Ads Based On Browsing History Are Coming To All Firefox Users 531
An anonymous reader writes: Mozilla has announced plans to launch a feature called "Suggested Tiles," which will provide sponsored recommendations to visit certain websites when other websites show up in the user's new tab page. The tiles will begin to show up for beta channel users next week, and the company is asking for feedback. For testing purposes, users will only see Suggested Tiles "promoting Firefox for Android, Firefox Marketplace, and other Mozilla causes." It's not yet known what websites will show up on the tiles when the feature launches later this summer. The company says, "With Suggested Tiles, we want to show the world that it is possible to do relevant advertising and content recommendations while still respecting users’ privacy and giving them control over their data."
bye (Score:5, Interesting)
good bye Firefox. last nail in the coffin. I wanted to like it. I did. I still dislike Chrome's UI and the fact Google owns it.
Crap maybe I'll switch to Opera it's actually really really nice now as a UI.
Re: (Score:2)
I like Opera for how gracefully it handles Unity, which Chrome seems to have a bitch of a time over. Chrome, for its memory leakage, handles HTML5 active content nicely and Flash... actually I don't know, since I've disabled Flash. Opera for me doesn't do HTML5 or Flash very well, but again Flash isn't an issue since I've disabled it in Opera as well.
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I'm not a real fan of Chrome especially in terms of the tracking crap, chromium on the other hand I do like but it's never out of a non-stable release state. But I guess I can live with that. So I guess it's good bye Firefox, and off to hunt more browsers maybe check out palemoons stability now, since I had some serious problems with it a few years ago, check out other browsers like Opera maybe even IE.
Shit like the 'force ads' is the death knell for FF though. $20 says that there will be no ad checking,
Re:bye (Score:4, Informative)
As a Firefox Nightly user, I've already had to deal with the spam tiles. The fix is to install a 3rd party speed dial.
I use Super Start [mozilla.org]. It's nothing fancy, but it's clean and gets the job done.
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I wonder if New Tab Tools [mozilla.org] will ignore this junk?
Re:bye (Score:5, Insightful)
my 'fix' has been to stop upgrading, about 2 or even more years ago.
yes, it has bugs and probably security issues, but I deal with that instead of dealing with more bullshit from moz.
really - a web browser is a little bit like a flashlight; it has a job to do, its clearly defined and its not hard to solve the problem. I don't need a flashlight with 'accessories' on it or with 'helpful advertising'. I simply need it to work, stay stable and not change every damned time someone has an itch to change-just-for-changes-sake.
I won't give up what I have, but I have stopped upgrading a long time ago.
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Re:bye (Score:4, Informative)
Also on the top right of a new tab is a settings 'cog' where you can choose "Enhanced", "Classic" or "Blank" so you can easily turn this off.
The details are fairly straightforward and are laid out on this page [mozilla.org].
Some choice exerpts to soothe the paniced minds:
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Or use the button to disable shaped like a "gear" to disable it...
Which works right up to the point where Mozilla removes this feature, as they have removed so many other features.
Look, I get that programmers are expensive and Mozilla needs to pay the bills somehow, but maybe if they just focused on security concerns instead of trying to re-invent the browser every other version they wouldn't need so many programmers?
Sadly, there is still little alternative to Firefox. Palemoon has a host of compatibility i [palemoon.org]
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Wasn't the fact that Opera when it released a free version, use to have a spot for Opera based adds. Which was one reason why it never really got any serious interests.
Re: bye (Score:5, Insightful)
I'm not one for conspiracy theories, but in this case I have to ask, is there a clandestine effort underway to utterly destroy Firefox, and maybe even Mozilla, from the inside?
It's like every decision made over the past several years has been designed to alienate Firefox's remaining users, without bringing in any new users.
I'm talking of the unwanted UI changes. Then there were the release frequency changes that broke extensions every release for a long time. Then there were more unwanted UI changes, cumulating in the despised Australis UI. Then there was the switch to Yahoo for searches. There were the grid advertisements. Then there was the mandatory HTTPS proposal. Now there's this nonsense. All of this is being done when there are still many bugs to fix, some of them existing for years.
It's just one bad thing after another, even when Firefox users loudly object, and even with Firefox's ever-dropping share of the market.
I'd like to just blame it on ineptitude or incompetence, but these decisions are unbelievable, even in those cases. I just can't get over how obviously terrible so many of these decisions have been.
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
You have to remember, Mozilla isn't run by people who understand business. They are just a group of mediocre programmers with short attention spans and no experience.
It's like programmer art. The programmer himself thinks it's pretty good, but any objective viewer will obviously be able to see that it's amateur at best and utter crap at worst.
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I'm not one for conspiracy theories, but in this case I have to ask, is there a clandestine effort underway to utterly destroy Firefox, and maybe even Mozilla, from the inside?
It's like every decision made over the past several years has been designed to alienate Firefox's remaining users, without bringing in any new users.
Hanlon's razor says
Never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by stupidity.
Of course that doesn't mean malice and stupidity can't walk hand-in-hand, and I'm pretty sure that's what's happening at Mozilla. I wouldn't be surprised at all if there were a few bad actors, but there are dozens more that simply suffer from stupidity and lack of foresight. Every "ux expert" and "architect" seems to think they're god's own gift to mankind, and Mozilla is packed to the brim with those. Combine them with some ivory towers and you can pretty easily explain the current sa
Re: bye (Score:4, Interesting)
Every "ux expert" and "architect" seems to think they're god's own gift to mankind, and Mozilla is packed to the brim with those.
The main problem is that Mozilla is filled with project managers and senior devs who LISTEN to the UX 'experts' and let them drive the agenda. Why they do is beyond me. Perhaps it is a plot by Google or perhaps they are just morons.
Re: bye (Score:5, Insightful)
I don't think you have to come up with that many conspiracy theories, Mozilla's "problem" is that they won. They broke Microsoft's monopoly, made HTML/CSS properly standardized and together with KHTML/WebKit/Blink some 80% use an open source renderer though many use it in a closed source binary. Microsoft would be laughed at if they tried any new proprietary extensions and for the rest the implementation details are all in the open.
I'm talking of the unwanted UI changes. Then there were the release frequency changes that broke extensions every release for a long time. Then there were more unwanted UI changes, cumulating in the despised Australis UI. Then there was the switch to Yahoo for searches. There were the grid advertisements. Then there was the mandatory HTTPS proposal. Now there's this nonsense. All of this is being done when there are still many bugs to fix, some of them existing for years.
Their problem can be summed up in two words: "Now what?" and it turns out they didn't really have any other goal in common than slaying the dragon and now the dragon's dead. Some UX designers get to make an art project. Some cowboy coders thinks more releases is better. Some will do anything to get away from the reliance on their biggest competitor. Some security nuts get to go overboard. Some want to go after Android/Chrome OS with Firefox OS, but this time they're not competing against proprietary and neglected shovelware and barking up a tree Ubuntu has made essentially no progress on.
Let's face it, Mozilla mainly won because Microsoft was trying to keep the web from competing with local applications so they could sell Windows licenses, they got to the head of the pack and grinded it to a halt. They didn't want to compete, they wanted to put a spanner in the works for as long as possible. It annoyed many and gave Firefox enormous amounts of goodwill even when it didn't work properly, out of spite for Microsoft people kept using it and pushing for sites to support it. They don't have a clue on how to compete with someone that puts up a fight, which is their second biggest problem.
Re: bye (Score:5, Insightful)
...Just look at some of the self-entitled and abusive comments here on Slashdot....
Those comments started out as constructive criticism. However, Mozilla pressed on with their determination to ignore and alienate users.
.
Now Mozilla is getting the criticism they have earned.
Mozilla/Firefox has a problem. A big one. The first step in solving a problem is to identify its cause and not, as you attempt, to blame others for Mozilla's self-inflicted problems.
Re: (Score:3)
Almost every single FF bitch about changes is little more than bullshit --- I have yet to see a FF change that can'
Re:bye (Score:4, Interesting)
Re:bye (Score:5, Informative)
a little harsh when all you need to do is change preference in about:config:
browser.newtab.url to about:blank
done and done. the whole 'smart' newtab page is gone for good. that is one of the very nice things about firefox....... configurability..
Comment removed (Score:4, Interesting)
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I suspect that a lot of people THINK in pictorial form. When I want to go to slashdot.org, I type slashdot.org. Yeah, the browser autocompletes for me, but I continue typing the address in. I've been doing it that way since before there was a Firefox, it's a habit that I see no need, or even a desire to break.
Wonder how many slashdotters couldn't find slashdot without a shortcut? The idea is hilarious, IMHO.
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Re: (Score:2)
it'll take what, maybe a day?, before there's at least half a dozen addons to fix it.
Re:bye (Score:4, Interesting)
No vertical tabs 10 years after widescreen displays started spreading widely?
Also (not so much about UI), if you have many open tabs, chrome eats much less CPU on the background, but is much more memory hungry.
Re: (Score:3)
Oh and also the fact that middle click inside website does not load URL from clipboard. It works on a favicon - except in case of verified identity SSL servers, there's no favicon.
About the tabs, frankly, for me (but clearly not just me) a more flexible paradigm which blends seamlessly the concept of tabs and bookmarks (and ideally full-text search over my "bookmarked tabs") would be awesome. I'm a pack-rat and would like to archive whole tab trees for later, see them among the other pages, but not take mem
Re:bye (Score:4, Insightful)
It's funny how the mobile (Android) versions of both Chrome and Firefox already manage to do this -- I can have 50+ tabs going on my phone and not run out of memory, although some of them will reload when I switch back to them -- but the desktop versions don't.
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A middle-click on the New Tab button works, assuming a Linux system.
Otherwise, it's relatively easy to write an extension that does it.
Re: (Score:2)
No vertical tabs 10 years after widescreen displays started spreading widely?
It's coming. Well, at some point. Bug #51084 [google.com].
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No vertical tabs 10 years after widescreen displays started spreading widely?
Tree Style Tabs [mozilla.org]
Re: (Score:3)
I do use the memory, thank you very much. I just use the computer for something else than web browsing too. I do realize it's getting uncommon (and don't actually even get *that* grumpy about it, just have my different set of preferences).
When you see a guy in sibling comment complaining "In addition, I hate the extremely long time for startup and new tab creation, which is accompanied by constant disk grinding." - well, that's exactly the memory problem, which now translates to bad user experience. As you
Re:bye (Score:5, Funny)
I've never understood comments about memory use. I buy my memory to use. If it is sitting empty, I paid for it for nothing. Apps should use it and use it freely for cache, etc. to speed up performance. I'd feel the same about CPU except that high CPU usage leads to thermal issues (fans on all the time, etc.). So I do prefer not to use all the CPU I paid for - but memory? Heck, the OS will swap it out if another app needs it.
Tell that to Win8 when it starts complaining about low 32bit memory and minimizing/terminating your programs.
Re: (Score:3)
Tell that to Win8 when it starts complaining about low 32bit memory and minimizing/terminating your programs.
Err, what?
Win8 automatically terminates processes when low on memory?!
So what's the point of paging in that case?!
I'ev got Win8.1, seems to work fine, especially after Classic Shell and 7+ Taskbar Tweaker and MouseWiz.
Yup. Easiest way to trigger the "feature" is to run a 32-bit browser + a 32-bit game that will fill the 2GB limit. At first it will warn you, taking your full screen game and minimizing it to tell you to close a specific program (oddly never the game itself). If you close that warning it'll repeat this process a few times and on the odd occasion, after a few warnings, it will simply say [We have terminated X program due to low memory]
Re:bye (Score:4)
I've been using Windows 8/8.1 since release and have never seen an error message like that. It's more likely a virus or hardware problem with your computer.
Well, if YOU haven't seen it... [facepalm]
https://answers.microsoft.com/... [microsoft.com]
Re: (Score:3)
The memory is there to be used - you're entirely correct. I cannot fault you for that. But, when the system has 4 gig of memory, and Firefox is using 60% of that memory - IT IS SIMPLY TO MUCH!
I recently installed Pale Moon. I've not yet seen Pale Moon using 25% of system memory. I have a lot of tabs open right now, and Palemoon is using 17% of system memory. Enlightenment and Palemoon are constantly swapping places for top memory usage position in htop. The only other process that competes, is lightdm
Re: (Score:3)
Chrome starts up for me a lot faster than Firefox and runs much smoother. Especially on those stupid forever scrolling pages. Yeah I know code should be efficient with memory but these days there is no excuse for having less than 4Gb. Times change. Plus Chrome uses html5 playback on Youtube and supports the higher framerates (50/60 fps).
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Okay, so smartphones, tablets, Chromebooks / "streambooks" and the like aren't valid devices anymore?
Re: (Score:3)
Chrome is multi-threaded. Firefox is not. Firefox runs better on old systems, Chrome runs better on new ones.
The minute Firefox switched to Yahoo/Micro$haft, it lost me. There's now no real independent browser.
Re:bye (Score:4, Insightful)
More to the point, "but you can change it back" was the excuse for Tabs on Top. Then, the tickbox for tabs on bottom went away. Then, the about:config preference for it went away.
"But you can change it back" was the excuse for when the status bar went away. Then, as of 4.0, you couldn't change it back at all. Someone had to write an extension to undo the UX team's fuckup.
"But you can change it back" was the excuse for Javashit enabled by default. Then, the tickbox in the UI to enable/disable Javashit went away. How long until some UXtard decides Javashit should no longer be disablable even from within about:config?
"But you don't have to install it" was the excuse for DRM/EME. Any takers on how long that remains true?
"But you can change it back" is the thin edge of the wedge; it's how a UXtard tells the userbase that however much you loathe his "elegant" "innovation", someday you won't be able to change it back, because his UX vision is more important than your - the actual user's - experience.
Fuck Asa Dotzler and fuck all his clones.
This is the last fucking straw (Score:5, Informative)
Why? Why do you rape us with this kind of shit? Is fucking with the UI (making the goddamn options menu a ugly mess of a webpage) and adding DRM codecs not enough?
Jesus christ on a stick. You can't find a way to suicide your market share faster.
Re:This is the last fucking straw (Score:4, Insightful)
DRM codecs are a feature, it allows you to access more sites. Some people are out to make software and not always a political statement.
However adding custom adds doesn't seem to help the end user out in any way.
Re: (Score:3)
"Features" are in the eye of the beholder. If I need DRM to access a site, I just move on to something more interesting and/or important. I simply do not play that game. If I wanted to be digitally restricted, I could always get caught robbing a bank, and spend several years in prison, right?
Re:This is the last fucking straw (Score:5, Informative)
This stuff applies to the Firefox GUI rather than the underlying rendering engine. Use something that utilizes Gecko but without the crappy UI, like SeaMonkey or Pale Moon.
Re:This is the last fucking straw (Score:5, Insightful)
That's not an answer. Why the fuck would anyone bend over backwards to make Firefox usable when they can just download a different browser?
I'm with OP. Mozilla apparently has a death wish and doesn't give a shit about how they treat their users, so fuck 'em.
How about ... (Score:5, Insightful)
How about no? How about some of us don't want advertising? How about you better give a mechanism to disable this crap?
What part of "not interested in your damned ads" is hard to understand?
Re:How about ... (Score:5, Interesting)
Provide a method to turn this off and I'll keep using Firefox. If not, I may need to like Chrome more...
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
..because chrome doesn't collect browsing data for ad delivery? lol
I guess the lesson we're leaning is: keeping quiet about behavior is indeed better than being open.
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Re:How about ... (Score:5, Informative)
How about you better give a mechanism to disable this crap?
Click on the "gear" icon (top right of the new tab page)
Clear the "Include suggested sites" box
Re: (Score:2)
While I agree with the sentiment, what would be “a better mechanism” to disable this crap? The UI to disable this will be 2 clicks on the new tab page, or if you prefer, 1 pref to toggle.
There are many reasons not to like this, but don't think they could have made it any easier to disable.
IMO, the tie-up with Pocket is much more damning for Mozilla's reputation. They've just plain given up on trying to make the web open and fair. The Mozilla Manifesto means nothing now.
Re:How about ... (Score:4, Insightful)
Like it or not advertising shapes the world we are in. Where do you think the million dollar super-star athlete salaries come from? Advertising. Free programming? Advertising. I can go on. It's incredibly unlikely you don't own at least one thing you either got for free due to advertising or was subsidized by advertising.
No one likes advertising, but everyone wants free stuff. Why do you think advertising is attached to free stuff? Who do you think is paying for the free stuff?
Companies that pay advertisers want a return on their money spent. That's what all the tracking is about - to justify the money spent. I can understand them wanting to get that data, but I also understand not wanting to be tracked and targeted. Even if by an impersonal computer, it's creepy.
Full disclosure here - I work for an advertiser. And here's hilarity for you - nearly every computer in this department runs ad-block to stop viruses or who knows what else from getting into the system. There's a lot of abuse out there by the unscrupulous to the downright criminal "one simple trick scam" idiots.
There's a lot of problems with the current system. If you can devise a better system for all parties there's a lot of money in it for you, go for it.
But it's two-year-old level childish thinking at it's finest to think you can get all the free and subsidized stuff out here in the world without the advertising that pays for it. Sure, you can block it - but if the blocking ever rises to statistically significant levels then the revenue model will be forced to change, and probably not for the better.
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No one likes advertising, but everyone wants free stuff. Why do you think advertising is attached to free stuff? Who do you think is paying for the free stuff?
WE are paying for the advertising and the free stuff. I only saw figures from early 2000s, when the total amount spent on advertising in the US averaged out at about $20k per citizen.
That's a HUGE advertising tax that we're all paying. And what do we get from this tax? Better healthcare? Job security? Vacations and time off? No, what we get is to subsidize the parasites working in the advertising industry, and we enable them to force unwanted ads onto our eyeballs, and we get a few tiny geegaws thrown our w
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My mind is trying to wrap itself around what sort of person over at Mozilla sits around and thinks:
"Hmmmm, what could be our next feature to win over the folks using Chrome or IE . . . . something to really get folks excited . . . . " .
. . . time passes . .
"OH I KNOW ! How about MORE advertising !
Because obviously, the internet doesn't have enough of it already :| Brilliant . . . .
Dear Mozilla ( and the rest of you browser developers while we're on the subject ):
We develop and install things like Adbloc
Re:How about ... (Score:4, Insightful)
They made $380 million last year. How much is enough?
Firefox becomes Netscape (Score:3)
Remember when the Netscape web browser cost $40? Remember buying one? Me neither.
Looks like it's time to start uninstalling Firefox across all computers...
Re:Firefox becomes Netscape (Score:5, Insightful)
Remember when the Netscape web browser cost $40? Remember buying one? Me neither.
Looks like it's time to start uninstalling Firefox across all computers...
The world has changed a lot since then. I would gladly pay $40 for a good browser before I will put up with ads. I use
my browser too much to put up with ads. Luckily, I don't have to as there are still several good free ones.
Re:Firefox becomes Netscape (Score:5, Insightful)
> The world has changed a lot since then. I would gladly pay $40 for a good browser :-P
Not really - you've just become richer
Re:Firefox becomes Netscape (Score:5, Insightful)
Looks like it's time to start uninstalling Firefox across all computers...
Yes, and install Chrome because that won't collect any of your data.
Or, uncheck the option from the menu, which is admittedly much less fun than throwing a total shitfit.
Re:Firefox becomes Netscape (Score:5, Funny)
False dichotomy.
Why can't I throw a total shitfit AND uncheck the option from the menu?
Re: (Score:2)
mod parent up!
Gave me a good laugh :)
IceCat (Score:2)
Respecting Privacy??? (Score:5, Insightful)
How is taking our browser history to serve ads respecting our privacy?
A search suggests they made $311 million in 2012, how much money is actually required to run Mozilla?
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Greed. Pure Greed.
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For what it's worth: they don't take it. Your browser tracks your history (as it has always done, unless you've turned that off), and makes the decisions of which adverts to display locally.
Mozilla can attempt to infer your browsing history from which adverts you load (and I've seen discussions about trying to reduce the amount of information they receive, although I don't know how much of that actually made it to the implementation), but they don't get a copy of it. Only your local browser gets that.
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giving them control over their data. (Score:2)
So this "feature" can be disabled by the user?
Or should we just disable auto-update and stick with version 38.0.1
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See above: enable "Do Not Track" in the Firefox Options/Privacy tab and you are (hopefully) in the clear.
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Do Not Track is useless garbage.
It doesn't stop any tracking. It's a voluntary [zdnet.com] program which doesn't mean what you think it means:
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WTF (Score:4, Interesting)
So if I mostly go to sites that involve sex with bowls of pasta and my browser were to request suggestions involving bowls of pasta porn it isn't much of stretch for them to guess what kind of sites I go to.
This shit pisses me off. I already use a VPN to keep my ISP from this sort of interference. Now it is my damn browser ratting on me.
How about a big fat no. Firefox already has a dropping market share and now it will drop by at least one more(me).
Just to be clear as to how much I value my privacy and don't want tracking. I use a VM for all services that I log into that goes through a separate VPN. Thus my day to day surfing is 100% separate from anything that has any logins. So any cookies/IP address that facebook, google, etc might have handed to me aren't available during my general web surfing.
I break zero laws yet I still want nobody tracking me as is my right.
Re:WTF (Score:5, Interesting)
Ok, but the real question is... (Score:2)
Re:Ok, but the real question is... (Score:5, Funny)
Then you didn't read. These tiles show up when you click 'new tab'.
You will get a set of tiles that include your most viewed porn, porn you might like and sponsored porn that they hope you will be into.
You can stop these porn tiles from appearing by simply telling it you want classic new tab, not enhanced porn edition.
Of course this doesn't stop Mozilla from compiling a detailed list of your porn.
Comment removed (Score:5, Interesting)
A creepy form of advertising. (Score:2)
Mozilla continues to sell its users to advertisers (Score:2)
"With Suggested Tiles, we want to show the world that it is possible to do relevant advertising and content recommendations while still respecting users' privacy and giving them control over their data."
First the advertisements will be optional. Then they won't be.
.
How long before the few remaining Firefox users realize that Mozilla is behaving like any other money-grabbing corporation?
Comment removed (Score:5, Funny)
Ads need to go the way of the Dodo (Score:2)
Switch to a Mozilla Branch (Score:3)
Palemoon is branched off of Mozilla. I use it and it works well.
There are lots of options out there... you don't really need to stick with the Firefox vs chrome vs opera arguements.
Comment removed (Score:5, Insightful)
stalker marketing (Score:2)
Go SeaMonkey! (Score:3, Informative)
http://www.seamonkey-project.org/
All the web-rendering goodness of FireFox. Stable user interface. No suggested tiles. Available for Windows/Mac/Linux.
Which part of No do you not understand? (Score:2)
Tiles? (Score:2)
Never really found a use for them. I have every new tab and window show up as a blank page so this won't bother me at all though I'm sad to see them take this approach. It appears that they are trying to do everything in their power to alienate what users they have remaining. Might have to start looking into a good alternative browser for the Mac.
Non-profit revenue streams (Score:3)
Firefox gets its revenue from ads. Whether directly or indirectly, through first Google, then Yahoo, and now directly. They never seem to have enough revenue.
Wikipedia gets its revenue from donations. They occasionally have a beg bar at the top. They refuse to accept advertising. They always seem to have too much revenue.
I, for one, would much prefer to have an occasional beg bar in my Firefox and no ads, rather than ads and no beg bar.
You've missed the point, this is huge for privacy (Score:4, Informative)
All the people complaining are missing the point: Adverstising is inevitable, and today advertising comes with massive privacy violations (especially tracking). Mozilla is developing a way to enable advertising without the privacy violations. If they succeed, imagine the dramatic increase in your privacy if vendors can deliver ads without tracking.
From TFA:
Mozilla is making a bold promise. âoeWith Suggested Tiles, we want to show the world that it is possible to do relevant advertising and content recommendations while still respecting usersâ(TM) privacy and giving them control over their data.â
And this is not just superficial security; they have really thought it through. For one thing, your browser history and the analytics that determine what ads to display stay on your computer. For more examples:
Because delivering such content to Firefox users can result in privacy issues, Mozilla has taken three steps to limit what information it collects:
1. A system of rules in place to limit what Mozilla or its partners can infer about users based on Tiles data. Each interest category must have a minimum of 5 URLs. Interest categories are constructed such that no single URL is significantly more likely to appear in a userâ(TM)s browsing history than any other URL in the category. Suggested Tiles also cannot be triggered based on combinations of URLs in the interest category.
2. While Tiles partners can suggest URLs to include, the companyâ(TM)s Content Services team actually defines the interest categories. A separate role on the team, which isnâ(TM)t involved in creating the interest categories, approves the final categories. Furthermore, interest categories are publicly available, stating the label of the bucket and the collection of URLs specified against it. The current interest categories are available in the source code here.
3. IP addresses are discarded within 7 days of collection and no other unique IDs associated with Tiles are collected. Only one Suggested Tile is included per new tab page, which prevents impression data from providing a more complete portrait of the userâ(TM)s history. Reports containing aggregate impression and click data (number of impressions, clicks, and so on) are only shared with partners. No individual data is provided to advertising clients.
For more, see these lnks:
https://blog.mozilla.org/priva... [mozilla.org]
https://blog.mozilla.org/advan... [mozilla.org]
Re:Nope (Score:5, Informative)
* Note: if you set DNT=1, it is possible that you may not be receiving Suggested Tiles. You can very simply enable them on the new tab page with the cogwheel. We made the decision to opt users out of all sponsored Tiles experiences if they have DNT=1 quite early on, as we believe that most DNT early adopters are seeking to opt out of all advertising experiences. However, it’s important to understand that no tracking is involved in delivering Tiles.
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It's nice that there is an option to disable it - even if it is indirect. But the fact that the "feature" is there at all still offends me. When the makers of a browser decide it's a good idea to turn my browsing history into targeted advertising, I decide a different browser is a good idea.
I've been making less use of Firefox in general in recent years anyway, but this is the straw that broke the camel's back. Firefox gets uninstalled on all my machines.
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Out of interest is your dislike for optional and easy to opt out of advertising (tracking) in Firefox meaning you're going to switch wholesale to Chrome?
Re:Roll your own... (Score:4, Insightful)
Honestly, at that point I'd rather switch to Pale Moon.
Re: (Score:3)
https://developer.mozilla.org/... [mozilla.org] Build Instructions
Dude... don't do that... some kids may try it and cause an explosion or something... you don't want that on your conscience!
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So I shouldn't post my shatter recipe that uses propane?
NOOO.... o.k. dude, you were right, let's build some firefoxes, it's fun!
Re: (Score:2)
Use the Firefox plug-ins Ghostery, Privacy Badger, Self-destructing Cookies, and Better Privacy and everything will be pretty much wiped out.
Re:Easily defeated.... (Score:5, Interesting)
I keep 0 history. Soon as my browser closes, history is wiped. So if this simply looks at my history and serves me adds based on it, then hypothetically this would not work on my system.
Of course if they look at other things (or FF stores info in some hidden super cookie) then I will be subject to adverts like everybody else.
Are you sure about that? https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/s... [mozilla.org]
It's been broken for some time. Install SQLite Manager addon to see what data is still lurking.
Re:Easy to turn off (Score:5, Insightful)
If you don't like my foot up your ass, I can give you instructions to remove it.
Re:Easy to turn off (Score:5, Informative)
Well, if they choose to make it opt-in, then awesome, no harm no foul, and only people who turn it on will have it.
But when it is made opt-out, it says "fuck you, we'll track you unless you know enough to stop us".
And it's that kind of behavior which really pisses us off. It shouldn't be up to the average user to have to know where to disable this crap.
Just like they backed down on 3rd party cookies to keep the ad companies happy -- it's a sign that increasingly they're driven by money, instead of writing a good browser which doesn't have all of this shit in it.
If they make this crap opt in, nobody will bitch at them. But they haven't. And we're pissed off.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
There is a browser perfect for you!
http://lynx.isc.org/current/ [isc.org]