Privacy News Firefox tracks you with “privacy preserving” feature

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Content source

https://noyb.eu/en/firefox-tracks-you-privacy-preserving-feature

Today, noyb filed a complaint against Mozilla for quietly enabling a supposed “privacy feature” (called Privacy Preserving Attribution) in its Firefox browser. Contrary to its reassuring name, this technology allows Firefox to track user behaviour on websites. In essence, the browser is now controlling the tracking, rather than individual websites. While this might be an improvement compared to even more invasive cookie tracking, the company never asked its users if they wanted to enable it. Instead, Mozilla decided to turn it on by default once people installed a recent software update. This is particularly worrying because Mozilla generally has a reputation for being a privacy-friendly alternative when most other browsers are based on Google’s Chromium.

Firefox tracks you with “privacy preserving” feature

noyb filed a complaint against Mozilla for quietly enabling a supposed “privacy feature” (called Privacy Preserving Attribution) in its Firefox browser which tracks user behaviour on websites.

noyb.eu

 

[Morro]

Should we / can we disable it in Firefox, and if so how?

 

[Kuttz]

Should we / can we disable it in Firefox, and if so how?

This is it seems.

 

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In today's world, nothing is free.
I think Open-source software should be used.
And the further away from big networks the better.

 

[Captain Awesome]

In today's world, nothing is free.
I think Open-source software should be used.
And the further away from big networks the better.

Cromite browser is good one.

 

[Morro]

This is it seems.

View attachment 285592

Thank you very much Kuttz.

 

[Marko :)]

This is very much the old news. And Mozilla confirmed it is disabled automatically if you opt-out of Firefox's data collection program.

 

[Morro]

This is very much the old news. And Mozilla confirmed it is disabled automatically if you opt-out of Firefox's data collection program.

But still, it is a sneaky thing from Mozilla.

 

[Marko :)]

But still, it is a sneaky thing from Mozilla.

It is, without any doubt. They pretty much quietly announced this in that version's release notes and even though I read them, I missed that part. Honestly, I was a bit surprised when I stumbled upon that in settings.

 

[brambedkar59]

The current implementation of PPA in Firefox is a prototype, designed to validate the concept and inform ongoing standards work at the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C). This limited rollout is necessary to test the system under real-world conditions and gather valuable feedback.

The prototype is enabled with an Origin Trial — which prevents the API from being exposed in any form to any website unless it’s specifically allowed by Mozilla. For the initial test, the only allowed sites are operated by Mozilla – specifically ads for Mozilla VPN displayed on Mozilla Developer Network (MDN). We chose this approach to ensure sufficient participation to evaluate the system’s performance and privacy protections while ensuring that it is tested in tightly-controlled conditions.

Privacy-Preserving Attribution: Testing for a New Era of Privacy in Digital Advertising – Open Policy & Advocacy

An update on Mozilla's PPA experiment and how it protects user privacy while testing cutting edge technologies to improve the open web.

blog.mozilla.org

 

[Dark Knight]

But still, it is a sneaky thing from Mozilla.

Microsoft has done FAR worse in the past and the present.
How many Windows 11 systems are running the Microsoft malware called Recall that you are unable to uninstall at this present time?

This was nothing compared to how MS crams crap down your throat.

 

[SpiderWeb]

First Chrome tried it. Then Safari. Now Firefox. Disable disable disable. There is nothing "privacy preserving" about this feature. Trackers and ad companies can still deanonymize you with that data just by adding their own data points and correlating the data.

 

[Morro]

Microsoft has done FAR worse in the past and the present.
How many Windows 11 systems are running the Microsoft malware called Recall that you are unable to uninstall at this present time?

This was nothing compared to how MS crams crap down your throat.

That I will not deny, they are far worse.

 

[TuxTalk]

Also enabled in the Linux version, disabled it already.

 

[Sorrento]

Mine was already greyed out on off.

 

[simmerskool]

Also enabled in the Linux version, disabled it already.

already disabled on my linux firefox -- I must have disabled day1 or in my sleep... or MX disabled it preinstallation... or...

 

[Spiff]

Mine was already greyed out on off.

already disabled on my linux firefox -- I must have disabled day1 or in my sleep... or MX disabled it preinstallation... or...

Firefox "Website Advertising Preferences" is disabled and greyed out if you disabled "Firefox Data Collection and Use", as Marko :) said.

it is disabled automatically if you opt-out of Firefox's data collection program.

 

[Marko :)]

Microsoft has done FAR worse in the past and the present.

Just because Google and Microsoft spy on us, doesn't really mean Mozilla should also do the same. Even though they did this and they had more controversies before, I still trust Mozilla. Simply because all browser vendors, at some point, caused a controversy.

Remember Brave? Silently installing their paid VPN service along the browser and kept it running in the background? Rewriting URLs of websites to include their own referral links? Chrome had huge number of these and it would take too much time to mentioned them all. Safari isn't any better.

This was nothing compared to how MS crams crap down your throat.

Not many. So far, Microsoft said Recall will only be available on ARM PCs, and not on x86 we're all using now. These ARM PCs are expensive for now because it's new technology for PCs and there aren't many of right now.

This was nothing compared to how MS crams crap down your throat.

The problem I have with Microsoft, they never give you options to disable their annoying features that no one uses. They also aren't really honest about them either. And they keep adding new features they'll remove after few months because apparently, majority of people don't need it. Ever since Windows 11 was released, people are asking Microsoft to allow us to disable recommended section in the Start Menu. And finally they allowed... well, enterprise users to do that (which doesn't make any sense), but not us home users.

Microsoft is such a disgrace of a company.

 

[Morro]

Just because Google and Microsoft spy on us, doesn't really mean Mozilla should also do the same. Even though they did this and they had more controversies before, I still trust Mozilla. Simply because all browser vendors, at some point, caused a controversy.

Remember Brave? Silently installing their paid VPN service along the browser and kept it running in the background? Rewriting URLs of websites to include their own referral links? Chrome had huge number of these and it would take too much time to mentioned them all. Safari isn't any better.

Yes, I remember and nowadays, Brave is my main browser. I am not saying that I removed Firefox, it is just disappointing that they did that.