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Re:Firefox Focus – A new private browser for iOS and Android by fourthark on Friday August 18, 2017 @05:45PM (#15050003)
Is this FUD or serious? Because they are certainly claiming to be the opposite of that these days.
Re:Firefox Focus – A new private browser for iOS and Android by tylersmith on Friday August 18, 2017 @06:49PM (#15050355)
Mozilla have used various telemetry tools over time to assist with product development. It's possible they're trying to covertly track users but unlikely. It should certainly be known and public but does not necessarily equate to spying.
Re:Firefox Focus – A new private browser for iOS and Android by jasonkostempski on Friday August 18, 2017 @10:17PM (#15051262)
Intent makes absolutely no difference. If an application is sending any information, anywhere that is not controlled by the user, and only the user, even if the user can clearly see all of it, it is, by definition, not private. No matter what Mozilla says, anonymity cannot be guaranteed. If they want feedback, they should ask for permission after a crash is detected locally. It should offer the options "No"; "No, never ask again"; and "Yes, ask again for future errors". It should explicitly not offer "Yes, always send" and "Always send" sure as hell should not be the default in a "private browser". The only way you can truly trust someone is when you don't have to.
Re:Firefox Focus – A new private browser for iOS and Android by jopsen on Friday August 18, 2017 @10:14PM (#15051258)
> It's possible they're trying to covertly track users but unlikely.

No, it's not possible.

Mozilla employees and community members are very talented and capable people, but they are not capable for keeping a nefarious secret :) hehe

Re:Firefox Focus – A new private browser for iOS and Android by bigbugbag on Friday August 18, 2017 @06:12PM (#15050166)
This is simply history.

The proprietary module (now long removed) is among the reasons the iceweasel project was born (not the debian one but the GNU one that has been renamed icecat when debian took over the iceweasel name).

It is a known fact that for years 90% or more of mozilla money came from google in exchange for making its search engine the default including tracking through an additional parameter in the URL.

There is waterfox a project to build a firefox version free of the mozilla tracking and crap: https://www.waterfoxproject.org/

    Disabled Encrypted Media Extensions (EME)
    Disabled Web Runtime (deprecated as of 2015)
    Removed Pocket
    Removed Telemetry
    Removed data collection
    Removed startup profiling
    Allow running of all 64-Bit NPAPI plugins
    Allow running of unsigned extensions
    Removal of Sponsored Tiles on New Tab Page
    Addition of Duplicate Tab option
    Locale selector in about:preferences > General
For the android version, the f-droid page does not exist anymore since firefox has been removed from f-droid, but there the wiki archive I linked earlier: https://f-droid.org/wiki/page/org.mozilla.firefox

There used to be a collection of privacy patches to remove all the tracking, leaking and privacy issues but I can't find it through web search, it seems to have been replaced by https://github.com/williex/firefox-privacy

Mozilla insist it is health report, analytics and telemetry which is marketing words for tracking and spying.

Re:Firefox Focus – A new private browser for iOS and Android by tylersmith on Friday August 18, 2017 @06:52PM (#15050367)
Iceweasel was born out of trademark issues not telemetry.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/GNU_IceCat#history

Re:Firefox Focus – A new private browser for iOS and Android by JadeNB on Friday August 18, 2017 @06:45PM (#15050339)
> The proprietary module (now long removed) is among the reasons the iceweasel project was born (not the debian one but the GNU one that has been renamed icecat when debian took over the iceweasel name).

Do you have a reference for this? The Wiki page, and the project application, seem just to refer to a desire to avoid non-free plug-ins:

> ALL GNUzilla Programs will basically BE Mozilla Source Builds, with the major exception being the implementation of NO proprietary softwares, including plug-ins, according and adhereing to the GPL.

(http://savannah.gnu.org/task/?4529). That's certainly not inconsistent with what you said, but it seems a stretch to deduce what you said without some other reference.

Re:Firefox Focus – A new private browser for iOS and Android by kuschku on Friday August 18, 2017 @06:09PM (#15050153)
They just recently had a PR disaster because Firefox included Google Analytics in the Addon menu.

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14753546

Re:Firefox Focus – A new private browser for iOS and Android by st3fan on Friday August 18, 2017 @06:50PM (#15050358)
I don’t think that was a “pr disaster” - vocal minority is loud but not that loud.