Importantly, if you have already opted out of sending data to Mozilla, this change will not affect you. It only sends data if you have the setting turned on. It takes just a few clicks to entirely disable it, and Mozilla deletes all record of your browser within 30 days from turning off this feature. If you’re worried about it, do it now, it’s just under Settings > Privacy & Security. Instructions are also linked in the blog post.
I’m not a fan of the telemetry being enabled by default but having the option to completely disable it makes it not that bad. Though Mozilla definitely doesn’t need search history data (unless the law enforcements told them to collect it) so this change is kinda sus
It seems like a profit-driven thing to me. Big piles of anonymized data are worth a pretty penny.
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Mozilla Foundation has a wholly owned subsidiary that is Mozilla Corporation that is for-profit.
For instance the revenue from Google, so they’re the default search engine, is seen by Mozilla Corporation. So things search-related will indeed be part of their for-profit arm.
It’s technically for profit, but it has a single shareholder: the Foundation. There are no greedy shareholders that can get rich off of that profit.
Of course, employees/board members can be richly compensated, but that’s independent of for-/non-profit status.
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It’s not a loophole. As a subsidiary, profits are still invested into the nonprofit and they’re still guided by the Mozilla manifesto. It just lets them do more and raise more funds which would be difficult to do with nonprofit status (selling default search engine for instance). Here’s their original press release when they incorporated Mozilla Corporation in 2005.
A non-profit can, in fact, profit, but it has specific rules on what it can do with those profits. Tax law is a rabbit hole and I don’t even wanna peer in
Used to work for a non-profit retirement community in a pretty small area; the guy running the joint lived in a $3M “house” with a full 7 car garage.
Enshitification hits every company, even Mozilla.
Unfortunately Mozilla is being run by a McKinsey consultant.
From what I read in their blog post, nobody is keeping your search history data. It only tracks how often people in general search for things in specific categories, so nobody will be able to learn anything about you specifically from that data.
Then what’s the point in collecting such data? It won’t help to fix bugs, add new features or even make useful statistics to show publicly. Only personalized ads is what comes to mind. Yes it seems to be anonymized well enough but still ad companies love such data. Maybe Mozilla wants to implement a custom ads functionality that uses this data or they just want to sell it idk. Still changes in this direction are kinda sus
I believe there was an experiment making weather data more accessible through the URL bar, e.g. when people start searching for
weatherthere, which could be useful. Presumably, telemetry like this can help determine which of such features to prioritise.I could indeed also imagine ads, but then not based on keeping a file on you with all your interests and sharing that with advertisers, but by locally choosing between a couple of categories of ads and showing the ones that are related to your current search, without anyone having to know what you’re actually searching for.
First thing I do on every Firefox installation on every device. 3 clicks and most of this nonsense stops.
I’d appreciate Mozilla not doing something like that in the first place, maybe don’t try to build products and focus on the browser. 🤷♂️
I’d just like for these things to be opt-in, not opt-out.
I’m on the “OK but keep an eye on it” train, here.
Devs need feedback to know how people are using the product, and opt-out tracking is the best way to do it. In this case, it seems like my personal data is completely unidentifiable.
I was coding in the IE6 era, so I’d really prefer to not end up in a browser engine monoculture again.
I don’t need freaking suggestions from the browser, that’s the job of the search engine of my choice.
most search engines don’t keep anonymous search data so that’s what firefox is trying to fix.
You’re right, i tend to forget the majority uses Google as the default
I want freaking suggestions from the browser though, in a way that respects my privacy
Maybe switch to a search engine respecting it.
I use Kagi and DuckDuckGo, but some users may still be on Google.
So you gain nothing.
I like that the option is there, don’t be an elitist.
To disable it in about:config
browser.search.serpEventTelemetry.enabled = falsebrowser.search.serpEventTelemetryCategorization.enabled = falselike and subscribe!
Its exactly this kind of bullshit that firefox should not do…
This looks fine, the browser just puts your search into a category like “health” or “tech”, then sends the amount of each category completely anonymously.
Also, if you’ve opted out of data collection already that setting applies to this too.
I agree. I am someone who values their privacy and often does not like opt-out style analytics however I also know opt-in skews analytics. The way the searches are only categorized, and they are using Oblivious HTTP keeping IP addresses private makes me A-OK with this.
This is the best take so far, I totally agree
i know they’re a company and they need to float, but this should be opt in not opt out
Yes but we really should be grateful to have a somewhat mainstream open-source browser with a great ecosystem of extensions and ability to turn off the telemetry. It could’ve been much worse
We should really be grateful Google is providing a mainstream opensource browser with a great ecosystem of extensions
I see no problem with this logic.
Chromium is pretty good too but usually it’s not recommended to support because nobody wants its engine to become an absolute monopoly and make all major websites in the world broken on any other one. Though nobody wants Firefox’s engine to become an absolute monopoly too so it’s nice that Chromium exists
Opt-in telemetry is useless telemetry, they make it opt-out because its the only way to get representative numbers
Why do you need unwilling representing numbers in the first place? Just ask advanced users on the official forum about what they want to see added. You only really need error logs that are absolutely opt-in
“advanced users” on forums are rarely very representive of users as a whole.
The number of people who actually change their default settings is quite small. Those of us who have these discussions are a distinct minority in the sum userbase.
I used this fact a lot in arguments and I agree. What I’m saying is that it could be worse
And I agree with you.
I have not seen a single case where advanced users have the same opinions as the average one
All we want is 1990s Google, guys. That’s really all we want. None of this AI BS that kind find a country in Africa that starts with a K, just Google without the evil enshitification layer on top.
I think people forget how awful google pre ~2008 was. Not in terms of the bullshit they do nowadays, just in quality of results really.
Huh. I used it pretty much since the start and I certainly don’t recall it being that bad? Like you got a lot of relevant content up front usually.
I feel like you had to learn how to use it, operators and phrasing etc. They dumbed it down with search suggestions and even further by changing search terms to synonyms, and now outright ignoring terms. Height of Internet search was definitely pre 2008. More like 2005.
If you had the right query, yes. But getting there if you didn’t know the exact words in the website used to take a number of attempts and google-fu. By early 2010s this was vastly improved.
I switched from Alta Vista at Google in the early 2000s because the Alta Vista index was stale and full of spam. Google search tools were comparatively primitive (av let you do things like word stem search) but the results were really good.
Remember, you can always opt out of sending any technical or usage data to Firefox. Here’s a step-by-step guide on how to adjust your settings. We also don’t collect category data when you use Private Browsing mode on Firefox.
firefox develops an optional predictive search feature like every other search engine and browser has that actually protects user privacy that can easily be turned off so naturally the internet loses their mind over it and declares firefox dead.
don’t worry, it’s balanced out by the every other day threads of firefox shills screeching about how much more private it is and how it uses so much less ram.
people never want to admit that things aren’t black and white.
As much as I hate to say it, Firefox is a privacy mess.
Pocket and Fakespot have very bad privacy policies. The Windows version has a unique Mozilla tracker if you download the installer from the website, and the android version has Google Analytics built in. The existing and new telemetry is a but heavy, but it’s anonymised so it’s really the lesser of the various evils.
My recommendation is LibreWolf & Fennec as alternatives.
The important part that you should know (and should already be using):
Remember, you can always opt out of sending any technical or usage data to Firefox. Here’s a step-by-step guide on how to adjust your settings.
sigh
Innovation and privacy go hand in hand here at Mozilla
As well as profits and corporate interests.
People speak very good thing about Firefox but they like to hide and avoid the shady stuff. Let me give you the un-cesored version of what Firefox really is. Firefox is better than most, no double there, but at the same time they do have some shady finances and they also do stuff like adding unique IDs to each installation.
Firefox does is a LOT of calling home. Just fire Wireshark alongside it and see how much calling home and even calling 3rd parties it does. From basic ocsp requests to calling Firefox servers and a 3rd party company that does analytics they do it all, even after disabling most stuff in Settings and config like the OP did.
I know other browsers do it as well, except for Ungoogled and because of that I’m sticking with it. I would like to avoid programs that need no snitch whenever I open them. ungoogled-chromium + ublock origin + decentraleyes + clearurls and a few others.
Now you’re free to go ahead and downvote this post as much as you would like. I’m sorry for the trouble and mental break down I may have caused by the sudden realization that Firefox isn’t as good and private after all.
I genuinely didn’t know all that. Thanks for bringing that up. I’ve been lazy and told myself countless times I should switch to LibreWolf. Now’s the time.
clearurls
If you use the “AdGuard URL Tracking Protection” under Privacy in uBlock Origin. Also add Actually Legitimate URL Shortener Tool & ClearURLs for uBo. You don’t need ClearURL.
You can add lists by going to Filter lists -> Import… at the bottom of the page -> C&P the URL in the box -> Apply Changes -> Done.
Interesting… I wasn’t aware of ClearURLs for uBo. How good is that? Does it really filer all tracking elements like clear URLs does?
Based on my experience, yes.
I’ll have to test it. Better to have one less extension.
Decentraleyes is heavily outdated. Use Local CDN instead.
The Arkenfox’s wiki says not to use Local CDN or Decentraleyes.
To improve Firefox based on your needs, understanding how users interact with essential functions like search is key.
Buddy, I just want to type a search term and get results. Stop spying on my search. Your only job is to transfer it to the server and then present the result. I don’t need you to suggest some bullshit to me, or think of “ways to improve search”.
This helps us take a step forward in providing a browsing experience that is more tailored to your needs, without us stepping away from the principles that make us who we are.
No. What the fuck? They are sounding more and more like Google. We need a new alternative that isn’t built from Gecko or Blink or whatever the engines are called.
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Buddy, I just want to type a search term and get results.
Telemetry can help them do better at providing that. Devs aren’t magical beings, they don’t know what’s working and what’s not unless someone tells them.
That’s like saying the window pane between me and the teller has to understand the conversation and dynamically modify the light between him and I. The window pane’s only job is to let light through. Keep it at that.
No, this analogy would make more sense if it was a matter of recording a large number of interactions between customers and tellers to ensure that the window isn’t interfering with their interactions. Is the window the right size? Can the customer and teller hear each other through it? Is that little hole at the bottom large enough to let through the things they need to physically exchange? If you deploy the windows and then never gather any telemetry you have no idea whether it’s working well or if it could be improved.
You’re describing telemetry to improve the overall performance of the window. That’s very different from what Mozilla: listening in to what is sent between the teller and I. They even gave an example of a trip to Spain and recording it as travel. That’s going way beyond the performance of a window. The teller is probably already doing that. The window operator has no business listening in on that discussion nor recording even a summary of details of the discussion.
The analogy isn’t perfect, no analogy ever is.
In this case the content of the search is all that really matters for the quality of the search. What else would you suggest be recorded, the words-per-minute typing speed, the font size? If they want to improve the search system they need to know how it’s working, and that involves recording the searches.
It’s anonymized and you can opt out. Go ahead and opt out. There’ll still be enough telemetry for them to do their work.
Telemetry doesn’t need topic categorization. This is building a dataset for AI.
That would be a terrible AI.
The example of the “search optimization” they want to improve is Firefox Suggest, which has sponsored results which could be promoted (and cost more) based on predictions of interest based on recent trends of topics in your country. “Users in Belgium search for vacations more during X time of day” is exactly the sort of stuff you’d use to make ads more valuable. “Users in France follow a similar pattern, but two weeks later” is even better. Similarly predicting waves of infection based on the rise and fall of “health” searches is useful for public health, but also for pushing or tabling ad campaigns.
Here’s the current list of categories we’re using: animals, arts, autos, business, career, education, fashion, finance, food, government, health, hobbies, home, inconclusive, news, real estate, society, sports, tech and travel.
No pr0n?
Inconclusive = pr0n is probably a pretty reliable mapping.
