Dan Gillmor

Disappointing that Mozilla's CEO has chosen Reddit -- a platform that has grossly mistreated the volunteers who make it work -- as the venue to discuss the new anti-privacy tools that are turned on by default in the latest Firefox.

I hate to point to Reddit for that reason.

Mozilla has taken a bad turn, but you can (for now) turn off the latest on-by-default setting: In Settings / Privacy and Security un-check the “Website Advertising Preferences” checkbox.

Jul 16, 2024 at 12:44amWeb
Show threadStewart RussellJul 16, 2024
@dangillmor and, if you're using and adblocker, none of your data is aggregated anyway, so it's the same as having it turned off
Show threadDavidJul 16, 2024
@scruss @dangillmor That’s only true to the extent that your ad blocker works, and they are never 100% effective 100% of the time.
Show threadStewart RussellJul 16, 2024
@freeagent that's what the Mozilla CTO said in the Reddit thread tho
Show threadDavidJul 16, 2024
@scruss Yeah, they just didn’t clarify that ad blockers aren’t 100% effective all the time. Mozilla have built a feature here which is completely unnecessary for the preservation of privacy. In fact, to the extent that it does anything, it can only serve to decrease privacy. Ads can be served to users/browsers without any reporting back into a centralized database, which is what this does.
Show threadbignoseJul 16, 2024

@dangillmor
> I hate to point to Reddit for that reason.

While they still function, I use privacy-preserving front ends to Reddit for sharing links:

https://libreddit.oxymagnesium.com/r/firefox/comments/1e43w7v/a_word_about_private_attribution_in_firefox/

A Word About Private Attribution in Firefox - r/firefox

View on Redlib, an alternative private front-end to Reddit.

Show threadrouxdoo √Jul 16, 2024
@dangillmor
I stopped using Mozilla ages ago. I quit /r when they screwed us and themselves by changing policies. I, personally, feel as if you are using Mozilla to browse reddit you just don't care about yourself anymore - you have given up.
Show threadCorvidJul 16, 2024

@rouxdoo @dangillmor

What browser do you use instead?

Show threadWarlock Of WiresJul 16, 2024
@dangillmor is this also a problem in the ESR version??
Show threadMarjorieRJul 16, 2024
@Warlockofwires @dangillmor the next version of firefox-esr will be 128, so you'll have to remember to turn the ad-spyware off when you get the upgrade. It's feasible for the packaged Linux versions (such as Debian) to turn it off by default, but I don't know if they will.
Show threadWarlock Of WiresJul 16, 2024
@marjolica @dangillmor thank you so much. I'm going to download the installer and then just keep it in a safe place because Frankly Speaking unless there's some zero days I need a patch I'm not going to upgrade this thing for quite some time
Show threadmarcJul 16, 2024
@dangillmor This says it all about mozilla's CEO:
https://mastodon.social/@stevetex/112780506720122370