Nolan Lawson

"Upcoming notification permission changes in Firefox 72" https://hacks.mozilla.org/2019/11/upcoming-notification-permission-changes-in-firefox-72/

It seems like a good idea to require a user gesture before showing the notification prompt. So you'll have to actually click a button or something on the web page before Firefox will show the prompt.

Upcoming notification permission changes in Firefox 72 – Mozilla Hacks - the Web developer blog

Earlier this year we decided to reduce the amount of unsolicited notification permission prompts people receive as they move around the web using the Firefox browser. This is an intrinsic ...

Mozilla Hacks - the Web developer blog
Nov 13, 2019 at 5:51pmWeb
Show threadKelson's Sorta Old AccountNov 13, 2019
@nolan A very good idea! Web notifications are great for apps like Mastodon, but so many sites have hijacked the mechanism for (effectively) spamming that the prompt itself has become yet another annoyance.
Show threadFernanda 🌻Nov 13, 2019
@nolan I guess it should have been like this from the beginning, no?
Show threadBen KellyNov 14, 2019
@nolan I fear this will just cause sites prone to bad behavior to just move content behind a "read more" click, etc.
Show threadNolan LawsonNov 14, 2019
@wanderview Isn't that kinda true of anything that requires a user gesture, though? E.g. avoiding popup blockers with some clever trick.
Show threadBen KellyNov 14, 2019

@nolan My impression was popups required more than a gesture? You get a low noise "popup blocked" ux, etc.

But yes, it seems a weak protection in general. I think (hope) we can do better.

Show threadNolan LawsonNov 14, 2019
@wanderview I get the impression that notification prompts are a bit exceptional in that they've *really* been abused by websites. Sort of like vibration in cross-origin iframes – it's almost always used for evil. https://www.fxsitecompat.dev/en-CA/docs/2019/vibration-api-can-no-longer-be-used-from-cross-origin-iframe/
Vibration API can no longer be used from cross-origin <iframe>

Using the Vibration API in a cross-origin <iframe> is no longer allowed on Firefox 72 and later, because the API is sometimes abused by untrusted third parties. From now on, calling the navigator.vibrate method will silently fail in such cases. ...

Show threadBen KellyNov 15, 2019
@nolan Yes. We've been working on improvements for a while as well. Stay tuned.
Show threadBen KellyNov 15, 2019
@nolan Oh, but I don't think notifications are always used for evil. I personally value them highly on the sites I choose to use them with. The question is how to balance the permission flow for the long tail of sites many users will most likely decline.