What is Firefox supposed to do?

admin , 39 minutes ago

Get downstreamed into librefox.

orclev , 2 hours ago

My browser is responsible to me, not advertisers so it should do what I want. If websites want my business they’ll support my browser. Realistically browsers shouldn’t matter because everyone should be implementing to standards not some random ass quirk of one particular browser, I thought everyone learned that lesson back in the 90s with IE. I literally don’t care if advertisers throw a hissy fit because they no longer have access to everyone’s personal details. The internet existed before ads infested it like the parasites they are and it will still exist after they’re exterminated.

Zarxrax , 2 hours ago

Advertisers are already tracking everyone. Firefox is providing another option to help preserve privacy. You still have the option to disable or block anything you want, Firefox hasn’t taken that away. This doesn’t effect you, it effects the average user who doesn’t already block everything. I don’t see how having a new option that helps preserve your privacy is a bad thing. The goal would be for this to catch on, and then eventually be able to prevent more personal tracking that occurs through cookies today. It would be a net benefit.

orclev , 2 hours ago

That’s fine but it should have been opt-in or at least asked before enabling it. I have ad blockers and anti-tracking extensions, but they don’t do anything against this new feature because it’s the browser itself doing it. If I hadn’t read about it and gone in and disabled it I would be providing data to ad companies without even knowing it and that’s unacceptable.

Zarxrax , 2 hours ago

You may wish to disable automatic updates and follow release notes.

orclev , 2 hours ago

I do follow release notes which is how I knew to disable it, but the point is that I shouldn’t need to. The reason Mozilla didn’t ask before enabling this “feature” is because they know most people would disable it. That should be a pretty big clue that this isn’t something their users want.

mke , 1 hour ago (edited 1 hour ago)

I have ad blockers and anti-tracking extensions, but they don’t do anything against this new feature because it’s the browser itself doing it.

I don’t think that’s the case. If you have e.g. uBlock, the API for this new feature won’t be called, even if enabled, according to Colin (developer for Multi-Account Containers) in the Mozilla General matrix chat. I’d lean towards trusting Colin over you, here.

And, please, don’t bother Colin over this. I only mention him because if I didn’t, I just know some people would downvote and ask for a source, despite never providing any source for the opposite themselves.

I get your point, and your frustration, but please don’t talk so confidently about things you aren’t actually certain of.

okwhateverdude , 1 hour ago

This take is so naive. You really think the advertisers will give up their current, rich sources of data for Mozilla’s watered down crap? Given the current market share, no one is going to pay a premium for this little data. Or do you think the people that came up with everything creep.js does in order to track you will suddenly grow some ethics and stop doing that just because Mozilla is selling my data in aggregate? Not only is this a dumb idea that won’t even work (like just about every other non-browser thing they have tried), but then they also felt selling my data was within their right.

Mozilla Corp was never entitled to my data to sell in aggregate or to stay in for-profit business.

corbin OP , 45 minutes ago

If websites want my business they’ll support my browser.

Sure, but that goes both ways, which is the part where you start losing a lot of privacy evangelists and Firefox fans. You are entitled to full control over your device and browsing experience, and sites retain the right to block browsers interfering with ads, trackers, or whatever else the sites use to pay the bills. A lot of people want it both ways and that cannot work at scale.