4 ms·

Right - just google for a different app every time you want to get something done. Also, storing all your data on someone else's server is obviously the best t

Right - just google for a different app every time you want to get something done. Also, storing all your data on someone else's server is obviously the best thing yet for privacy and freedom.

thekingshorses 13y ago
Sorry, are you being sarcastic? I already stored all my data on Google server thanks to Android. And I use google maps and google now so they know more about me than my wife does. In fact most of my apps on android and iOS like linkedin, facebook, twitter, instagram, mint etc are storing my data on their server.
- engrenage 13y ago
  So you have no private data and don't believe others should either, good for you.
gcr 13y ago
What stops you from storing your data on your own server, or in LocalStorage?
- engrenage 13y ago
  If you write all your own apps, nothing.
rhelmer 13y ago
For the example given ("conference app"), a chromeless web page that can optionally be saved as an icon to the homescreen seems appropriate. Web applications already have many restrictions on privacy - you need to fetch the data in any case, and these types of apps are sandboxed from each other too in FirefoxOS. I do think it's worth thinking through privacy/security/freedom implications, here is my opinion (not necessarily my employer's): All web apps can of course operate completely in offline mode (as well as privileged FirefoxOS apps[1], which have access to APIs to use more of the device features and are the bigger concern here) - all of the apps that ship with the phone do operate and store data offline, for instance (e.g. you can have a local calender, it's not stored on Mozilla's servers). Knowing whether you can trust an app to treat your data as they say they will is not anything unique to the platform (who/where do you get it from, etc). Mozilla is very serious about this type of thing (I work full-time on various Mozilla server projects so I constantly experience first-hand how important this is to everyone, e.g. application design, handling crash reports, etc.) However there does need to be a balance between the needs/desires of the platform provider (including built-in apps), third-party app developers and the end user - developers of third-party apps should have the ability to make choices about where data is stored, privacy policies and so on, and users should be able to install the apps that they want to. [1] - https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Mozilla/Firefox_OS/Application_development https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Mozilla/Firefox_OS/...
- engrenage 13y ago
  Yes, privacy decisions should be made by third parties and end users can take it or leave it. My point was that the assertion that this OS is somehow superior to android or iOS in terms of freedom or privacy is completely unfounded.
  - engrenage 13y ago
    Why is this being downvoted? It is just a restatement of the comment I'm replying to.
rhelmer 13y ago
To address your first point (my other comment was focused on the second): You do not need to search every time, this type of app can be saved to the home screen. You could think of it like a bookmark to a tab that will run chromeless in it's own process (so no access to cookies etc. in your main browser process). For all practical purposes it is a low-privileged "hosted" app like any other - has it's own icon, possible to terminate, sandboxed and so does not share data with other apps. FirefoxOS has a feature that allows you search and browse a set of these apps provided by everything.me but it's also possible to do this directly from the built-in browser app.
- engrenage 13y ago
  Presumably the code for those apps is also cached on the device so you don't have to be connected in order to run them. My point was not to attack Firefox OS, but to point out that these home screen apps are indistinguishable from "installed" apps.
  - adamauckland 13y ago
    Yes. That's the point of the manifest file. It's the same as the HTML5 offline manifest file.

Right - just google for a different app every time you want to get something done. Also, storing all your data on someone else's server is obviously the best thing yet for privacy and freedom.

thekingshorses 13y ago

Sorry, are you being sarcastic? I already stored all my data on Google server thanks to Android. And I use google maps and google now so they know more about me than my wife does. In fact most of my apps on android and iOS like linkedin, facebook, twitter, instagram, mint etc are storing my data on their server.

engrenage 13y ago
So you have no private data and don't believe others should either, good for you.

gcr 13y ago

What stops you from storing your data on your own server, or in LocalStorage?

engrenage 13y ago
If you write all your own apps, nothing.

rhelmer 13y ago

For the example given ("conference app"), a chromeless web page that can optionally be saved as an icon to the homescreen seems appropriate. Web applications already have many restrictions on privacy - you need to fetch the data in any case, and these types of apps are sandboxed from each other too in FirefoxOS. I do think it's worth thinking through privacy/security/freedom implications, here is my opinion (not necessarily my employer's): All web apps can of course operate completely in offline mode (as well as privileged FirefoxOS apps[1], which have access to APIs to use more of the device features and are the bigger concern here) - all of the apps that ship with the phone do operate and store data offline, for instance (e.g. you can have a local calender, it's not stored on Mozilla's servers). Knowing whether you can trust an app to treat your data as they say they will is not anything unique to the platform (who/where do you get it from, etc). Mozilla is very serious about this type of thing (I work full-time on various Mozilla server projects so I constantly experience first-hand how important this is to everyone, e.g. application design, handling crash reports, etc.) However there does need to be a balance between the needs/desires of the platform provider (including built-in apps), third-party app developers and the end user - developers of third-party apps should have the ability to make choices about where data is stored, privacy policies and so on, and users should be able to install the apps that they want to. [1] - https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Mozilla/Firefox_OS/Application_development https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Mozilla/Firefox_OS/...

engrenage 13y ago
Yes, privacy decisions should be made by third parties and end users can take it or leave it. My point was that the assertion that this OS is somehow superior to android or iOS in terms of freedom or privacy is completely unfounded.
- engrenage 13y ago
  Why is this being downvoted? It is just a restatement of the comment I'm replying to.

rhelmer 13y ago

To address your first point (my other comment was focused on the second): You do not need to search every time, this type of app can be saved to the home screen. You could think of it like a bookmark to a tab that will run chromeless in it's own process (so no access to cookies etc. in your main browser process). For all practical purposes it is a low-privileged "hosted" app like any other - has it's own icon, possible to terminate, sandboxed and so does not share data with other apps. FirefoxOS has a feature that allows you search and browse a set of these apps provided by everything.me but it's also possible to do this directly from the built-in browser app.

engrenage 13y ago
Presumably the code for those apps is also cached on the device so you don't have to be connected in order to run them. My point was not to attack Firefox OS, but to point out that these home screen apps are indistinguishable from "installed" apps.
- adamauckland 13y ago
  Yes. That's the point of the manifest file. It's the same as the HTML5 offline manifest file.