3815 3y agoI'm not trying to be a contrarian, but Google paid Firefox lots of money to force Google as the default search. Likely an offer they would refuse at their own peril, but I really liked how my search engine settings persisted when I reinstalled. Now it defaults to google. There's also a ton of promoted garbage on your homepage and privacy switches that need to be toggled off by default. Those settings don't carry-over when you sync your account settings. I still prefer Firefox, but they are not immune to the encroaching enshittification.
- PaulHoule 3y agoThere was the “thoroughly pizzled” pocket https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Autofac https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Autofac on the other hand Microsoft and Facebook are doing this all the time.
- deleted 3y ago[deleted]
- noman-land 3y agoI agree they're not immune whatsoever. In fact I hold them to a higher standard than the others because it's their mission to do it, so their failures sting much harder. But I hold the others to zero standard. There is less than zero trust there. I expect to be abused by them because their mandate requires them to ignore my wishes. It's not a failure but a success to them.
- tapoxi 3y agoThat's the Mozilla Foundation, the Mozilla Corporation is the for-profit developer of Firefox that's owned by the Foundation. If Mozilla never established the Corporation I'd give them more slack, but from a "it's nonprofit" perspective it's on the same level as IKEA, which is also owned by a nonprofit foundation.
- kbelder 3y agoFunny that I trust the Mozilla Corporation more than I trust the Mozilla Foundation.
- barbariangrunge 3y agoTechnically, google doesn't sell people's data. It uses data to train AIs to predict people's behaviour, modify that behaviour, modify attitudes/beliefs (it's an ad company), and eventually replace people
- noman-land 3y agoThanks, I updated my original post because how they profit from the data is immaterial to the fact that they want it and they coax people into letting them collect it.
- shawnz 3y agoDoesn't that more general statement now apply to anyone that collects telemetry, even for "noble" purposes, like Mozilla?
- noman-land 3y agoYes, opt-in by default telemetry is unethical.
- kortilla 3y agoIt sells a direct derivative of the data though, which is targeted ads.
- astrange 3y ago"Non-profits" are still just as motivated to increase revenue as "for-profits". Most US hospitals are non-profits but you still see people complaining about them.
- pseudalopex 3y agoDid they remove public perception or did you quote something they didn't say?
- jeffbee 3y ago> I love Lynx because of this Pseudonymous user so concerned about privacy that they use the browser with by far the greatest density of exploitable flaws.
- StableAlkyne 3y agoFriend, it is okay to enjoy things. Lynx is just a cool project :)
- tombert 3y agoWell wait, I don't think jeffbee was saying it's bad to enjoy things, but rather that the person they were responding to was implying something, namely "Lynx is (in some way) better than Firefox because it doesn't take telemetry data." Lynx definitely takes less telemetry data than Firefox, but it also gets substantially fewer updates, including security updates. I think text-based browsing is pretty fun but I don't really use it in no small part because of the infrequency of updates.
- StableAlkyne 3y agoI can see how the post could be interpreted that way. I've added an edit at the bottom to clarify that I'm not suggesting people actually use it as they main one.
- s3p 3y agoThe person you are replying to is the same person that they are replying to. you can just say "you".
- tombert 3y agoI didn't see that! Silly me!
- JadeNB 3y ago> Pseudonymous user so concerned about privacy that they use the browser with by far the greatest density of exploitable flaws. "I love Lynx" is different from "I use Lynx for security-sensitive browsing," and "greatest density of publicly documented exploitable flaws" is, even if true (I don't know), not the same as "greatest density of exploitable flaws."
- kwanbix 3y agoHow do you expect companies to understand how their products are used for improvement purposes without telemetry? Honest question.
- mftrhu 3y agoThey could ask their users.
- mo_42 3y agoOr observe people how they interact with the browser. If they would observe my parents, they could learn a lot that cannot be captured by telemetry.
- kwanbix 3y agoSo how many users do you have to ask for it to be statistically relevant for a user base of 360 million users?
- eviks 3y agoHundreds? Increasing user base doesn't matter much for sample size
- JohnFen 3y agoOthers have answered this, but I just wanted to point out the software devs have been managing to understand how their products are used for improvement purposes from long before telemetry was a realistic possibility. Telemetry doesn't make it possible, it makes it less expensive.
- kwanbix 3y agoDo you think it is the same asking a small subset of users than having info on all the users? I work as a Product Manager, and trust me, it is not the same.
- 3y ago