Firefox

cross-posted from: https://fedia.io/m/Thunderbird/t/1140808

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GPT summarize:

> Mozilla's latest update on Privacy-Preserving Attribution (PPA) discusses its testing phase in Firefox, focusing on privacy in digital advertising. The prototype allows aggregated ad measurement without revealing individual user data, using cryptographic techniques and partnerships with entities like ISRG and Fastly. PPA aligns with privacy laws like GDPR and is being tested in controlled environments, such as ads for Mozilla VPN on the Mozilla Developer Network (MDN). Mozilla aims to refine PPA through feedback and expand testing while ensuring transparency and collaboration.

> I look left and right, and I'm the only one who still uses Firefox.

It is apparently possible to use Firefox containers to bypass or enable a VPN on a per-site basis. I discovered this yesterday and it makes using a VPN nowadays much easier, wish I'd heard of it ages ago. Using a SOCKS proxy this way also reduces captchas.

To setup:

1. Install Firefox Multi-Account Containers.
2. Install Container Proxy.
3. Add VPN config under Extensions (puzzle icon in toolbar) > Container proxy > Proxies (for example, Mullvad SOCKS5 proxy).
4. Make sure "Proxy DNS requests" is checked and the Uncloak canonical names setting in uBlock Origin is disabled to prevent DNS leaks.
5. Assign VPN to default and private browsing container.
6. Create a new container named e.g. "Unsecured" with the Multi-Account Container add-on and assign it a direct connection (default).
7. In VPN client, configure Firefox to use split tunneling. Example split tunneling with the Mullvad app.
8. Test default and unsecured containers against VPN website.

The Container Proxy add-on is only needed to configure the unnamed default and private browsing containers. If you want to do the inverse (create a VPN container and leave the default unprotected), you can do that solely with Multi-Account Containers under Extensions (puzzle icon in toolbar) > Multi-Account Containers > Manage Containers > Container > Advanced proxy settings.

Mozilla's interim CEO Laura Chambers "says the company is reinvesting in Firefox after letting it languish in recent years," reports Fast Company, "hoping to reestablish the browser as independent alternative to the likes of Google's Chrome and Apple's Safari.

"But some of those investments, which also include forays into generative AI, may further upset the community that's been sticking with Firefox all these years..." Chambers acknowledges that Mozilla lost sight of Firefox in recent years as it chased opportunities outside the browser, such as VPN service and email masking. When she replaced Mitchell Baker as CEO in February, the company scaled back those other efforts and made Firefox a priority again. "Yes, Mozilla is refocusing on Firefox," she says. "Obviously, it's our core product, so it's an important piece of the business for us, but we think it's also really an important part of the internet."

Some of that focus involves adding features that have become table-stakes in other browsers. In June, Mozilla added vertical tab support in Firefox's experimental branch, echoing a feature that Microsoft's Edge browser helped popularize three years ago. It's also working on tab grouping features and an easier way to switch between user profiles. Mozilla is even revisiting the concept of web apps, in which users can install websites as freestanding desktop applications. Mozilla abandoned work on Progressive Web Apps in Firefox a few years ago to the dismay of many power users, but now it's talking with community members about a potential path forward.

"We haven't always prioritized those features as highly as we should have," Chambers says. "That's been a real shift that's been very felt in the community, that the things they're asking for . . . are really being prioritized and brought to life."

Firefox was criticized for testing a more private alternative to tracking cookies which could make summaries of aggregated data available to advertisers. (Though it was only tested on a few sites, "Privacy-Preserving Attribution" was enabled by default.) But EFF staff technologist Lena Cohen tells Fast Company that approach was "much more privacy-preserving" than Google's proposal for a "Privacy Sandbox." And according to the article, "Mozilla's system only measures the success rate of ads — it doesn't help companies target those ads in the first place — and it's less susceptible to abuse due to limits on how much data is stored and which parties are allowed to access it." In June, Mozilla also announced its acquisition of Anonym, a startup led by former Meta executives that has its own privacy-focused ad measurement system. While Mozilla has no plans to integrate Anonym's tech in Firefox, the move led to even more anxiety about the kind of company Mozilla was becoming. The tension around Firefox stems in part from Mozilla's precarious financial position, which is heavily dependent on royalty payments from Google. In 2022, nearly 86% of Mozilla's revenue came from Google, which paid $510 million to be Firefox's default search engine. Its attempts to diversify, through VPN service and other subscriptions, haven't gained much traction.

Chambers says that becoming less dependent on Google is "absolutely a priority," and acknowledges that building an ad-tech business is one way of doing that. Mozilla is hoping that emerging privacy regulations and wider adoption of anti-tracking tools in web browsers will increase demand for services like Anonym and for systems like Firefox's privacy-preserving ad measurements. Other revenue-generating ideas are forthcoming. Chambers says Mozilla plans to launch new products outside of Firefox under a "design sprint" model, aimed at quickly figuring out what works and what doesn't. It's also making forays into generative AI in Firefox, starting with a chatbot sidebar in the browser's experimental branch.

Chambers "says to expect a bigger marketing push for Firefox in the United States soon, echoing a 'Challenge the default' ad campaign that was successful in Germany last summer. Mozilla's nonprofit ownership structure, and the idea that it's not beholden to corporate interests, figures heavily into those plans."

Is there a way to disable the QR scanner in the search bar? I don't need it. If I'm searching from a QR code, I generally do it from the camera app, and I've only accidentally pushed this button, never intentionally.

I changed emails on my Mozilla account, and then trying to log in again with it, it prompted me to create a new account. I made a Firefox support post 2 weeks ago but got no responses.

https://beta.maps.apple.com/

Just about the title question. Google has now legally been declared a monopoly so they no longer have a reason to be paying Mozilla. And Mozilla never had to slut themselves (and us) for Google in the first place.

Direct link: https://qsurvey.mozilla.com/s3/413b49c8ae9e

A Mozilla employee recently released a Firefox addon to change the user agent to Chrome on sites the user enables it on.

• https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/chrome-mask/
• https://reddit.com/r/firefox/comments/1eic7bj/chroe_mask_makes_firefox_wear_a_mask_to_look_like/

Updates in code base, interface, mobile development, plus improvements to the look and feel on Linux. Pretty cool to see!

> The latest Firefox Nightly build provides a feature that dramatically improves how its picture-in-picture (PIP) feature works — and I'm totally digging

I'm actually pissed. I and many other users on the forum got an email from Chris Hayes on this:

Hello,

This is a friendly email to make you aware that your personal email address is currently visible to the whole internet via Mozilla's Discourse forum. It will show up in Google Search results. The affected email is the one that this email was sent to.

Many users may not be aware that their email address is publicly visible and Mozilla has not done anything about it in the 4 years it has been known, so I've taken this into my own hands to inform you.

What can you do?

You can update your profile name to be something else (actually, profile name is completely optional, so you can leave it blank if you want).

Steps to update profile name:

1. If you search for "Mozilla Discourse forum" it should be one of the first results.
2. Login. (Top-right)
3. Click on your profile picture at the top right.
4. Then, click on your username, at the top of the dropdown menu.
5. Click on the "Preferences" button.
6. Change the "Name" field, and click "Save Changes".

How did this happen?

There's a misconfiguration with Mozilla's Discourse forum that when you sign up with your Firefox account, it will by default use your personal email address as your profile's public name.

This is not a new issue, and has been known since 2020. The Mozilla Discourse forum is not actively maintained by Mozilla, so this has yet to be fixed.

You are one of 4,630 other users impacted by this privacy issue. It impacts 19% of all forum users, and 28% of new users.

More information:

There's a Discourse discussion about this problem here: https://discourse.mozilla.org/t/email-is-displayed-by-default-for-the-new-account/92266

If you have connections to Mozilla, please help escalate this issue to the right people. This is a serious and long-standing privacy issue at an organization that should value "Privacy by default".

Sincerely,@chrisA fellow Mozillian

I am not Mozilla: This is not an official Mozilla email, I do not represent or work for Mozilla. This is an email from a fellow community member spreading awareness of this unaddressed privacy issue.

I've created 2 themes on https://color.firefox.com/ ~ one light themed & one dark themed. Would it be possible to configure these as a dynamic theme which follows my system's light/dark settings? (I'm using Fedora if that's relevant)

Sad story ahead

Today I fully removed Firefox as my main browser. It's banned from all my devices from now onwards. I used Firefox as my only browser since I was 10 years old. Which is 24 years now (24 years!). I loved

Firefox trying to be a good alternative to Chrome, promoting open-source and showing the world that privacy does matter. Sadly not anymore, recently after Mozilla hostile CEO takeover and moving the company forward to an advertisement company. Neglecting privacy. And fully want the other way around, tracking user data sending back to Mozilla. And at the same time Mozilla has also became an ads company just like Google, so there is no difference anymore really. And it only goes down-hill from here.

Furthermore, Mozilla is spending more money in AI companies then in the product Firefox itself. So..

Luckily, there are plenty great Firefox forks! Look into some of them yourself and really pick an alternative rather sooner than later:

• LibreWolf
• Floorp (I went with Floorp, thus far it's great!!!)
• Waterfox
• Mullvad

Just pick one, anything... from above list!

I know, it's sad. It's very sad, after 24 years I didn't went to leave Firefox, but this last moves was the straw that broke the camel's back. I'm out, cya at the fork!

Original Post (not mine): https://reddit.com/r/firefox/comments/1e1rskb/mozila_needs_to_learn_that_chromes_uiux_is_not/

Hi everyone, Is there any add-on I can apply to get swipe controls (volume and brightness) when watching videos on YouTube in Firefox app?

Thanks

With the version 130, Mozilla introduces a new navigation bar in Firefox for Android. If you don't like it, you can disable it in the "Secret Settings".

I was not a fan when it popped out on my screen. But, after sometime, it's pretty useful and saves a tap on the three dots button.

I wanted to share a setup I’ve been using to maintain a clean desktop while using Firefox in fake fullscreen mode. This setup allows Firefox to run fullscreen with auto-hiding tabs and search elements that only show when hovered over, without pushing the webpage content down.

• Install cage, can be found for most distros
• Run and test application -d removes desktop decorations, firefox command 'firefox -somecommand' cage 'firefox' -d
• If running correctly edit launch options in de or .desktop file Exec=cage 'firefox' -d then install auto-fullscreen extension

its a long work around especially when its possible to get a similar result from editing about:config but this way the tab and searchbar act as a seperate element meaning no misclicking. if anyone has cleaner solution chime in please.

I want URLs of a page to stay the same no matter where I scroll, including on Discourse where stopping at a certain comment changes the url to that comment's number. Scroll this page to see: https://meta.discourse.org/t/should-url-change-as-you-scroll/55302

Thunderbird's addon store is very lacking to compare to Firefox. Are there even technical limitations to this if Thunderbird use Firefox / Gecko under the hood?

Crossposted another Reddit user's post: https://reddit.com/r/firefox/comments/1dso5sz/easy_trick_to_make_firefox_compact_1_in_firefoxs/