Firefox now collects data for advertisers. It's not actually scary, but there is a bigger problem.
  • @[email protected]
    25•8 months ago

    I do know that Mozilla’s Privacy Preserving Attribution is not something you should worry about. I also know if someone calls it the “enshitification of Firefox” or the work of an “anti-privacy, pro-advertising cabal,” they’re either ignorant or simply looking for rage bait clicks from angry Linux users.

    Yup

  • @[email protected]
    13•7 months ago

    Mozilla, please refocus the resources to improve performance, or let FF disappear!

    This whole thing with the private data collection is meaningless, if the browser is increasingly niche.

    • @[email protected]
      21•8 months ago

      What performance issues do you have with Fx? I use it daily and don’t really feel like it’s slower than Chrome.

      • @[email protected]
        5•8 months ago

        Unfortunately, Firefox is not as efficient as Chrome. On a battery powered devices this matters. Also it doesn’t have a native dark mode for web content.
        I’m this close to jumping the ship.

        • The CuuuuubeEnglish
          9•8 months ago

          Were having radically different experiences. Firefox consumes way less power than chrome on all my machines

        • coyotino [he/him]English
          3•8 months ago

          Firefox is the only mobile browser I am aware of that allows extensions (including adblockers), and this let’s the user add functionality like having dark mode everywhere, even on sites that normally wouldn’t allow it.

        • @[email protected]
          3•8 months ago

          Ahh, I see. I’m usually on desktop PCs and use solar power at home, so the efficiency is less of a concern.

          AFAIK the “auto dark mode” in Chrome is experimental and doesn’t work well on all sites. Have you tried Dark Reader on Firefox? More and more sites are adding native dark mode, too.

  • modulus
    9•8 months ago

    The usual pro-advertising take. “It’s ok that we’re going to experiment without your consent on how to manipulate you, because we only use aggregated data so it’s not personal, it’s business.”

    • coyotino [he/him]English
      5•8 months ago

      Let’s say Firefox went full privacy absolutist, with all tracking and advertising networks blocked by default. That would probably be the best user experience initially, but websites wouldn’t make any money from visitors outside of subscriptions, direct donations, or (if they can sell them) direct advertising. It would probably just encourage more sites to stop supporting Firefox completely, which is already enough of a problem that Mozilla maintains a list of hacks to make sites work properly in Firefox. Mozilla removing all analytics from Firefox itself would also make fixing bugs and prioritizing development more difficult.

      Idk my read is that every browser has to do this a little bit, or else websites will stop devoting resources to supporting that browser. Firefox’s solution seems pretty reasonable when you take that into consideration. And Firefox still isn’t trying to stop you from installing 20 privacy add-ons and nuking anything that even whiffs of an ad.

      • modulus
        1•8 months ago

        It’s possible FF wouldn’t get away with something like integrating ad blocking by default, but in no reasonable universe were they required to do the PPA stuff and turn it on by default. Nor is it clear that it will lead to websites caring about FF compatibility–unfortunately many already don’t.

  • @[email protected]
    4•8 months ago

    I don’t remember who I heard say it, but someone said Mozilla should have built a privacy-first Google ecosystem alternative similar to what Proton are doing, which could have allowed them to actually make some money outside of their Google search bribe money.

    But it’s too late for that now I guess :(

  • FIash Mob #5678
    4•8 months ago

    I dunno.

    I’m kind of enjoying watching Firefox users have to eat a little crow, since they troll the shit out of me every time I talk about Brave.

    • @[email protected]
      4•8 months ago
      1. PPA doesn’t make Mozilla money.
      2. Firefox is developed by Mozilla Corp, which can’t take donations. Mozilla Foundation does do fundraising drives, but that’s mostly for their public advocacy (which, ironically, may be where the idea for PPA originated).
      3. PPA has a checkbox in about:preferences.