SoylentNews is people
SoylentNews
Submitted via IRC for Runaway1956
Firefox will now limit many web trackers by default to protect users from ads and analytic companies, and websites that want to track digital fingerprints across the internet. The changes come to accommodate the increasing demand for more private searches. It will also speed up the browsing speed, and force advertisers to find less invasive techniques.
The Firefox change might not be as dramatic as what Apple did on its Safari browser a couple of years ago, when it added a feature that blocks nearly all third-party trackers by default, but it's definitely welcome.
Safari limits trackers by default, rather than blocking just the ones collected on a blacklist. It also totally blocks trackers from being used by third-parties if you do not interact with their source website for more than a day.
[...] Firefox may not be the most conservative browser when it comes to tracker blocking, but it is a huge leap ahead of Google Chrome, which is starting to experiments with tracking limiting features just now.
Differently from Mozilla and Apple, Google Chrome relies on targeted ads to survive and it is likely to lag behind its peers in terms of privacy.
Source: https://reclaimthenet.org/firefox-will-now-block-trackers-by-default/
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Friday June 07 2019, @04:14AM (3 children)
Who is "https://reclaimthenet.org"? They have a contact page with a London UK address and phone, but nothing like an "about us" page that I could find on their site.
I'm immediately suspicious they are a front for something not good...
(Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Friday June 07 2019, @04:16AM
https://blog.mozilla.org/blog/2019/06/04/firefox-now-available-with-enhanced-tracking-protection-by-default/ [mozilla.org]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday June 07 2019, @04:46AM
Runaway submission. Strange sources.
(Score: -1, Offtopic) by Anonymous Coward on Friday June 07 2019, @03:13PM
Mmm...yep: https://www.aclu-wa.org/cases/montes-v-city-yakima-0 [aclu-wa.org]
(Score: 5, Informative) by Arik on Friday June 07 2019, @06:10AM (6 children)
And for those times that it's not - there's Ad Nauseum.
The perfect response to websites that block access to sane browsers. It doesn't just block the ads, it silently clicks them for you. Every single one of them.
When dealing with the big online fraud companies; alphabet, facebook/instagram, amazon and the like, this is often the only path left open. And it seems to be quite effective. Just look at the hysterical reaction to it from google.
If laughter is the best medicine, who are the best doctors?
(Score: 2) by Chocolate on Friday June 07 2019, @08:06AM (3 children)
How does it compare with Pi hole [wikipedia.org]?
Bit-choco-coin anyone?
(Score: 2) by inertnet on Friday June 07 2019, @10:41AM (2 children)
One goes on your device and the other on your router?
(Score: 2) by Chocolate on Friday June 07 2019, @12:26PM (1 child)
I did mean in terms of ad blocking effectiveness and usefulness
Bit-choco-coin anyone?
(Score: 2) by Arik on Friday June 07 2019, @01:06PM
If laughter is the best medicine, who are the best doctors?
(Score: 3, Insightful) by inertnet on Friday June 07 2019, @10:39AM
Nice. I expect the ad companies to respond with a 'clicked too soon' policy, after which the add on creators will random delay the ad clicks to make them seem more human like (if they haven't done that already).
(Score: 4, Informative) by DavePolaschek on Friday June 07 2019, @02:29PM
Ahh. It's Ad Nauseam [adnauseam.io]. Surprisingly difficult to find when searching using google.
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Friday June 07 2019, @06:39AM (4 children)
And you're in charge.
(Score: 3, Informative) by Chocolate on Friday June 07 2019, @06:59AM (1 child)
Breaks a good number of sites but is truly awesome for easily seeing what naughties a website is trying to pull
Bit-choco-coin anyone?
(Score: 2) by DeVilla on Monday June 10 2019, @03:51PM
It does break some sites, but not as bad as noscript, it is easy to fix the websites permanently or temporarily, it can replace redirect policy and it offers good control on third party cookies. I use it with Cookie autodelete. I changed the default to block all cookies by default and then to allow them for the first party site by default. I think it always allowed all cookies.
I also like the easy options to add permissions for things like "youtube without an account"
(Score: 3, Interesting) by PiMuNu on Friday June 07 2019, @08:46AM (1 child)
While I knew of the issue, it really opened my eyes to just how many websites use google analytics... including my corporate (government) website.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday June 07 2019, @12:28PM
I have it at work. It is gobsmacking how many intranet sites load JavaScript files from the internet inside the organization.
(Score: 3, Informative) by canopic jug on Friday June 07 2019, @07:43AM (1 child)
Firefox still whitelists M$, Google, Instagram, and dozens of other malfeasants [disconnect.me] through its tracker "blocker". So while it is blocking some things, in essence it is not blocking very much.
Money is not free speech. Elections should not be auctions.
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Friday June 07 2019, @09:23AM
Yes, so it is blocking anyone who isn't already in on the game.
Mozilla really shows true stripe/teeth here.
Now that the add-ons had basically been working, they want to say add-ons aren't necessary, whitelist the primary offenders, and crown themselves the privacy experts.
Doesn't everybody know that they are fingerprinting people now by screen size, click habits, mouse telemetry etc? That there are many ways with the complete transaction record sniffed by a MITM to associate all activity with a specific unique string, that will not be addressed by cookie games?
Comment above is on the right track. Spam the spammers.
The mass of people using the internet can generate enough junk data to crash anything they want. THAT is what they are really afraid of.
I think at this point generating some junk data, some completely incorrect things about yourself that only spies and their data scientists will be confused by, is a great idea if not a core case for legitimate civil protest against the threat to civilization posed by the panopticon they are clearly trying to help build at mozilla.
(Score: 2) by Phoenix666 on Friday June 07 2019, @02:11PM
I used FF exclusively for what feels like a couple decades, then their updates broke my plugins. Lately, they've gotten even worse.
So, no thanks, guys. I switched to another browser. I use uMatrix and have fine-grained control over what my browser renders, and what it blocks. One feature I would appreciate is to be able to tell uMatrix to randomly generate a fake set of data to feed to sites I visit, but which break if its scripts are blocked; preferably the fake data set would include the words "fuck you" in 1337-speak or something.
Washington DC delenda est.
(Score: 2) by Rich on Friday June 07 2019, @03:09PM
That browser that has this super annoying advertisement above the "New Window" menu entry? Where's all the "Pocket" shit gone, anyhow?
What they've been doing in the last few years has been a disgraceful insult to those who kickstarted their project. A friend at a customer's had the full-page newspaper with his donation up for ages. Some still remember.
The can so go to FOAD that maybe something else can rise from the ashes, like an, ahem, Phoenix.
(Score: 4, Interesting) by The Shire on Friday June 07 2019, @04:14PM (2 children)
Mozilla Firefox to Enable Hyperlink Ping Tracking By Default [bleepingcomputer.com]
Hyperlink Auditing is the new thing for gathering telemetry on everything you do, and all the major browsers are not only incorporating it, they're making it impossible to turn off or block. Firefox saying they will block trackers is a smokescreen to cover the fact that they, along with all the other browsers, will be tracking you through this new protocol.
When Mozilla got called out on this their response was along the lines of "This kind of tracking is fine because it doesn't have a performance penalty", as if people block trackers because of performance.
Right now the Brave browser is the only one blocking this new form of tracking. All the others have conspired to make background tracking mandatory.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday June 07 2019, @10:28PM (1 child)
As long as my browser is FOSS, it's not impossible to turn off or block.
That's because I'm a man and compile my own software, instead of cheep-cheep-cheeping for someone to regurgitate some free shit down my throat.
(Score: 2) by The Shire on Friday June 07 2019, @11:33PM
If you can find where they implemented this and write a bypass then more power to ya. For everyone else, no plugin can turn this "feature" off and they have said they are removing the override entry from about:config. This is very clearly something all the major players have agreed on, and the browser companies have sold us out.
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Friday June 07 2019, @04:17PM
I've been running Privacy Badger (with older FF) since PB came out, keeps me pretty happy. From various comments here, it doesn't look like the new FF blocker does quite as much? Will be interesting to (someday) compare the two--or maybe run both at once.