@cuchaz
Okay, it looks like I'm staying on FF 118.2.0 on my Android and Windows devices — the last release to have a preference to disable WebP support, and on 124 on my Linux boxes — on which I could patch the option to disable WebP back in and build it myself, building FF for Android and Windows seems like going into too much trouble.
After 124 my userChrome.css hacks started breaking and I stopped updating — now I see that it's not even worth it. Thanks for bringing this to attention!

@cuchaz Do you know which about:config setting this is?

@cuchaz

Jeff - thank you !!

If I may, as a non tech person, a guide to how to fill out all the other check boxes in privacy section of settings

for me, and I am sure most non tech people, the language and choices in settings are at best confusing and at worst opaque and totally un understandable

again, thanks

@cuchaz Gonna add that config setting to my user.js file. Thanks!

@cuchaz I just know an org has my best interests at heart when they call selling my data to the highest bidder "privacy-preserving". Guess it's time to make my own browser, with blackjack and

@cuchaz
Thanks for the warning. :blobcat_owo:

Wasn't expecting this junk from Firefox, but I guess everyone has a price.

@cuchaz

Do you know where it is, in the android app?

@cuchaz How does this compare to that google scheme to put FloC in chrome?

I don't have that setting, (ff128, distro package) but I disabled it in about:config.

@cuchaz Also please see my post on this subject: https://toot.community/@JenMorency/112759037403600593

@cuchaz surely “opt-in by default” just means opt-out?

@cuchaz Thanks for the info.

@cuchaz I feel like I'm missing important discourse, a joke, or both.

Is this tracking tool on by default? If so, why call it "opt in by default" rather than "opt out"?

@cuchaz do you know what URL it’s posting the telemetry to?

@cuchaz

Very much thanks for the heads-up.

@cuchaz we expected such a built-in ads feature in chrome, but having it in firefox first is just awful.

@cuchaz what an incredible coincidence that this happened right after Mozilla acquired an adtech company!!

@cuchaz

the need to

1. know this stuff is in there

2. do techie stuff like about:config

is a deliberate design decision that is user-hostile.

@cuchaz @pauho this is a feature already in Safari that’s carefully designed to be a private way to attribute ad clicks without using invasive tracking mechanisms. A lot of work goes into making sure that user information can’t be exfiltrated to keep it completely private.

@cuchaz

Thanks so much, just did this!

@cuchaz
I would highly recommend using Librewolf to prevent future stuff like that.
Librewolf come privacy hardened out of the box and you can uncheck stuff that too constraining.

@cuchaz That's the reason I started using #Vivaldi .
Not bad at all...

@cuchaz You either die a hero, or you live long enough to see yourself become the villain.

@cuchaz Preventing ad companies from tracking each user would be great. The problem is that you need to trust the aggregation service (which doesn't get any personal data, but still gets ad visibility and site conversion data).

@cuchaz seriously, @mozilla , stop fucking around with #Firefox and keep it as secure and clean #Browser...

- I'll continue to spread using @torproject / #TorBrowser as main browser...

@cuchaz
@phpete

Thank you! I also left them feedback on their info page.

Advertisers can get bent because I ad block everything so I never see them anyway.

FYI, it will be interesting to see what they do when they update the iOS version because the settings there are not as extensive as the browser.

@cuchaz More information about the feature and the reasoning behind it: https://blog.mozilla.org/en/mozilla/privacy-preserving-attribution-for-advertising/

@cuchaz Wouldn't be logical that setting my Tracking Protection to STRICT would opt out automatically? C'mon Mozilla this is invasive nonsense!

@cuchaz
Can I say "fuck"? The one time I don't check the release notes and just press Update.. I could've waited some more.

@cuchaz "opt out" for things they should be **asking for permission**, specially if its hidden, is such a nefarious practice.

@cuchaz 😳

@cuchaz I used Firefox for 20 years. Lately it was poop. I had to quit because it kept crashing. Try Waterfox = fast and no crap. Or as you've been told, wait for Ladybird (3 years at least).

@cuchaz

Not finding it in the android version but I'll need check the laptop tomorrow

@cuchaz @mozilla I'm disappointed that this was enabled by default (and added to Firefox at all, really). I also wouldn't have known that such a privacy invasive feature was added/enabled - I don't read every release notes post.

@cuchaz@gladtech.social anyone know how to script ff config changes instead of doing them manually?

@cuchaz

This was expected and inevitable once Mozilla became an advertising company.

https://www.jwz.org/blog/2024/06/mozilla-is-an-advertising-company-now/

#mozilla #firefox #advertising #advertisement #AdTech

@cuchaz Thanks for bringing this to everyone's attention. I might buy that they're trying to learn if there's a less invasive way to get ad performance metrics, but I do not like at all the the web is driven so much by advertising.

So, yep, disabled.

@cuchaz Anything affecting privacy should *ALWAYS* be opt in, not opt out. I get that people get annoyed at things popping up requests to access info (really irritating sometimes in Android with the several things some apps ask for) but it's worth having to keep tapping "allow only this time" and things just shouldn't ask any more than they have to to begin with.

@cuchaz Well that damaged my trust in Firefox a lot! That is the type of descipable behaviour you normally only expect from Chrome or Edge etc.

I've disabled it, but enabling by default is disgraceful.

@cuchaz oh :( this is saddening. thanks for letting me know tho, i would have had zero clue otherwise lol

@cuchaz Tagging this for reference later

@cuchaz There is no privacy, they're all vultures

@cuchaz

Anybody know why typing about:config in the address bar isn't working for me?

Used to work just fine!

Could this possibly be part of the update?

Is there an alternate route?

@cuchaz lost faith when they added Pocket

@cuchaz Since ad servers have to be able to communicate with this feature, I wonder if it's possible to show a post like this to visitors of a site if they haven't disabled the setting. Hmm.

@cuchaz Why is there not an option for this in the usual settings?? Only exposing this through about:config is really not acceptable. Hope some people make a stink...

@LateNightLinux @thelinuxEXP ;)

@cuchaz@gladtech.social do we use Floorp? What's the answer here

@cuchaz Thanks for the about:config reference. I could not find the option in Android Firefox settings, but when checking about:config it exists and was set to true.

@cuchaz Don't get me wrong, I would much better prefer that web ads completely disappear and I block all of them anyway. But there are many people not willing to block ads for some reasons. For them, this is a huge privacy improvement, isn't it?

If Firefox starts to also block classic ads by default and only allow this kind of ads, I would be a supporter, but I would still opt out.

@cuchaz this would be because mozilla bought an ad tech company. an 'ethical' ad tech company, supposedly. https://blog.mozilla.org/en/mozilla/mozilla-anonym-raising-the-bar-for-privacy-preserving-digital-advertising/

@cuchaz Judge companies not by the options to evade ad-tracking; but their defaults

@cuchaz come on @mozilla ..... not good...

@cuchaz is there a setting for this on mobile?

@cuchaz Thx

@cuchaz
Unchecked thanks

@cuchaz yeah but they did have a deal with Google to be the default search engine that funded, I think, a majority of their staff. I use it too because I respect it. They should, ethically, put some pop-ups and opt out by default behavior. They're still not as bad as most. Sigh....

@cuchaz No, Firefox does NOT send the report back

Firefox creates a report based on what the website asks, but does not give the result to the website. Instead, FF encrypts the report and anonymously submits it using the Distributed Aggregation Protocol to an “aggregation service”.

Your results are combined with many similar reports by the aggregation service. The destination website periodically receives a summary of the reports. The summary includes noise that provides differential privacy.

@cuchaz I'm biased, so take this with a hefty handful of salt...

Advertisers *really* want data and despite it becoming ever more difficult to lawfully obtain data, the big brands are generally still satisfied with the volume and quality of the data they are collecting.

There is a real apocalypse moment approaching when 3rd-party cookies are killed in Chrome.

Google are *really* pushing for Enhanced Conversions, which is passing (hashed) PII to ther platforms (Google Ads, DV360...

@cuchaz Since about config is disabled on Firefox mobile, can this be disabled there, or is it even present?

@cuchaz Yet another reason why I'm happy that I switched to the LibreWolf fork as my main browser a while ago.
https://librewolf.net/

@cuchaz Thanks for the heads up!

@cuchaz Super important discussion. Honest question, though: In what ways is this a bad compromise between privacy and ad-tech? Assuming absolute privacy will not be a tenable outcome for the majority of regular users, due to the immense commercial incentive for the adtech industry, how would a better solution look?

@cuchaz I assume this is just another revenue stream for Mozilla.

@cuchaz @librewolf

@cuchaz thanks for the heads up, can't see this on Android Firefox 128 but may be missing it in the settings.

@cuchaz Thanks for this. It being inside actual GUI and not mentioned at all is just baffling. I didn't even spot it because I don't go into settings daily.

@cuchaz@gladtech.social I think that is a bit misleading, firefox does not track you in general, this is only about tracking how well an ad performed

@cuchaz I will look around for another browser. I don't like this way of doing things.

@cuchaz Thanks for the headsup. I just turned this off.

@cuchaz I didn't read the article to find out details but that sounds awfully similar to Chrome's replacement for cross site cookies! I had issues with Mozillla for a long time but it's always sad to see them do even more stupid garbage especially because there isn't really any proper alternative!

@cuchaz Thanks for the heads up

@cuchaz Any opinions on Vivaldi as a replacent for Firefox?

@cuchaz i buy the mozilla internally compromised argument now @hipsterelectron

@cuchaz any idea how many bits of fingerprinting disabling that shit will cause?
Because it sounds like a case of bad, or worse.

@cuchaz@gladtech.social is it possible to turn it off in Firefox mobile?

@cuchaz
Glad I spodded this. Much appreciated, thanks.😃
Have also noticed that FF had switched it's, "Allow Firefox to send technical and interaction data to Mozilla" and, "Allow Firefox to install and run studies" back on.🤬

@cuchaz @keesjanb that sounds about the same as Google does.. They also want to 'protect you' from harm from others. 🙈🙈

But it is complicated.. This is Duckduckgo:
(https://duckduckgo.com/duckduckgo-help-pages/company/advertise-on-duckduckgo-search/)

@cuchaz https://mastodon.ar.al/@aral/107070299249803289

@cuchaz@gladtech.social interestingly, the flag was indeed set to true in about:config, but the supposed option in settings->privacy... was not there. Am I misreading? Or is just not actually able to disabled while they're in "limited test mode"?

@cuchaz Thanks for the heads up, groovey (not).

@cuchaz I have 129 beta 2 for Android and I can't find that setting anywhere in the menu, but it is hiding in about:config.

@cuchaz Why does Firefox add the same evil thing google did. Thanks for warning. Need to turn it off straight away.

@cuchaz Thanks for the warning.

Settings changed. :)