Firefox 126: New Search Data Telemetry, Improved Copy Without Site Tracking, Security Fixes, and More
Firefox 126: New Search Data Telemetry, Improved Copy Without Site Tracking, Security Fixes, and More
Telemetry was added to create an aggregate count of searches by category to broadly inform search feature development. These categories are based on 20 high-level content types, such as "sports,” "business," and "travel". This data will not be associated with specific users and will be collected using OHTTP to remove IP addresses as potentially identifying metadata. No profiling will be performed, and no data will be shared with third parties. (read more)
The Copy Without Site Tracking option can now remove parameters from nested URLs. It also includes expanded support for blocking over 300 tracking parameters from copied links, including those from major shopping websites. Keep those trackers away when sharing links!
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This is great, definitely what was needed in a HTTP client. Here is how to disable this (yet another) fucking stupid decision that took time and money to develop: https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/share-data-mozilla-help-improve-firefox
Thanks Mozilla!
For anyone wondering, it's controlled by the existing top-level Send Technical And Interaction Data toggle in the privacy menu that's been there for ages, so most users who care about privacy have probably already opted out.
Collecting usage data and "running some occasional studies" should never be "opt out", always "opt in".
I hate to be that guy, but it's an optional thing. Voluntary analytics are fine. You opt in/out, and that's the way it should be.
Seriously, it's about choice. It's not about there never, ever being any information sent back.
If it's optional it should be disabled by default. 99% of people aren't going to even know this is a setting or something that's going on behind the scenes
Telemetry is important for prioritizing feature development and support for the silent majority of users that don't disable it and then complain about ALSA support being dropped.
Why do you need search category data to develop a browser?
The update has more details
https://blog.mozilla.org/products/firefox/firefox-search-update
It's to help improve address search bar suggestions
There are ways to prioritise feature development that don't involve telemetry and I'd even say they are better than telemetry. For instance, surveys, user interviews, usability tests and that sort of thing.
Opting-out is not optional and is the opposite of private.
Being real here? Anyone that can't see the damn button for it during initial setup isn't going to give a damn.
Best practices? No. Opt in only should be the default. But that's still about choice, not whether or not telemetry is inherently a bad thing. But if someone is too damn lazy to look at the settings of a program when they first use it, that's pretty damn stupid. But, hey, people in general are stupid.
There's no "initial button". Installing Firefox on mobile you'll have technical data collection, marketing (with a third party) data collection, and "random studies" enabled without a clue. As someone that is very wary of this, I can assure you that at no point I was asked anything about sending data to "Adjust" (marketing partner), Mozilla, or allowing random, unknown at the time, studies.
I'm fine with some basic telemetry about how fast the browser runs, but tracking my searches is creepy.
So, is it disabled via
- toolkit.telemetry.enabled
- datareporting.policy.dataSubmissionEnabled
- datareporting.healthreport.service.enabled
- datareporting.healthreport.upload.enabled
- app.shield.optoutstudies.enabled
- app.normandy.enabled
- app.normandy.optoutstudies.enabled
Or all of them?
Edit: the app.* settings are for "studies", unrelated.