Re:Cohort IDs can be collected over time to create cross-sit...
by Daho0n on Thursday April 15, 2021 @07:17PM
(#26827370)
Thank you :)
Re:Cohort IDs can be collected over time to create cross-sit...
by DoingIsLearning on Friday April 16, 2021 @03:16AM
(#26830599)
To add to this they also blocked access to about:config on Android.
No access to extensions and blocking about:config was to me just heretic. Those two are the raison d'être of Firefox.
Nightly build thankfully reverted this babysitting of users but indeed we are still stuck with 'vetted' add-ons downgrade in the official Firefox release for Android.
Re:Cohort IDs can be collected over time to create cross-sit...
by iggldiggl on Friday April 16, 2021 @06:47AM
(#26832206)
Even on Nightly, the procedure to install non-whitelisted-by-default add-ons is somewhat arcane though, and AFAIK even after following it you can only install the current version of add-ons that have been officially published on AMO, i.e. no installing a different add-on version or manually installing an XPI (not even a signed one).
Also lots of other little papercuts: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26470454
Then they released a preview of a re-design which also broke all extensions. That's arguably fine for a preview, though a bit concerning. Many were raising alarms at this point.
Then they released the re-design to the stable release, with still-broken extensions. This pretty unambiguously is "a mess", if not earlier.
Then they released built-in support for a couple dozen Mozilla-selected extensions (uBO included, I believe). This is still a mess, and rightfully raises a few eyebrows.
... and we're still there now, after over a year of "this will be fixed soon". I believe you can install nightly + manually tweak config and still install other extensions, but Firefox for Android does not support extensions right now. That's A Problem™, and not a good sign for extension-longevity that it was ever allowed out of preview. It broadly implies extensions are very low on their priority list, which is concerning, as extensions have been the clear leaders on preserving privacy and user control in general. Browsers overwhelmingly follow popular extension behaviors, not the other way around - cripple extensions and you also cripple advancement and experimentation.