Post AlzWmD0d2FqJyRIB60 by ryanfb@digipres.club
(DIR) More posts by ryanfb@digipres.club
(DIR) Post #AlwjVenVBLDbAGi6Ns by ryanfb@digipres.club
2024-09-12T15:21:23Z
0 likes, 3 repeats
Mozilla, reading the room extremely well, seemingly just recently flipped the switch to enable-by-default sponsored weather results from AccuWeather in every new Firefox tab you open. Clicking "Learn more" takes you here, with zero information on if your location is sent to AccuWeather every time you open a new tab: https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/customize-items-on-firefox-new-tab-pageProbably only noticed because I normally have a blank new tab page but this showed up after updating Firefox!
(DIR) Post #AlwjVgCLyQgvVdLSl6 by ryanfb@digipres.club
2024-09-12T15:22:18Z
0 likes, 0 repeats
Furthermore, would "hiding weather on new tab" actually stop this feature from still regularly sending my location to AccuWeather? Great question! I have no idea
(DIR) Post #AlwjVhUp9F3nXCzjBg by ryanfb@digipres.club
2024-09-12T15:39:42Z
0 likes, 0 repeats
After checking about:config, "Hide weather on New Tab" sets the config value "browser.newtabpage.activity-stream.feeds.showWeather" to "false", but leaves "browser.newtabpage.activity-stream.feeds.weatherfeed" as the default of "true". So, my suspicion was correct, #Firefox is still sending your location off every 30 minutes to get the weather in the background by default even if you disable this new widget: https://searchfox.org/mozilla-central/source/browser/components/newtab/lib/WeatherFeed.sys.mjs #infosec #privacy
(DIR) Post #AlwjViwVlmnm1MxLyy by ryanfb@digipres.club
2024-09-12T15:44:20Z
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I think "constantly broadcast my location to a 3rd party by default and don't tell me about it or what's happening with that data and then keep doing it when I think I've disabled it" is pretty obviously a terrible privacy default
(DIR) Post #AlwjVjqsODt8qBKMq0 by ryanfb@digipres.club
2024-09-12T16:19:11Z
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Even more concerning than just the privacy issue this presents on its own, is that this feature made it all the way through to wide release without these objections being heard or maybe even raised https://digipres.club/@ryanfb/113125414314546768
(DIR) Post #Alx78B67ptt1IBl5c0 by tyil@fedi.tyil.nl
2024-09-13T06:39:19.165Z
0 likes, 0 repeats
@ryanfb@digipres.club This is exactly why I tend to stay on ESR releases, it allows me some time to see the community discover #Firefox's new anti-features, and pre-emptively update my configuration to disable them where possible.
(DIR) Post #Alx9QIrbtwDCUyjvOq by tyil@fedi.tyil.nl
2024-09-13T07:05:03.166Z
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@ryanfb@digipres.club This page describes how #Firefox "integrates" with AccuWeather, although it is about address bar integration. I can't say for sure if these are the exact same thing, but they read quite similar.
(DIR) Post #AlyoqGypoiUTSta4K8 by tomjennings@tldr.nettime.org
2024-09-14T02:23:51Z
0 likes, 0 repeats
@JustinDerrickWhy do you think that is true? @pndc @litteracarolina @ryanfb
(DIR) Post #AlypM4yJzzo9UMVVJ2 by tomjennings@tldr.nettime.org
2024-09-14T02:29:37Z
0 likes, 0 repeats
@ryanfb Browser bloat is terminal. Firefox hogs my machine to a standstill Wtf is with the endless escalation of feature? It's a cultural illness. AccuWeather? Seriously wtf. They all get their data from NOAA anyway -- www.weather.gov is great. It it's HTML is very last year -- and too many people mistake aesthetics with meaning and value.
(DIR) Post #AlzWhLCZ9Fwrw0YRm4 by vv221@fediverse.dotslashplay.it
2024-09-13T13:46:41Z
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The worst enemy of Firefox is not Google Chrome. It is Mozilla.
(DIR) Post #AlzWmBRqq4Qj8I0tFY by Osmose@digipres.club
2024-09-12T15:53:46Z
0 likes, 0 repeats
@ryanfb I dunno if it's documented anywhere and I'm not a fan of the widget, but according to someone on the Mozilla alumni Slack server it sends location data through a proxy such that your location is never tied to your IP address or any other info before AccuWeather sees it.I really wish they put that on the settings for it, instead of just... not mentioning it. Ugh.
(DIR) Post #AlzWmCIJh0Ohl0Yn1k by zackbatist@archaeo.social
2024-09-12T16:30:34Z
0 likes, 0 repeats
@Osmose @ryanfb It's documented for another weather-related feature here: https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/get-your-local-weather-forecast-firefox-address-bar
(DIR) Post #AlzWmD0d2FqJyRIB60 by ryanfb@digipres.club
2024-09-12T16:36:55Z
0 likes, 0 repeats
@zackbatist @Osmose they absolutely need to link to that from the weather section of the support page “learn more” currently links to from the weather widget
(DIR) Post #AlzWmDlQEHH0JZBY24 by dannycolin@floss.social
2024-09-13T00:04:52Z
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@ryanfb @zackbatist @Osmose You know what's nice about support.mozilla.org is that you can contribute to it now that you know the answer. You know what's even more mind blowing? You could have asked someone before going on a rant but hey I guess it's easier to shit on Mozilla than helping.
(DIR) Post #AlzWmEKW7nLW4PbZjc by ryanfb@digipres.club
2024-09-13T00:41:36Z
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@dannycolin good to know that this is actually MY problem that I personally need to fix for everyone because I’m the one who raised it, and not Mozilla’s for shipping a feature to wide release in this sorry-ass poorly-documented state. And fixing the docs doesn’t fix the underlying pref behavior or defaulting to being newly enabled without consent on every install
(DIR) Post #AlzWmEsY5GZHlxWkmO by dannycolin@floss.social
2024-09-13T00:57:09Z
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@ryanfb And throwing rocks at people on the web doesn't fix the underlying problem either. At the very least, you could have asked someone and/or file a bug as I said earlier. Someone would actually have been more than happy to help fix the issue because SURPRISE it got filed pretty quickly when folks at Mozilla discovered it https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1918539Again, I guess it's easier to blame the world and enjoy your feeling of entitlement. That's definitely how we'll reclaim the internet.
(DIR) Post #AlzWmFNkDHWPKi7fP6 by ryanfb@digipres.club
2024-09-13T01:08:24Z
0 likes, 0 repeats
@dannycolin yes, I do actually believe I’m entitled to use my web browser without it newly-defaulting to constantly broadcasting my location, and that turning the feature off should turn the broadcasting off. Those expectations were violated and I felt that other privacy-conscious Firefox users would like to be aware of this new behavior and how to actually disable it.If Mozilla doesn’t need my consent to enable it by default, I certainly don’t need their consent to publicly complain about it.