In a swipe at Chrome, Firefox now blocks ad trackers by default(wired.co.uk)
wired.co.uk
In a swipe at Chrome, Firefox now blocks ad trackers by default
https://www.wired.co.uk/article/firefox-browser-cookie-blocking-default
420 comments
> The block might appeal to users, but is potentially worrying to publishers
Yes, let's have pity on these poor publishers who are relentless infiltrating and measuring our online lives so they can squeeze a few more bucks out of the data grab.
Trackers have gotten insidious. I have privacy badger and on one particular news site there were 36 distinct trackers. And somehow they're still getting around the blockers because I'm getting ads and suggestions correlating to some activity I did on a completely different device.
This business model is toxic and I really hope all the companies using it either pivot or go bankrupt.
Yes, let's have pity on these poor publishers who are relentless infiltrating and measuring our online lives so they can squeeze a few more bucks out of the data grab.
Trackers have gotten insidious. I have privacy badger and on one particular news site there were 36 distinct trackers. And somehow they're still getting around the blockers because I'm getting ads and suggestions correlating to some activity I did on a completely different device.
This business model is toxic and I really hope all the companies using it either pivot or go bankrupt.
Started using Firefox half a year ago because of a single plugin: TreeStyleTab - which lets you keep a tree of your tabs in a sidebar on the left (I tend to keep a hundred or so open all the time). I have no idea how I've lived without it for so long...
Since then, Firefox has been gaining some momentum + performance and add tracking, surely not planning to switch back to Chrome/Safari anytime soon.
Since then, Firefox has been gaining some momentum + performance and add tracking, surely not planning to switch back to Chrome/Safari anytime soon.
Switched to Firefox a few months back. Havn’t missed Chrome at all
Already lot of sites are not tested on Firefox and many explicitly so [1]. Now the web publishers that rely on ads will have less incentive to support Firefox. They might even actively promote other browsers. Similar to how IE was discouraged by websites explicitly.
"This site works best on Chrome" is only what is needed now to reduce the Firefox userbase further.
Note - This comment was typed on firefox.
[1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17363721
"This site works best on Chrome" is only what is needed now to reduce the Firefox userbase further.
Note - This comment was typed on firefox.
[1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17363721
Serious question. Say I have a site and I want to track users. Do I have to just do this via my own HTTP logs now if I want this working with Firefox? I mean this is how it was done in the bad old days.
I have no nefarious intent. I just need to figure out what features my users are using so I can fix them if they're broken.
It would be nice to possibly get some sort of explicit opt-in from Firefox.
I guess one workaround I could have is to call the analytics APIs on my server directly...
Talking to our users their main complaint isn't necessarily that I'm tracking them more that the data is going to Google so maybe the solution is to run mixpanel.
I have no nefarious intent. I just need to figure out what features my users are using so I can fix them if they're broken.
It would be nice to possibly get some sort of explicit opt-in from Firefox.
I guess one workaround I could have is to call the analytics APIs on my server directly...
Talking to our users their main complaint isn't necessarily that I'm tracking them more that the data is going to Google so maybe the solution is to run mixpanel.
After couple of days with Brave/Chromium testing on my Linux machines, I definitely should say: Firefox is really SLOW, it feels without any benchmarks.
So, Mozilla has two ways:
1. Build a really fast browser. 2. Die as Internet Explorer.
It's realistic way to handle things. People don't care about privacy in general, browser is too complex to build for privacy/security activists only. Time to focus on business instead promoting services like Pocket & including Google analytics in addons page.
Do or die.
So, Mozilla has two ways:
1. Build a really fast browser. 2. Die as Internet Explorer.
It's realistic way to handle things. People don't care about privacy in general, browser is too complex to build for privacy/security activists only. Time to focus on business instead promoting services like Pocket & including Google analytics in addons page.
Do or die.
It's going to be interesting to see where this ends up. Ads are inevitable, and in some ways beneficial to both content providers and consumers (i.e. revenue can be earned from users without any direct payment). But are invasive forms of tracking such as 3rd party cookies really that necessary? Could websites survive using only contextual advertising without the excessive tracking?
Great news though I do think adblocking should be built into the browser, rather than left to extensions and 3rd party services. The internet should be taken back from AdTech agencies (Google, AdBuddy AKA Brave). Maybe add to the rumored premium version something like Nextdns?
Just to be clear, what are we specifically talking about here? Does this mean that `privacy.firstparty.isolate` is now set to true by default?
As I understand it, they do not block the tracking scripts. What they do is that they do not accept their cookies.
This does not change anything for me:
1) I do not keep cookies around anyhow
2) I use umatrix to not run known evil scripts in the first place
I am not sure if it changes anything for the average user either. I would assume ad companies already use fingerprinting?
This does not change anything for me:
1) I do not keep cookies around anyhow
2) I use umatrix to not run known evil scripts in the first place
I am not sure if it changes anything for the average user either. I would assume ad companies already use fingerprinting?
I must be the only person in the world who likes being tracked and getting tailored ads. I've found lots of things I've bought due to ads that were obviously targeted at me specifically.
Why I hate are when sites tether their interactions to their tracking/analytics system... a failure for the analytics script should not prevent pressing 'Login' from working properly. This one is as much on developers as the ad/tracking scripts. When I've worked for public entities, I always went extra to make sure things worked well for users with ads disabled. Even so far as to make sure ad slots didn't even display the placeholders.
Does it block all newish variants of the google analytics snippet?
Not sure how profitable it would be, but if Mozilla created a privacy-focused email client, I would consider leaving the Google ecosystem.
Chromium monoculture is bad, therefore use Firefox. That's pretty much all there really is to it. Everything else is a distraction.
Just installed version 69 on my Thinkpad T540p with Debian 9.9.
I'm going back to Chrome. Firefox still lags on my machine after all these years. Even with a single tab and on their own initial launch page, scrolling performed a "caterpillar" effect where only the top half scrolled, and the bottom half jumped to catch up a split second later
I'm going back to Chrome. Firefox still lags on my machine after all these years. Even with a single tab and on their own initial launch page, scrolling performed a "caterpillar" effect where only the top half scrolled, and the bottom half jumped to catch up a split second later
Won't publishers just outright block Firefox from displaying their websites and suggests chrome or others for "enhanced and better experience" ?
Firefox has a market share small enough that publishers and the ad industry could try to just reduce ff usage with a coordinated campaign.
Firefox has a market share small enough that publishers and the ad industry could try to just reduce ff usage with a coordinated campaign.
Call me cynic and selfish, but I kinda like when people who don't care about their privacy essentially subsidise my browsing on websites that track their users. Now they will have even bigger incentive to invent new tracking mechanism.
I would love to if FF could handle Amazon.com without boiling my MBP2013. Is it a bug in FF or just Amazon did not care to optimize their shit?
Is there a way to figure out the performance's origin in FF somehow?
Is there a way to figure out the performance's origin in FF somehow?
i really wanted to use Firefox, so I switched recently. It lasted about 3 hours. Every time I tried to Google something I got a warning that Google was a dangerous site because of their self-signed certificate (seriously? Google should be on the list of trusted certificate signers, no matter what you think of their business model).
Then it asked if I wanted to trust them. I answered yes, repeatedly, yet the error message reappeared over and over again. (really bad). I gave up.
A little more competence and I'm on board.
Then it asked if I wanted to trust them. I answered yes, repeatedly, yet the error message reappeared over and over again. (really bad). I gave up.
A little more competence and I'm on board.
Relevant HN thread from yesterday:
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20866084
Is the ad tracking also blockad in Firefox mobile?
In a swipe at its users, Chrome doesn't.
these tracking scripts are essentially malware, maybe browser vendors could store hashes of these scripts in the same way an antivirus stores hashes of viruses.
Then block the scripts, do a daily update of the latest hashes as they appear. Include an option for expert users to report new scripts.
Then block the scripts, do a daily update of the latest hashes as they appear. Include an option for expert users to report new scripts.
A big reason why I stick with Chrome is because Firefox's menu pisses me off how it's this popup box with huge icon rather than Chrome's more traditional list of text. Sounds stupid, but that's a big enough reason for me.
I don’t believe any of it will help.
https://twitter.com/Shadow0pz/status/1168284101675298816
https://twitter.com/Shadow0pz/status/1168284101675298816
So...when is FF going to get proper site isolation?
Let's see whether Google pays less now to be the default search engine in Firefox.
1. Evangelize Firefox to people you know any chance you get and show them all the reasons why its better than Chrome (focus on privacy as an important point). Show them how great browsing can be with a few key extensions (like uBlock Origin, Containers, Privacy Possum, etc.). This does not imply that Mozilla is beyond criticism or that Firefox should not be held to a higher standard.
2. If you can, donate money to Mozilla regularly. [1] As of a couple of years ago (IIRC), more than 90% of Mozilla's revenue was from its partnership with Google for being the default search engine in many geographies. As long as this remains true, Google will only tolerate Firefox being a viable competitor while Firefox still remains as small to moderately sized competition (to avoid antitrust action). If/when Firefox gains a much larger piece of the market, Google will (as it has been doing all these years) even more forcefully use its money and marketing muscle on all its properties as well as add more tiny annoyances on its properties to make Firefox seem buggy citing tangential things like "web standards" or "pushing the web forward" and other euphemisms that companies like Google use to crush competition.
IMO, there needs to be a lot more individual funding of Mozilla while keeping it accountable to users and as per its own manifesto. The level of competition among browsers right now leaves us all vulnerable.
Edit: After seeing a reply to this comment, I did a quick search and found that donating money to Mozilla means donating to the Mozilla Foundation, and that the money may not go to funding Firefox development, which is part of Mozilla Corporation. See this discussion from December 2018 on reddit. [2] It may be desirable for at least part of the donation (as decided by Mozilla Corporation) to go to Firefox development. Does it already happen that way or is there a way to get this result, like in the case of Mozilla Thunderbird where donations go to that project (alone)?
[1]: https://donate.mozilla.org
[2]: https://www.reddit.com/r/firefox/comments/a98gmi/donations_t...