Firefox will show ads on the new tab page based on browsing history

Re:Firefox will show ads on the new tab page based on browsi... by icebraining on Friday May 22, 2015 @06:31AM (#9587454)

The data is collected in the browser, same as it ever was. The history is not sent to Mozilla's servers - it's the browser that locally chooses and fetches the tiles.

The tiles are grouped based on multiple servers, so the fact that your browser requested a specific tile doesn't directly tell them which site you actually visited.

https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1120311

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Re:Firefox will show ads on the new tab page based on browsi... by nodata on Friday May 22, 2015 @06:34AM (#9587460)

Mozilla has done a disastrous job of communicating this, I hope they post something soon.

Their last blog entry is from 18 May: https://blog.mozilla.org/

Edit: they have a different blog here that mentions it: https://blog.mozilla.org/futurereleases/

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Re:Firefox will show ads on the new tab page based on browsi... by AaronMT on Friday May 22, 2015 @11:48AM (#9588993)

Agreed. It’s posted on a /privacy/ section of the blog https://blog.mozilla.org/privacy/

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Re:Firefox will show ads on the new tab page based on browsi... by pdkl95 on Friday May 22, 2015 @07:47PM (#9591420)

It just leaks which category of sites I've been visits.

Why is it so hard to understand that leaking any bits not necessary for the retrieval and presentation of the link I clicked on is absolutely unacceptable? Anything that sends data that could not be learned form the server logs is spyware and will be treated as such.

Some companies like to claim that this spying is necessary because the data is useful. I'm sure it is, just like I'm sure a thief find the goods they stole to be useful. For similar reasons claims - like your explanation of this firefox misfeature - relating to the amount of bits leaked are not actualy a defense.

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