Firefox's AI Switch Is Off. Telemetry Isn't(marius.blog)

32 pointsby speckx5 hours ago10 comments

VCFundedGenYer22 minutes ago
Vanilla Firefox is a swamp of user-hostile defaults, telemetry, useless AI features, and forced addons that try to upsell you.
The most sensible way to get around this is to use LibreWolf or Waterfox. They aggressively rip all of this out.
jasonvorhe4 hours ago
> To be clear, I know that the AI kill switch does not claim to disable telemetry or advertising.
Well, at least it's not the closing sentence.
- mossTechnician2 hours ago
  The troubling part in the post is that telemetry (about AI features) begins before the user can rush to disable either of them.
  It's a response to the Mozilla CEO saying[0] "Trust is earned. Consent is asked. AI skipped both," which promised to ameliorate this issue, and apparently did not.
  [0]: https://aed.me/articles/turn-it-off/
- Farmadupe4 hours ago
  Thankyou! that title was painful, I spent 20 seconds term rewriting it in my head..
  * Firefox's AI Switch Is Off. Telemetry Isn't
  * Firefox's AI Switch Is Off. Telemetry Isn't off [complete second clause]
  * Firefox's Telemetry Isn't Off [remove negative clause]
  * Firefox's Telemetry Is On [remove double negative]
  ----
  Admittedly I didn't read past the first two paragraphs, but I assume it is a several hundred word repetition of its tautologous title.
userbinator4 hours ago
It's somewhat cathartic to go through the settings and JS parts, using the source as a guide, and rip out/disable all the spyware, which you can do even without having to build the whole thing from source.
Since I do my content filtering at the proxy level, all I want is just a browser .
- anonymous3443 hours ago
  how? i used pihole, but it slows down everything
overflowy3 hours ago
I love Firefox but I don't understand why anybody would use it without a custom config like BetterFox[1].
[1] https://github.com/yokoffing/Betterfox
- bsian3 hours ago
  Because my browser is an extremely sensitive piece of software and I don’t trust just anybody to provide it for me.
  - kbelder21 minutes ago
    Least of all, a browser publisher.
  - overflowy2 hours ago
    That's literally just a configuration file. You can adapt it to your needs and create something even more tailored than the browser's default version.
3 hours ago
undefined
jqpabc1234 hours ago
Just follow the money.
metalman41 minutes ago
I cant stand firefox for browsing, and now rarely access the web through a lap/desk top and just usb transfer files I create onto my phone, from where they get sent via whatever service is required. The web is dead anyway, so any random browser is good enough,as the whole fucking thing is a giant scam me baby honey pot if anything and one of these days a bunch of mega scraper operations are going to get stuck to each other and litteraly catch on fire, which would be interesting, remember that?, interesting things, ha!, now the reaction is to look over your shoulder to see if anyone noticed you bieng had.
jamesjhare4 hours ago
water is wet
the sky is blue
surcap5264 hours ago
[dead]
drnick14 hours ago
There shouldn't be any telemetry in free software, end of. There are other ways to estimate the number of active users, e.g. through downloads and browser fingerprints.
Mozilla does not need more money than it already has. Ladybird has shown that you don't need a huge team to build a browser from scratch, so clearly Mozilla isn't spending all the money it gets from Google for development.
- demibabs4 hours ago
  I don’t get this take. There’s good reasons to have telemetry in any software. Doesn’t really have to do with whether it’s free or not.
  Of course, it’s also good to have the option to disable it.
  - ginko4 hours ago
    Telemetry should be opt-in.
- zamadatix2 hours ago
  This is like saying you shouldn't have a computer because you can do addition yourself. Okay, what about all of the other use cases? Besides, collecting stats based on downloads/updates/etc is still telemetry.
  I'm perfectly fine with telemetry in any software, free or paid. Just make it opt-in and don't turn into cookie notice style malicious compliance about that.
- nickthegreek3 hours ago
  > There shouldn't be any telemetry in free software, end of.
  Don't install it if you dont want it, that is where you choice lies. Telemetry inclusion is up to the author. Good ones will make it opt-in if it is truly necessary to include.
  > Ladybird has shown that you don't need a huge team to build a browser from scratch
  Ladybird has done no such thing.
- sourthyme4 hours ago
  Does Firefox sell this data? That would be bad and should be able to turn off. But there's other uses for telemetry that can help free software.
  - JohnFen3 hours ago
    Like with any software, you can't ever really be sure if they share this data with other entities. That's part of why I don't let software phone home, FOSS or not.
  - throwa3562623 hours ago
    Why gather this much data if you are not monetizeing it?
    It has a cost and can also become a liability. You don't do it just for fun.
- kibwen4 hours ago
  > There are other ways to estimate the number of active users
  The point of telemetry is not to estimate the number of active users, and focusing on "telemetry" is the wrong bogeyman. Things like crash reports are telemetry, and are perfectly acceptable as long as the user remains in control over whether or not to send them. Software should respect user privacy and user control.
  - wtallis2 hours ago
    At some point, the pervasive unethical behavior of having telemetry on by default instead of opt-in, not just in proprietary software but also in open-source software and even from Mozilla itself becomes overwhelming enough that "telemetry=bad" becomes a reasonable summary of the situation. We need a new word specifically for ethical opt-in data collection.