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Stige
Posts: 3545
Location: Finland
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 Posted: Fri, 6th Oct 2017 20:43 Post subject: |
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Mozilla ships Cliqz experiment in Germany for ~1% of new installs, collects surf data, including URLs
https://www.reddit.com/r/firefox/comments/74n0b2/mozilla_ships_cliqz_experiment_in_germany_for_1/
| Code: | Mozilla announced today that they will start a new experiment next week: Under one percent of German users who download Firefox from Mozilla will get a version which has recommendation by Cliqz automatically activated.
Mozilla invested in the Cliqz GmbH last year. Taken directly from the Cliqz website:
"The mission of the German startup Cliqz GmbH is to redesign the Internet for the user by combining the power of data, browser, and search. In Munich, more than 100 experts from over 30 countries develop browsers and browser extensions with integrated search engines to bring users to their destination in the most direct way while protecting their privacy. Cliqz quick search works with its own independent web index, powered by the company’s Human Web technology. It is available in the Cliqz browser for Windows, Mac OS, Android and iOS or as an extension for the Firefox desktop browser.
Jean-Paul Schmetz founded Cliqz GmbH in 2008. Since May 2013, Cliqz GmbH has been majority-owned by Hubert Burda Media, one of Europe’s leading media corporations. In August 2016, Mozilla joined as a strategic minority investor. In February 2017, Cliqz acquired the world’s leading anti-tracking tool Ghostery."
There's also a Cliqz experiment on Test Pilot for German users which displays search results in real time. Cliqz collects data about search and surf activites, including typed text in the address bar. They also collect interactions with the website like how you move the mouse around, spent time on the site, etc.
The main experiment in Firefox includes this data tool - so they collect the full URL of the sites visited. This data is send to the Cliqz servers. This data is "anonymized" and the code is public. The cliqz addon can be deactivated and uninstalled of course (normal users may not know how to do this).
How can Mozilla and Cliqz say that they are privacy-oriented when they collect this much data? |
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JBeckman
VIP Member
Posts: 35031
Location: Sweden
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| Posted: Fri, 6th Oct 2017 21:17 Post subject: |
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Even the non-beta and non-developer/nightly versions of Firefox likely already have a ton of telemetry and data reporting settings, this does seem to take it a bit further in what they track but it's at least very easy to opt out of although I don't remember if Firefox actually prompts the user that they're getting into a experiment, I don't think they do.
I disabled that when I started using the beta branch, many of the other settings have to be disabled via the advanced about:preferences config panel though and don't have anything exposed in the regular options menu either.
Although I am fairly certain Edge and Chrome both also collect a fair amount of data by default, unsure about Opera but for troubleshooting and bug reporting purposes this information can be very useful though exactly what the browser does track isn't always transparent or how to say which is understandably a concern for many users.
(And then you have all the embedded scripts and such that certain websites use such as Google analytics and what not, whole mess of data collection and a bit of a constant fight if the user does try to block or restrict this.)
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| Posted: Mon, 13th Nov 2017 16:54 Post subject: ***** |
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*****
Last edited by Areius on Fri, 19th Sep 2025 16:23; edited 1 time in total
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| Posted: Tue, 14th Nov 2017 18:14 Post subject: |
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3E74
Posts: 2559
Location: feels wrong
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| Posted: Tue, 14th Nov 2017 21:38 Post subject: |
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tested the new FF57 and its fast, allright..
So, did anyone found out how you can "darken" the about:newtab, about:addons, about:etc etc etc backgrounds...
i hate that ultra white background, my eyes....
for the rest, some addons dont work anymore, but that was expected since those addons where all low level api ones..
now im going to take a look into the "about:config"...
..:: Life - A sexually transmitted disease which always ends in death. There is currently no known cure::.. 
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| Posted: Tue, 14th Nov 2017 23:06 Post subject: |
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Whats a good alternative for video downloadhelper?
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| Posted: Wed, 15th Nov 2017 01:06 Post subject: |
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Sigh - NoScript doesn't work with Firefox 57. This is a complete deal-breaker. What's the easiest way to revert from 57 back to prior version? Is there any sort of rollback feature?
What was the latest stable release prior to this 57 crap? Was it 56.0.2?
Edit -
Dropped that shit faster than a whore with Herpes. Uninstalled 57.0, reinstalled 56.0.2. Thankfully, it kept most of my stuff intact, just messed up the layout of my interface/toolbar up top a bit. Quickly rectified.
I don't know who the genius at Firefox was that decided to make the new version require an update of all addons at a base level in order to function - considering that addons are what set Firefox apart from the competition, but that idiot should be out of a job.
I can never be free, because the shackles I wear can't be touched or be seen.
i9-9900k, MSI MPG-Z390 Gaming Pro Carbon, 32GB DDR4 @ 3000, eVGA GTX 1080 DT, Samsung 970 EVO Plus nVME 1TB
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| Posted: Wed, 15th Nov 2017 05:49 Post subject: |
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I will probably switch over to Palemoon, Waterfox or Vivaldi. Not sure yet which one is better.
Can't be arsed to find workin pluding replacements - which are not available for most of the ones i used anyways.
And like i mentioned i prefer to be more productive with my seleteced plugins, than to have the speed of FF57.
Enthoo Evolv ATX TG // Asus Prime x370 // Ryzen 1700 // Gainward GTX 1080 // 16GB DDR4-3200
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| Posted: Wed, 15th Nov 2017 09:52 Post subject: |
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I hope that addons get proper new format support. The new FF really has potential.
i5 6600k @ 4.3 GHz | MSI z170 Gaming M7 | 32GB Kingston HyperX Fury | 850 Evo 500GB | EVGA 1070 SC | Seasonic X-660 | CM Storm Stryker
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| Posted: Wed, 15th Nov 2017 10:32 Post subject: |
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| Immunity wrote: | | Sigh - NoScript doesn't work with Firefox 57. This is a complete deal-breaker. |
I might be wrong, but can't you achieve the same effect as NoScript by configuring Ublock to block scripts? Also, according to NoScript's website they're gonna have a working version by the end of the week.
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| Posted: Wed, 15th Nov 2017 10:40 Post subject: |
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| Bob Barnsen wrote: | I will probably switch over to Palemoon, Waterfox or Vivaldi. Not sure yet which one is better.
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IMO go for Vivaldi.
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| Posted: Wed, 15th Nov 2017 10:44 Post subject: ***** |
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*****
Last edited by Areius on Fri, 19th Sep 2025 16:23; edited 1 time in total
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| Posted: Wed, 15th Nov 2017 18:18 Post subject: ***** |
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*****
Last edited by Areius on Fri, 19th Sep 2025 16:23; edited 1 time in total
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| Posted: Wed, 15th Nov 2017 18:31 Post subject: |
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@Areius
I stumbled upon something to add to the userChrome.css:
 Spoiler: | @namespace url("http://www.mozilla.org/keymaster/gatekeeper/there.is.only.xul");
/* Multi-Row Bookmarks Toolbar */
#PersonalToolbar {
/* Provide room for up to 4 rows at 26px */
max-height: 104px !important;
}
#PlacesToolbarItems > box {
display: inline-block !important;
}
#PersonalToolbar #PlacesToolbarItems {
/* Override hiding */
overflow-x: visible !important;
overflow-y: visible !important;
/* Add a little cushion */
padding-bottom: 1px;
}
#PersonalToolbar #PlacesToolbarItems .bookmark-item {
/* Reduce padding on individual bookmarks to fit rows closer together */
padding-top: 1px !important;
padding-bottom: 1px !important;
} |
But it doesn't work. I tried some other different and simple adjustments and they didn't work either.
It's like the file doesn't get loaded at all or gets blocked.
Yes, i restarted FF several times already and the file is in the correct folder \<profile>\chrome\
// Actually the file gets read, tried it again with a very simple change to tab text-color.
Though not the above script. 
Enthoo Evolv ATX TG // Asus Prime x370 // Ryzen 1700 // Gainward GTX 1080 // 16GB DDR4-3200
Last edited by Bob Barnsen on Wed, 15th Nov 2017 22:07; edited 1 time in total
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| Posted: Wed, 15th Nov 2017 21:43 Post subject: |
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I had long delays with tlc-handshake with previous version, it's better after the update but still not as good as a month ago.
Tried few things to fix it but all didn't help and i don't have it when i use chrome.
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| Posted: Thu, 16th Nov 2017 03:52 Post subject: |
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| Posted: Thu, 16th Nov 2017 20:20 Post subject: ***** |
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*****
Last edited by Areius on Fri, 19th Sep 2025 16:23; edited 1 time in total
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Nui
VIP Member
Posts: 5720
Location: in a place with fluffy towels
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| Posted: Sun, 3rd Dec 2017 10:35 Post subject: ***** |
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*****
Last edited by Areius on Fri, 19th Sep 2025 16:23; edited 1 time in total
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3E74
Posts: 2559
Location: feels wrong
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| Posted: Sun, 17th Dec 2017 13:55 Post subject: |
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| Quote: |
Firefox is on a slippery slope
Published 2017-12-16 on Drew DeVault's blog — Permalink
For a long time, it was just setting the default search provider to Google in exchange for a beefy stipend. Later, paid links in your new tab page were added. Then, a proprietary service, Pocket, was bundled into the browser - not as an addon, but a hardcoded feature. In the past few days, we’ve discovered an advertisement in the form of browser extension was sideloaded into user browsers. Whoever is leading these decisions at Mozilla needs to be stopped.
Here’s a breakdown of what happened a few days ago. Mozilla and NBC Universal did a “collaboration” (read: promotion) for the TV show Mr. Robot. It involved sideloading a sketchy browser extension which will invert text that matches a list of Mr. Robot-related keywords like “fsociety”, “robot”, “undo”, and “fuck”, and does a number of other things like adding an HTTP header to certain sites you visit.
This extension was sideloaded into browsers via the “experiments” feature. Not only are these experiments enabled by default, but updates have been known to re-enable it if you turn it off. The advertisement addon shows up like this on your addon page, and was added to Firefox stable. If I saw this before I knew what was going on, I would think my browser was compromised! Apparently it was a mistake that this showed up on the addon page, though - it was supposed to be silently sideloaded into your browser!
There’s a ticket on Bugzilla (Firefox’s bug tracker) for discussing this experiment, but it’s locked down and no one outside of Mozilla can see it. There’s another ticket, filed by concerned users, which has since been disabled and had many comments removed, particularly the angry (but respectful) ones.
Mozilla, this is not okay. This is wrong on so many levels. Frankly, whoever was in charge should be fired over this - which is not something I call for lightly.
First of all, web browsers are a tool. I don’t want my browser to fool around, I just want it to display websites faithfully. This is the prime directive of web browsers, and you broke that. When I compile vim with gcc, I don’t want gcc to make vim sporadically add “fsociety” into every document I write. I want it to compile vim and go away.
More importantly, these advertising anti-features gravely - perhaps terminally - violate user trust. This event tells us that “Firefox studies” into a backdoor for advertisements, and I will never trust it again. But it doesn’t matter - you’re going to re-enable it on the next update. You know what that means? I will never trust Firefox again. I switched to qutebrowser as my daily driver because this crap was starting to add up, but I still used Firefox from time to time and never resigned from it entirely or stopped recommending it to friends. Well, whatever goodwill was left is gone now, and I will only recommend other browsers henceforth.
Mozilla, you fucked up bad, and you still haven’t apologised. The study is still active and ongoing. There is no amount of money that you should have accepted for this. This is the last straw - and I took a lot of straws from you. Goodbye forever, Mozilla.
Update
It has been clarified that an about:config flag must be set for this addon’s behavior to be visible. This improves the situation considerably, but I do not think it exenorates Mozilla and I stand firm behind most of my points. The study has also been rolled back by Mozilla, and Mozilla has issued statements to the media justifying the study (no apology has been issued). |
https://drewdevault.com/2017/12/16/Firefox-is-on-a-slippery-slope.html
UPDATE:
| Quote: |
Mozilla backpedals after Mr. Robot-Firefox misstep
The privacy-promoting nonprofit says mea culpa after distributing an extension to its Firefox browser that made people worry they'd been hacked.
It sounded like a good idea at Mozilla -- promote computer security and privacy awareness using a tie-in with an online game from the popular Mr. Robot hacker TV series. But almost immediately, the plan started backfiring.
On Wednesday, Firefox users started complaining that a cryptic extension had been installed in their browser with no explicit permission or explanation of what it does -- only a description that read "MY REALITY IS DIFFERENT THAN YOURS." People ripped into Mozilla in a Reddit discussion after one Firefox user fretted, "I have no idea what it is or where it came from. I freaked out a bit and uninstalled it immediately."
Mozilla had installed the Looking Glass extension remotely on their machines this week through a partnership with Mr. Robot, but it stopped doing so when people started giving them an earful, the nonprofit organization said.
"Suffice to say, we've learned a good deal in the last 24 hours ... Although we always have the best intentions, not everything that we try works as we want," said Jascha Kaykas-Wolff, Mozilla's chief marketing officer. "Within hours of receiving feedback," Mozilla moved Looking Glass to its Firefox add-on store, where people will be able to get it if they want it as it becomes available this weekend.
The issue shows just how much control outside organizations have over our computing hardware and software -- even well-meaning organizations devoted to online privacy and to making us all "empowered, safe and independent."
"Mozilla should have known better," said computer security and privacy researcher Bruce Schneier.
Like Apple's U2 moment
Schneier likened the situation to Apple sending iPhone users U2 music even if they hadn't asked for it and Amazon remotely removing a copy of George Orwell's "1984" from people's Kindle e-book readers. "These companies have control, and you don't," Schneier said. "They can do things against your interest all the time."
To check to see if you got the extension, type "about:addons" into Firefox's address bar; then click "extensions" on the left side of the page. If "Looking Glass" is there, you can click the "remove" button.
The faux pas comes at a bad time. With its new Quantum version of Firefox years in the making and released a month ago, Mozilla is trying to win back users from Chrome with faster performance and software that's designed to benefit you, not a powerful corporation. It's also jabbing Google with an ad campaign that says, "Big browser is watching you."
But the Mr. Robot extension damaged trust for some. "I switched back to Mozilla about a month ago when Quantum came out, and this is just frustrating," said one Redditor. "Are you guys trying to make me switch back to Chrome?" asked another. "Right as they pulled me in with that 'we respect your privacy' sweet talk," complained a third.
Remote installation
To install the extension, Mozilla had used a tool that lets it test Firefox features. Several on the Reddit discussion said they're disabling that ability, another sign of damaged trust.
"In the past I was fine with Mozilla's approach to telemetry and studies, making my browser available for occasional testing/experimenting/data collection to track down bugs or measure improvements or whatever is fine," a Redditor said. "This is not doing any of those things. This is an advertisement. This is an abuse of the telemetry and shield studies program. If I cannot trust Mozilla to use these tools responsibly I will have to disable them and recommend my friends and co-workers do the same."
Mozilla distributed the extension only to people in the United States, the organization said, adding that it checked the extension to make sure it didn't collect any user data.
Mozilla wasn't paid for the Mr. Robot tie-in, Kaykas-Wolff said. "We've enjoyed a growing partnership with the show and the show's audience," he said.
The extension was part of a Mr. Robot alternate-reality game that offers players clues and puzzles. "We've found the audience of the show and our users have many points of alignment. This was not a paid promotion but rather a collaboration that was intended to be fun." |
--> https://www.cnet.com/news/mozilla-backpedals-after-mr-robot-firefox-misstep/
lol
https://twitter.com/steveklabnik/status/941709048529014784
..:: Life - A sexually transmitted disease which always ends in death. There is currently no known cure::.. |
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JBeckman
VIP Member
Posts: 35031
Location: Sweden
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