http://searchengineland.com/figz/wp-content/seloads/2012/03/firefox-secure-privacy-featured.jpg
I noticed on the new version of Firefox that it wanted mt to enable something called “Telemetry” which supposedly was so then could better debug their product. But unlike most people I actually read the agreement. This information sharing is NOT ANONYMOUS. They keep a personal database of everything and their protection of this information is squishy. So – just say NO!
Here’s some excerpts:

Legal Process and Other Disclosures

Consistent with our privacy commitments, we will scrutinize third party requests for information about you for compliance with the law, including those coming from governmental agencies or civil litigants. We may access, use, preserve or disclose information about you only when we have a good faith belief that it is reasonably necessary to do so to satisfy the applicable law, regulation, legal process or lawful governmental request of any country, or to protect the rights, property or safety of Mozilla, its users or the public. We will provide notice of legal process or governmental requests unless prohibited to do so by law or the circumstances warrant otherwise.

What and When We Share with Third Parties

Mozilla’s policy is to make Personal Information, such as your name and email address, and Potentially Personal Information, such as the URL of the site you last visited, only available to its employees, contractors, and selected contributors who signed confidentiality agreements that prohibit them from using or disclosing such information other than for approved Mozilla purposes.

We also work with third parties who provide infrastructure or back-end services (like content delivery networks, bandwidth providers, and services of an administrative nature). We may share Personal Information about you with such third parties for the purpose of enabling these third parties to provide such services.

Additionally, Mozilla may need to transfer Personal Information to an affiliate or successor in the event of a change of our corporate structure or status, such as in the event of a restructuring, sale, or bankruptcy.

 



  1. bobbo, Jr Culture/psychiatric/ethnic/social/art critic and general bonvivant says:

    That language is disturbing but I have a hunch it is what the laws requires whether it is revealed to us or not. The only exception would be those intermediaries ((mostly paid services)) that anonymize your surfing?

    Following the other thread—is being on line being private or being in public? Regardless of your net/net position, its best to assume EVERYTHING you do on line is known by those you would like least to know.

    Self awareness is such a bitch.

  2. noname says:

    Internet information sharing is really Kabuki Theater. Just like HLS is.

    My impression is, if you’re on the net, all an individual can do for the most part, is making it easier, harder or limit the amount the Government is “stealing” your Internet information, but; you can’t stop it.

    With CISPA bound to pass with most American dumbly buying into the Government manipulating and staging Kabuki Security Theater; Americans will willingly trash their Bill of Rights and evolve USA into a Police State. Companies can give information what they want to the government, and the site cannot be sued for breaking its terms of service!

    Nothing really protects Americans anymore and certainly not our government! Our government thinks we work for them and they own Americans, and not the way it used to be where the government works for U.S.

    Thank you Ronald McDonald Reagan & GWB for America 2.0, the meanest, most vicious and scared people and place on earth!

    • dusanmal says:

      Blame is not on Corporations and Government. Both have vested interest to collect data. Blame is on citizens willing to get free and even payed services (Apple!) under unbelievable enslaving conditions. People are duped into believing that being a well maintained prostitute slave is worth that maintenance.
      I know I can’t completely avoid it but I try to “drive market” on my part by a single rule: does a Corporation primarily earn selling stuff to me (I am The Customer) or is it primarily earning selling me (I am The Product). I use services of the first kind and have not used or quit cold turkey the second. You can do it. Perfect example: I use both Android tablet and phone… I do not have a Google account of any kind nor am I using any of their services. I buy apps from Amazon, who is the first type of corporation. Works perfectly fine. Yes, Amazon likely collects info on me – but I am not in their business plan as an object but as customer, hence they have limits on potential abuse – they want/need me as a customer.
      It is all free market. If you are willing to get ass-raped at every corner so that Google (or Apple) can tell you where you are and where that is – your stupid choice. If many behave like that – data whore selling booms as it is now.

  3. bobbo, Jr Culture/psychiatric/ethnic/social/art critic and general bonvivant says:

    Say nogame—is the Sun rising in the East each morning a threat to your “protection?”

    Here’s the best way to protect yourself in a general way: don’t be an asshole.

    A hard trick for so many…. but them’s the nuts.

    • noname says:

      bobbo, Unlike you, I am not threatened a bit and don’t have a hard on for more wiretapping “for my protection”.

      If you consider me an “asshole”; I gladly wear it as a badge of honor! Your opinion means very little to me and most here!

      Really, is this what you call critical thinking: “is the Sun rising in the East each morning a threat to your “protection?””?

      That has got to be the most ignorant and worthless question/statement ever! What exactly is your question supposed to answer?

      I’ve done my part defending “the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic”, what has a coward like you done?

  4. ECA says:

    TELL me how to keep ‘doubleclick’ OFF my machine and it will solve about 1/2 my problems..
    I run FF and Chrome..RARELY IE..

    Doubleclick is GOOGLE, YOUTUBE and many other locations…and its their tracking software. IT SLOWS MY BROWSERS..badly.

    • bobbo, we think with words, and flower with ideas says:

      I am happy with doubleclick. I figure I can’t stop the popup ads so why not at least have them be relevant to me?

      I haven’t noticed any slow down at all. As I have complained, about a month ago FF freezes trying to open Youtube, so I switch to IE for that.

      I doubt doubleclick is slowing you down. …. but I could be happy only in my ignorance.

    • The Monster's Lawyer says:

      So does excessive use of CAPS! 😉

    • bobbo, we think with words, and flower with ideas says:

      I just googled (remove doubleclick permanently).

      As I like it, I didn’t go farther.

    • Tim says:

      With FireFox, it’s easy: adblock, noscript, or both.

      Since running noscript, I’ve had zero hits on the doubleclick stuff with adblock (using EasyList).

      Yes, it does seem to slow down otherwise. Setting ‘allow all this page’ in noscript because I don’t know how to easily identify what is blocked for a video or something sometimes will result in lots of dicking (double-dick?) around if DClk it there. — Or maybe I’m just doing it wrong?

      • bobbo, we think with words, and flower with ideas says:

        I might be wrong, but I think I’m running no script along with doubleclick. I do know for sure that I often have to click to see content on many/most, but not all, websites AND that the ads appearing in the popups that there are do reflect my most recent browsing history==all for retail stuff like pressure cookers and induction hot plates….but…a real benefit to me has been the sidebar videos YouTube suggests for me. Most are pretty good and expand my parameters for the youtube searches I do make. Lots of good Modern Atheist speeches and debates there.

        • Tim says:

          Check your noscript whitelist… temporarily undo dclk and see if your suggestion bar is still there.

          They’re probably doing more than reading the browser cache for an overview of your culinary tastes (<–see what I did there?). With xp, you have to disable Recent Documents or something with group policy editor — I don't remember, but I was surprized to see the machine's entire browsing history stored there. There is also the issue of LSO cookies which store very much more than just flash settings — see BetterPrivacy FF addon.

          Perhaps a tool called MruBlaster would be handy?

          As you are a good atheist, I think you might enjoy Alan Watts. Did YouRube ever recommend that one in the stupid sidebar?

          youtube.com/watch?v=cl3DHp5S9gw

      • Tim says:

        Incidentally, EAC; To really keep obnoxious out then with xp it’s in the control panel-internet options-connections-lan settings and set that to use a proxy of 0.0.0.0 port 80.

        Doing this will stop crap like trying to un-install crapware which takes one straight to a website telling you how you don’t really want to remove it, certain-Lan emulators who thought gamers wouldn’t notice hundreds of animated gifs mucking up the works now just displays a simple white ‘page not found’, and so on.

        Some applications must have it reverted. GoogleEarth, for instance.

        They say it’s not really IE. Well, it looks like IE, smells like IE, and tastes like IE — try not to step in it.

    • msbpodcast says:

      It not the browsers or the tracking software, its your virus and worm infected key-logging obsolete OS that picks up cycle-wasting cruft with every “sexy midget” porn site you visit.

      • bobbo, the pragmatic existential evangelical anti-theist but ever the victim of love says:

        Sexy midget porn site?? Ha, ha. MPod–you got your wires crossed===you are tracking ME not ECA!

        Watch and see if Alan Watts turns up on your flagged listings. That should make the final determination proof positive?

    • AlanB says:

      Easy to keep Doubleclick and about 1500 other tracking cookies off your machine. Add Ghostery to FF. Plays nice with NoScript by the way.

      To further minimize data collection use StartPage as your search engine. It grabs search results from Google similar to Scroogle before it was shuttered.

    • fred says:

      There’s disconnect.me for some sort of tracking, and look for cookie whitelisting on firefox, probably chrome too.

  5. bobbo, we think with words, and flower with ideas says:

    nogame proving his moniker says:
    4/24/2013 at 4:43 am

    bobbo, Unlike you, I am not threatened a bit and don’t have a hard on for more wiretapping “for my protection”. /// Ah–if true, then your communication skills are presenting the opposite of your true self. “Americans will willingly trash their Bill of Rights and evolve USA into a Police State” … and … “Nothing really protects Americans anymore and certainly not our government!” have the unambiguous message that you feel threatened by Nanny State Survellance of your activities. You can be a freedom fighter or a sheep and proud of either selection, but its foolish to wallow between the two as you do.

    If you consider me an “asshole”; I gladly wear it as a badge of honor! Your opinion means very little to me and most here! /// More wallow. If my opinion means very little to you how could you wear it as a badge of honor? Words. They do have meaning. Words==your mastery, and failure, really does affect how and what you think. Its demonstrable, just as you do.

    Really, is this what you call critical thinking: “is the Sun rising in the East each morning a threat to your “protection?””?

    That has got to be the most ignorant and worthless question/statement ever! What exactly is your question supposed to answer? /// My question answers just how unfocused your understanding of the world is. Like the sun….. /// The sun is no threat to your legitimate interests….neither is the Security Theater you rightfully point out but then fail to appreciate.

    I’ve done my part defending “the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic”, what has a coward like you done? /// What possible difference would it make one way or the other?

    Word for Today: Wallow.

    • noname says:

      poor pathetic bobbo, the eternally determined idiot, for words alone cannot describe your depth of ignorance!

      Yes, your word today is Wallow.

  6. bobbo, we think with words, and flower with ideas says:

    nogame continuing his overmatched jagoff says:
    4/24/2013 at 5:35 am

    poor pathetic bobbo, /// how so? What am I doing that is pathetic? Be specific.

    the eternally determined idiot, /// literally, we all die. but figuratively …ok. What am I doing that an idiot would do other than coax you towards more clarity in your conflicting statements? Be specific.

    for words alone cannot describe your depth of ignorance! /// Well, on this forum, the only relevant context we have, ONLY (sorry Monster!) words can lime those depths, or looking thru that mirror of yours, the heights?

    Yes, your word today is Wallow. /// More mindless emulation evidencing the opposite of what you express you want? Ha, ha.

    Say, seriously noname==lighten up. Its just a game. Word games. Words = ideas. Just an idea game. There is no winning or losing, only whether or not you enjoy it.

    Enjoy it.

    Word for the Day: perspective.

  7. bobbo, the pragmatic existential evangelical anti-theist but ever the victim of love says:

    Tim, supporting ECA’s hijacking of this thread, but in a good way, says:
    4/24/2013 at 6:20 am

    Check your noscript whitelist… temporarily undo dclk and see if your suggestion bar is still there. /// No thanks. As stated, I like whatever my machine is doing right now…so I am happy. Don’t look at Happy too closely, like the catepillar, such contemplation may tease us from ecstasy…

    They’re probably doing more than reading the browser cache for an overview of your culinary tastes (<–see what I did there?). /// ahhh, no…. what did you do? Replace "reading" with "sampling" and I would have gotten a taste of what you might have meant…if you had said that.

    With xp, you have to disable Recent Documents or something with group policy editor — I don't remember, but I was surprized to see the machine's entire browsing history stored there. There is also the issue of LSO cookies which store very much more than just flash settings — see BetterPrivacy FF addon. /// I still run xp on one machine I used exclusively to record tv as the programs don't run on Win7. Pro's and Con's to either system and I'd be happy running either. I'll upgrade to Win8 when they make me and by that time I think they'll have a setting for the xp/win7 start screen as I know and love.

    Perhaps a tool called MruBlaster would be handy?

    As you are a good atheist, I think you might enjoy Alan Watts. Did YouRube ever recommend that one in the stupid sidebar?

    youtube.com/watch?v=cl3DHp5S9gw

    • bobbo, the pragmatic existential evangelical anti-theist but ever the victim of love says:

      Oh Shoot. And Alan Watts–I thought he died years ago? Different Watts, his father? I did not like the written summary/intro nor the first 50 seconds of the video, but like a good trooper, I’ll take another run at it later.

      “Thought does not lead to love
      The process of thought ever denies love. It is thought that has emotional complications, not love. Thought is the greatest hindrance to love. Thought creates a division between what is and ‘what should be’,” /// I call BS. Love and thought like everything else in the course of hooman affairs is……….IS…… what you make it.

      When your thoughts and love coincide, you got yourself: a situation.

      • Tim says:

        I think I love me some Samuel Adams Whitewater IPA right about now — Though, situational awareness as to recent events in Boston will cause me to savor it with a little trepidation wondering if it’s been adulterated with gmo pussify(tm) which might make me dance in the streets after sheltering in place for whatever reason.

        • bobbo, the pragmatic existential evangelical anti-theist but ever the victim of love says:

          Once a month when I stock in my beer supplies, I go with my tried and true Heineken as my main brew with Tecate or Rolling Rock in cans as my backup/quick freeze. I also try a six pack of a “new” beer if available.

          So…I have had Sam Adams and it did not make an impression on me.

          I still prefer the local micro-brewpubs but the one that was 1 mile from home closed down. Now, its a 10 mile trip to the nearest brewed on premises pub.

          A 5050 mix of a heavy dark lager with a lighter ale always seems the best to me—something you can’t find in the grocery stores as yet.

          • Tim says:

            Meh, SwollenCock and Himencan are Inbev now — corn and rice swill.

            Sounds like you would enjoy something along these lines:

            Old Chub scotch ale
            beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/2681/14712

            straighttoale.com/beer/

          • bobbo, the pragmatic existential evangelical anti-theist but ever the victim of love says:

            Sadly, no word description of any sensory perception conveys what one person experiences to another.

            Its true in all categories. I’ll pass thru Colo in a few months and will pick up a six pack though==although I always go thru the sampler if available.

  8. MikeN says:

    How about just don’t use Firefox? It has gotten really slow. I haven’t tried version 20 yet.

    It is your duty to keep the privacy protection off. This way Obama For America, now called Organizing For America, will have good knowledge of your internet browsing history for when their volunteers come to you for donations and votes. Having this history makes it easier for them to tailor their pitch to your personal tastes.

    • Tim says:

      “I haven’t tried version 20 yet.”

      HA! Still on version 4.0 here — call me a Luddite.

      • The Monster's Lawyer says:

        Ok, you’re a fellow luddite. I still have to access my floppies on my Commodore 64 with:
        OPEN 15,8,15,”UI-“:CLOSE 15

    • Hmeyers says:

      MikeN.

      Add Adblock Plus and Flash block (then in Flashblock, exempt YouTube) and Firefox is quite decent.

      The browser speed issues in Firefox mostly relate to Flash ads downloading audio and video everything.

      I’m not interested in being subjected to pages that play audio or download 10 MB of video to give me an ad, the above solve the problem quite effectively.

      • MikeN says:

        I’ll try it, but I wonder if it’ll work. I think it’s more Firefox crashing under multiple tabs open at once, and possibly the whole computer is just broken.

  9. Captain Obvious says:

    People still use Firefox? Wow.

    • Hmeyers says:

      Firefox has all kinds of ad-blocking and privacy options that will never be in Google’s interest to support.

      Therefore, I shall never use Google’s browser because I would be supporting a privacy exploiting behavior I do not wish to encourage.

    • MikeN says:

      It’s better then Internet Explorer

  10. UncDon says:

    My guess is they want to start their own little adult-oriented business after studying our “habits”:

    Mozilla Porn

    Have to admit, it has a nice ring to it!

  11. Grandpa says:

    So if they search me what are they going to find? I’m broke and then it will move on to one of you.

  12. Glenn E. says:

    This sort of news, always causes me to wonder if some Federal agency got the authors. They’re complaining about “going dark”. Which means digital security and encryption, is preventing them from snooping in on everyone’s emails and browsing. So they’re only alternative is to get the browser authors to compromise the product. But slipping a little bit of pre-engineered code, the Feds want, in. And make it just visible enough, that it can be plausibly denied, as some innocent feature. Like, helping Mozilla to improve the product. Oh please.

    If you have a car accident, does the automaker show up at the hospital, to grill you for info, in order to improve their product? If you get food poisoning, does the CDC then go thru your medical history, in order to help improve the manufactured food product? If while smoking in bed, you set your house ablaze. Does the tobacco company investigate, in order to improve their product? Similarly, I doubt either Mozilla, Adobe, or Microsoft gives a hang about improving anything, based on individual user mishaps. But it’s a great opportunity to get the user’s permission to allow all sort of data mining, to occur, without detailing what’s being reported.

  13. msbpodcast says:

    Just say NO!

    That implies that there’s somebody listening.

    You’re probably more likely to find yourself in front of a whole bunch of minions from three letter agencies with their fingers in their ears going “Lalalala… Can’t hear ya… Lalalala…

  14. neal says:

    I was using the nightlies and when this feature cropped in, I actually read the Firefox disclaimer. As much as I trust Mozilla more so than any other company, I was personally uncomfortable with the terms.

    I was explicitly looking for the terms “anonymous” and the stance on data retention and it was not addressed at all. In fact Mozilla states that they will comply with any law enforcement request and so on.


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