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Beware! Firefox Updates May Reset Preferences

posted by janrinok on Tuesday December 06 2016, @02:54AM   Printer-friendly
from the better-than-deleting-your-profile dept.

MrPlow writes:

Submitted via IRC for TheMightyBuzzard

Mozilla Firefox may reset custom browser preferences when the web browser is updated to a newer version so that the preference is set to its default value.

I was contacted by two Ghacks readers in the past two weeks about Firefox resetting preferences of the web browser during updates.

Jern informed me that Firefox reset the block lists setting of the browser's Tracking Protection feature from strict to basic when the browser was updated to version 50 from Firefox 49.0.2.

Basic protection is the recommended and default value of the setting. It does not block as many trackers as the strict blocking list. I confirmed that the upgrade to Firefox 50 did indeed reset the preference.

Michel told me a week later that a recent Firefox update (to 50.0.1 or 50.0.2) did reset another preference. This time an URL string that Michel modified on Firefox's about:config page.

Source: http://www.ghacks.net/2016/12/05/beware-firefox-updates-may-reset-preferences/

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  • (Score: 2) by xpda on Tuesday December 06 2016, @03:34AM

    by xpda (5991) on Tuesday December 06 2016, @03:34AM (#437530) Homepage

    Stop screwing with the settings! We know what's best for you.

    Starting Score:    1  point
    Karma-Bonus Modifier   +1  
    Total Score:   2  

  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday December 06 2016, @04:22AM

    by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday December 06 2016, @04:22AM (#437535)

    Is this why I can no longer select whether to allow or disallow, or allow for session, cookies on my Firefox browser? I have to install an add-on, and still I end up with a bunch of cookies. Do the think that I am going to trust a "do not track" request to the very people who want to track me? And I am only a dog, on the internet, where no one is supposed to know you are a dog, on the internet. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/On_the_Internet,_nobody_knows_you're_a_dog [wikipedia.org]