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.

  • lattrommi
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    62
    arrow-down
    11
    ·
    4 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.

    • ludicolo
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      2
      ·
      21 minutes ago

      Nah. Turning that feature on by default already set in stone for me their willingness to test the waters. If you don’t think auto-enabling anti-privacy features is a problem I don’t know what to tell you. It may be “small” right now, but just wait and see what else they will try to sneak in.

      Use Librewolf and Mull instead.

    • ReversalHatchery@beehaw.org
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      24
      arrow-down
      1
      ·
      3 hours 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
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      6
      ·
      4 hours ago

      is this something I need to do every single update?

      • Angry_Autist (he/him)@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        8
        ·
        2 hours ago

        The answer will always from now on be ‘yes’, for every annoying privacy invading toggle you have to change, it is in the best interest of the software creators to force you to do it in the way that benefits them most.

        Our opinions are no longer as important as their ability to harvest our data.

        • sunzu2@thebrainbin.org
          link
          fedilink
          arrow-up
          4
          arrow-down
          1
          ·
          1 hour ago

          Our opinions are no longer as important as their ability to harvest our data.

          Either you control your hardware and software OR some parasite does.

          Your choice folks

          • Angry_Autist (he/him)@lemmy.world
            link
            fedilink
            arrow-up
            2
            ·
            1 hour ago

            Ok I’ll just go grab some sand and refine it into silicon then bake my own chips then code my own kernel and OS and applications because that’s the only way to ‘control’ it.

            Companies need to be held to regulatory standards about our private data, and the ONLY reason those regulations don’t exist is because every FUCKDAMN politician in the world was born before TV had color

            • sunzu2@thebrainbin.org
              link
              fedilink
              arrow-up
              2
              ·
              1 hour ago

              I don’t disagree but bro… We both know dsddy Sam ain’t saving Z slaves… This here country got elites with slaver mentality

                • Angry_Autist (he/him)@lemmy.world
                  link
                  fedilink
                  arrow-up
                  1
                  ·
                  edit-2
                  14 minutes ago

                  No it was a shitty OS with very VERY little hardware support,

                  and he built it because the voices in his head told him to build a temple and he was too lazy to be a carpenter.

                  Have you actually installed it? Because I have. It’s BARELY an OS

                  The ‘security’ mumbo jumbo is mainly to cover his networking incompetence

    • Engywuck@lemm.ee
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      17
      arrow-down
      26
      ·
      edit-2
      4 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.