5 ms·

I would’ve considered switching to Firefox if they hadn’t shipped their Pocket “redesign” earlier this year. It’s one of the worst most user hostile updates I’

I would’ve considered switching to Firefox if they hadn’t shipped their Pocket “redesign” earlier this year. It’s one of the worst most user hostile updates I’ve seen from any app or website in my 20 years on the web. It’s completely broken, frankly. If you open a saved article and then switch apps, Pocket kicks you back to the Home Screen. Tapping the “view all” button—which should take you to your saved article list—brings you back to the article you were viewing. Awful awful awful.

ahepp 3y ago
Mozilla is still finding ways to antagonize its users with Pocket? I guess I shouldn’t be surprised. I stopped using Firefox when they started pushing Pocket so hard. Maybe I’m remembering too strongly, but my recollection is that when I complained about it I was told this is the future, you’re being a crank, and it’s totally normal for a third party exension collecting data to be baked into a browser that claims to support privacy and respect users. So I just started using Safari, and I’ve never been happier. Apple seems to at least know how to get out of its own way. And they seem at least a bit more credible on privacy than Chrome or frankly Firefox.
- cycomanic 3y ago
  That doesn't make any sense. Because they offered a service that you were not interested you switched away and consider the less privacy friendly than a big corporation which runs one of the largest advertisement business in the world and tries to lock everyone into their ecosystem? Seriously, why do you hold Mozilla a nonprofit with a proven history of putting privacy of their users first, to a much higher standard than the largest corporations in the world with proven disregard (and profit motive to ignore it) for their users privacy?
  - ahepp 3y ago
    > In addition to the information that you provide to us when you register for a user account, we collect information about the URLs, titles and content of the web pages and other information you save to Pocket. The types of information we collect includes your browser type, device type, time zone, language, and other information related to the manner in which you access the Pocket Technologies. If you are on a mobile device, we collect the advertising identifiers provided by Apple on iOS and by Google on Android. [...] How is Safari less privacy friendly than that? As far as I know, Safari doesn't phone home with my reading list. If it did, that would be completely unacceptable to me. But maybe Apple can defend it by saying "well it's only what the most privacy friendly browser, Firefox, does"? > Seriously, why do you hold Mozilla a nonprofit with a proven history of putting privacy of their users first, to a much higher standard than the largest corporations in the world with proven disregard (and profit motive to ignore it) for their users privacy? Do they really have a proven history of putting privacy of their users first? Because to me, Pocket looks like a proven history that they will sell the opportunity to collect data from their users just like any other company. Even if Mozilla really did have a proven history of putting privacy of their users first, that would in fact be a reason to hold them to a higher standard. I expect more from people I think highly of, than people I know usually do bad things. It seems to me that Apple actually has less incentive to sell my data than Mozilla. I'm paying Apple for their device and their software, and if I don't like the way their software treats my data, I will stop paying them. Mozilla has no way to make money other than bundling software that collects data from their users (google search default, pocket). So who's really incentivized to ignore privacy concerns?
Seb-C 3y ago
I switched away from Firefox about 3 years ago (after more than 10 years of using it) because I got tired of them breaking stuff (and my habits) with unnecessary redesigns every 6 months or so.
- cycomanic 3y ago
  What did they break? I've been a Firefox user since forever and I don't recall any breaking changes on desktop for the last 15 years or so (really since they deprecated xul). Now on mobile you might have an argument, but Firefox on android was bad before the recent redesign and is by quite a margin the best mobile browser since.
  - Ekaros 3y ago
    One thing they did was hide close all tabs button behind menu. Because they thought users was too stupid and would press it accidentally... I think I'm just too smart to use Firefox as main browser... I absolutely detest people treating me as an idiot...
gitaarik 3y ago
You can just disable Pocket. I've never used it, and never had an issue with it. My Firefox experience is great.

ahepp 3y ago

Mozilla is still finding ways to antagonize its users with Pocket? I guess I shouldn’t be surprised. I stopped using Firefox when they started pushing Pocket so hard. Maybe I’m remembering too strongly, but my recollection is that when I complained about it I was told this is the future, you’re being a crank, and it’s totally normal for a third party exension collecting data to be baked into a browser that claims to support privacy and respect users. So I just started using Safari, and I’ve never been happier. Apple seems to at least know how to get out of its own way. And they seem at least a bit more credible on privacy than Chrome or frankly Firefox.

cycomanic 3y ago
That doesn't make any sense. Because they offered a service that you were not interested you switched away and consider the less privacy friendly than a big corporation which runs one of the largest advertisement business in the world and tries to lock everyone into their ecosystem? Seriously, why do you hold Mozilla a nonprofit with a proven history of putting privacy of their users first, to a much higher standard than the largest corporations in the world with proven disregard (and profit motive to ignore it) for their users privacy?
- ahepp 3y ago
  > In addition to the information that you provide to us when you register for a user account, we collect information about the URLs, titles and content of the web pages and other information you save to Pocket. The types of information we collect includes your browser type, device type, time zone, language, and other information related to the manner in which you access the Pocket Technologies. If you are on a mobile device, we collect the advertising identifiers provided by Apple on iOS and by Google on Android. [...] How is Safari less privacy friendly than that? As far as I know, Safari doesn't phone home with my reading list. If it did, that would be completely unacceptable to me. But maybe Apple can defend it by saying "well it's only what the most privacy friendly browser, Firefox, does"? > Seriously, why do you hold Mozilla a nonprofit with a proven history of putting privacy of their users first, to a much higher standard than the largest corporations in the world with proven disregard (and profit motive to ignore it) for their users privacy? Do they really have a proven history of putting privacy of their users first? Because to me, Pocket looks like a proven history that they will sell the opportunity to collect data from their users just like any other company. Even if Mozilla really did have a proven history of putting privacy of their users first, that would in fact be a reason to hold them to a higher standard. I expect more from people I think highly of, than people I know usually do bad things. It seems to me that Apple actually has less incentive to sell my data than Mozilla. I'm paying Apple for their device and their software, and if I don't like the way their software treats my data, I will stop paying them. Mozilla has no way to make money other than bundling software that collects data from their users (google search default, pocket). So who's really incentivized to ignore privacy concerns?

Seb-C 3y ago

I switched away from Firefox about 3 years ago (after more than 10 years of using it) because I got tired of them breaking stuff (and my habits) with unnecessary redesigns every 6 months or so.

cycomanic 3y ago
What did they break? I've been a Firefox user since forever and I don't recall any breaking changes on desktop for the last 15 years or so (really since they deprecated xul). Now on mobile you might have an argument, but Firefox on android was bad before the recent redesign and is by quite a margin the best mobile browser since.
- Ekaros 3y ago
  One thing they did was hide close all tabs button behind menu. Because they thought users was too stupid and would press it accidentally... I think I'm just too smart to use Firefox as main browser... I absolutely detest people treating me as an idiot...

gitaarik 3y ago

You can just disable Pocket. I've never used it, and never had an issue with it. My Firefox experience is great.