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Firefox Testing New Privacy Feature, Working with Meta

25 points by freediver 2y ago

drtgh 2y ago
> Firefox needed something to put themselves back on the right side of public opinion. They appear to have found it. Initially, Mozilla released a prototype feature to Firefox 128 that was enabled by default. It was used to collect personal data for advertisers. To read those sentences produce cognitive dissonance. Firefox users are absolutely against to the collection of personal data, especially if it's for advertisers. A Trojan introduced in Firefox to track users' browsing behavior, history and so on, in order to provide this data to advertisers, which users are actively blocking through extensions. A disaster.
- lioeters 2y ago
  Mozilla continues to reach new depths of disappointment. If they wanted to put themselves back on the right side of public opinion, acquiring an advertising company and working with Meta on new ways of collecting data from users is the complete opposite on what they should be doing.
  - anonym29 2y ago
    Mozilla draws a large amount of funding from Alphabet (Google), I suspect this influences their decisions as an organization to a greater extent than is publicly disclosed.
- tzs 2y ago
  > A Trojan introduced in Firefox to track users' browsing behavior, history and so on, in order to provide this data to advertisers, which users are actively blocking through extensions. A disaster. If I've understood this correctly it only provides data if you (1) see an ad, and (2) later visit the advertiser's site. If you have an ad blocker that stops #1 then there shouldn't be any data if you later happen to visit the advertiser's site. Also, the only information given to the advertiser is that you saw their ad before you visited their site.
  - cuteboy19 2y ago
    Setting aside that blockers are not 100%, why is my user-agent working for someone else?
    - bravetraveler 2y ago
      Also setting aside that advertisers aren't the only ones doing tracking/data collection. They're acting where the financial interests are, that's it
  - krageon 2y ago
    > it only provides data if No. This is not a good rationalisation, and you should not normalise it by using it. You're participating in the erosion of your own rights. Why would you do this?
  - janice1999 2y ago
    Mozilla are now capturing data on my behaviour without my consent (it's opt out), sending this data to a US based company (I'm in Europe) and that US based company is sending it to unknown advertisers and a universe of data brokers.
ssahoo 2y ago
Privacy and Facebook are antonyms.
notepad0x90 2y ago
This is executive incompetence at Mozilla. I'm not even criticizing the technical merits of what they're trying to do but how tone deaf can you be to have anything to do with Meta at this point? I'd prefer a partnership with the CIA or Google. Don't ask a fish how to catch a fish.
- pixxel 2y ago
  > executive incompetence at Mozilla That’s a very charitable view.
  - smegsicle 2y ago
    executive incompetence is our corporate policy™
- einsteinx2 2y ago
  Something like 80%+ of Mozilla’s revenue already comes from their partnership with Google. So I guess that just leaves the CIA…
000ooo000 2y ago
Had the misfortune of opening TFA while not on my PiHole's network. The undertones of the article seem a little ironic given how utterly riddled with ads the site is.
joshstrange 2y ago
Firefox has completely lost their way. I used to think that Brave was the bullet that FF users dodged but it seems FF was perfectly capable of screwing things up on their own.
lofaszvanitt 2y ago
Firefox version 130 should inject false data into advertiser endpoints. That would be a nice feature :D.

25 points by freediver 2y ago

> Firefox needed something to put themselves back on the right side of public opinion. They appear to have found it. Initially, Mozilla released a prototype feature to Firefox 128 that was enabled by default. It was used to collect personal data for advertisers. To read those sentences produce cognitive dissonance. Firefox users are absolutely against to the collection of personal data, especially if it's for advertisers. A Trojan introduced in Firefox to track users' browsing behavior, history and so on, in order to provide this data to advertisers, which users are actively blocking through extensions. A disaster.

lioeters 2y ago
Mozilla continues to reach new depths of disappointment. If they wanted to put themselves back on the right side of public opinion, acquiring an advertising company and working with Meta on new ways of collecting data from users is the complete opposite on what they should be doing.
- anonym29 2y ago
  Mozilla draws a large amount of funding from Alphabet (Google), I suspect this influences their decisions as an organization to a greater extent than is publicly disclosed.
tzs 2y ago
> A Trojan introduced in Firefox to track users' browsing behavior, history and so on, in order to provide this data to advertisers, which users are actively blocking through extensions. A disaster. If I've understood this correctly it only provides data if you (1) see an ad, and (2) later visit the advertiser's site. If you have an ad blocker that stops #1 then there shouldn't be any data if you later happen to visit the advertiser's site. Also, the only information given to the advertiser is that you saw their ad before you visited their site.
- cuteboy19 2y ago
  Setting aside that blockers are not 100%, why is my user-agent working for someone else?
  - bravetraveler 2y ago
    Also setting aside that advertisers aren't the only ones doing tracking/data collection. They're acting where the financial interests are, that's it
- krageon 2y ago
  > it only provides data if No. This is not a good rationalisation, and you should not normalise it by using it. You're participating in the erosion of your own rights. Why would you do this?
- janice1999 2y ago
  Mozilla are now capturing data on my behaviour without my consent (it's opt out), sending this data to a US based company (I'm in Europe) and that US based company is sending it to unknown advertisers and a universe of data brokers.

ssahoo 2y ago

Privacy and Facebook are antonyms.

notepad0x90 2y ago

This is executive incompetence at Mozilla. I'm not even criticizing the technical merits of what they're trying to do but how tone deaf can you be to have anything to do with Meta at this point? I'd prefer a partnership with the CIA or Google. Don't ask a fish how to catch a fish.

pixxel 2y ago
> executive incompetence at Mozilla That’s a very charitable view.
- smegsicle 2y ago
  executive incompetence is our corporate policy™
einsteinx2 2y ago
Something like 80%+ of Mozilla’s revenue already comes from their partnership with Google. So I guess that just leaves the CIA…

000ooo000 2y ago

Had the misfortune of opening TFA while not on my PiHole's network. The undertones of the article seem a little ironic given how utterly riddled with ads the site is.

joshstrange 2y ago

Firefox has completely lost their way. I used to think that Brave was the bullet that FF users dodged but it seems FF was perfectly capable of screwing things up on their own.

lofaszvanitt 2y ago

Firefox version 130 should inject false data into advertiser endpoints. That would be a nice feature :D.