Telemetry was added to create an aggregate count of searches by category to broadly inform search feature development. These categories are based on 20 high-level content types, such as "sports,” “business,” and “travel”. This data will not be associated with specific users and will be collected using OHTTP to remove IP addresses as potentially identifying metadata. No profiling will be performed, and no data will be shared with third parties. (read more)
The Copy Without Site Tracking option can now remove parameters from nested URLs. It also includes expanded support for blocking over 300 tracking parameters from copied links, including those from major shopping websites. Keep those trackers away when sharing links!
This is great, definitely what was needed in a HTTP client. Here is how to disable this (yet another) fucking stupid decision that took time and money to develop: https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/share-data-mozilla-help-improve-firefox
Thanks Mozilla!
For anyone wondering, it’s controlled by the existing top-level Send Technical And Interaction Data toggle in the privacy menu that’s been there for ages, so most users who care about privacy have probably already opted out.
I hate to be that guy, but it’s an optional thing. Voluntary analytics are fine. You opt in/out, and that’s the way it should be.
Seriously, it’s about choice. It’s not about there never, ever being any information sent back.
If it’s optional it should be disabled by default. 99% of people aren’t going to even know this is a setting or something that’s going on behind the scenes
Telemetry is important for prioritizing feature development and support for the silent majority of users that don’t disable it and then complain about ALSA support being dropped.
Being real here? Anyone that can’t see the damn button for it during initial setup isn’t going to give a damn.
Best practices? No. Opt in only should be the default. But that’s still about choice, not whether or not telemetry is inherently a bad thing. But if someone is too damn lazy to look at the settings of a program when they first use it, that’s pretty damn stupid. But, hey, people in general are stupid.
So, is it disabled via
- toolkit.telemetry.enabled
- datareporting.policy.dataSubmissionEnabled
- datareporting.healthreport.service.enabled
- datareporting.healthreport.upload.enabled
- app.shield.optoutstudies.enabled
- app.normandy.enabled
- app.normandy.optoutstudies.enabled
Or all of them?
Edit: the app.* settings are for “studies”, unrelated.
That tracking removal feature is awesome. Anyone know of versions of that for Safari on macOS?
I hate cleaning those out on YouTube links. They started adding it this year 😞
A free, open-source app that does this system wide on macOS: https://github.com/rknightuk/TrackerZapper
Thanks! I did some googling and didn’t find this. This is what I was looking for.
This sadly is in line with Mozilla’s increasingly bad privacy defaults. Users who care have moved on to more reasonable configurd forks at this point (e.g. Librewolf).
Can anyone enlighten me as to what the hell Mozilla is going to do with that kind of telemetry as it’s not even tied to anyone ?
Why would they need to tie that telemetry to people in order to use it to inform their own development (as it states as the purpose, and is the purpose of all their telemetry as far as I know).
To know what features people are using, how fast it’s running, know what hardware and where it’s being used, and to try to investigate crashing issues? Telemetry doesn’t only mean knowing where you live or who you’re banging.
To know what features people are using, how fast it’s running, know what hardware and where it’s being used, and to try to investigate crashing issues?
None of those things are what’s being discussed here, or what GP asked about. As stated in the article, this is about categorizing people’s searches.
Lets say you live in a tribe. Everyone eats the same shit. Everyone does the same work. Everyone feels the same way. Why is it necessary to pinpoint an individual?
Any specimen from the batch is going to tell you what you what you want to know.
#deanonymity
Click on “read more” in the article:
To improve Firefox based on your needs, understanding how users interact with essential functions like search is key. We’re ramping up our efforts to enhance search experience by developing new features like Firefox Suggest, which provides recommended online content that corresponds to queries. To make sure that features like this work well, we need better insights on overall search activity – all without trading off on our commitment to user privacy. Our goal is to understand what types of searches are happening so that we can prioritize the correct features by use case.
More info here: https://blog.mozilla.org/products/firefox/firefox-search-update/
I was surprised yesterday telemetry was enabled. I don’t remember enabling it.
