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STOCKHOLM, Sept 25 (Reuters) - Vienna-based advocacy group NOYB on Wednesday said it has filed a complaint with the Austrian data protection authority against Mozilla accusing the Firefox browser maker of tracking user behaviour on websites without consent.

NOYB (None Of Your Business), the digital rights group founded by privacy activist Max Schrems, said Mozilla has enabled a so-called “privacy preserving attribution” feature that turned the browser into a tracking tool for websites without directly telling its users.

Mozilla had defended the feature, saying it wanted to help websites understand how their ads perform without collecting data about individual people. By offering what it called a non-invasive alternative to cross-site tracking, it hoped to significantly reduce collecting individual information.

  • lattrommiEnglish
    336·
    2 hours ago

    All the naysayers in these comments read like shills and if they aren’t, they really should read how the tracking in question works. https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/privacy-preserving-attribution?as=u&utm_source=inproduct

    While it was kinda lame for Mozilla to add it with it already opted-in the way they did, they were still completely open about how it works from the start with a link right next to the feature in settings (the same link pasted above) and it’s far less invasive than the other mainstream browsers.

    It can be turned off too, easily. It requires unchecking a checkbox. No jumping through 10 different menus trying to figure out how to turn it off, like a certain other browser does with its monstrous tracking and data collection machine.

    With ublock origin it’s also moot, since ublock origin blocks all the ads anyways.

    Call me a fanboy if you want, I wont care. Firefox is still the superior browser in my opinion.

    • ReversalHatchery@beehaw.orgEnglish
      91·
      54 minutes ago

      I think a big part of the problem is that they didn’t show anyone a notification or an onboarding dialog or whatever about this feature, when it got introduced.

      Firefox is still the superior browser in my opinion.

      or the least bad, as I have been thinking about it lately

    • tetris11
      2·
      2 hours ago

      is this something I need to do every single update?

    • Engywuck@lemm.ee
      1016·
      2 hours ago

      Call me a fanboy if you want,

      I will.

      It can be turned off too, easily.

      Same for Chrome.

      With ublock origin it’s also moot, since ublock origin blocks all the ads anyways.

      This is a non-argument; uBO ins’t even developed by Mozilla, so they don’t deserve credit for it.

      • TrickDacy@lemmy.world
        82·
        1 hour ago

        Is there any opportunity to rage about Firefox that you don’t take? Seriously, so predictable