I had Yandex as a sponsored website when I installed Firefox. The process of removal did seem unnecessarily obfuscated, but I only had to spend like five minutes on it.
Re:Sponsored Top Sites
by cookie_monsta on Wednesday February 24, 2021 @03:45PM
(#26255597)
I found the setting by following FF's instructions and turned it off. Took about 5 seconds, I guess a minute total including searching for how to do it.
Re:Sponsored Top Sites
by thrwn_frthr_awy on Wednesday February 24, 2021 @03:46PM
(#26255626)
Do you know if your data was shared with advertisers before you were able to turn it off?
Re:Sponsored Top Sites
by cookie_monsta on Wednesday February 24, 2021 @03:56PM
(#26255767)
Of course I know that. What a strange question.
GP is not literally asking if you know. They are asking you if your data was shared or not.
Re:Sponsored Top Sites
by cookie_monsta on Wednesday February 24, 2021 @05:12PM
(#26256774)
Well, that makes it an even stranger question. Why ask one thing if what you want to know is something else?
Re:Sponsored Top Sites
by thrwn_frthr_awy on Wednesday February 24, 2021 @05:44PM
(#26257183)
I'm sorry my question wasn't clear, but I was not trying to ask one thing and know something else. I will try and restate my question.
Were you given an opportunity to disable the sponsored top sites before they were first loaded and your data sent to advertisers?
Re:Sponsored Top Sites
by cookie_monsta on Wednesday February 24, 2021 @07:14PM
(#26258080)
That's ok but I don't know if I can help much here - I really have no idea of knowing when I was given that opportunity.
Contrary to what the article claims, there was no way to disable this feature from the menu: it wasn't possible to uncheck the 'Sponsored Top Sites' button.
I had search for 'sponsor' settings in 'about:config' to disable it. Sadly, I don't think most users will be able to figure this out.
I'm seriously reconsidering moving away from Firefox, or at the very least no longer recommending it to non-technical users