Found this notification this morning on my pixel 6.
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Even if this isn’t entirely true, you know Google wouldn’t pass up the opportunity to reduce Firefox market share to scare everyone back to Chrome.
There’s no need to reduce Firefox marketshare. Most people don’t even consider using anything else than whatever is default in their device.
Also, it’s not a Google scare tactic or a flex. Every application on the Play Store must disclose the general outlines of their data policy, including the sharing of data. Lying with those checkbox is not a good idea but they are completely informative and put there by the publishing party, so the people responsible for publishing Firefox on mobile just updated these, and this is what is shown when an app publisher say their app is sharing data with third parties.
tl;dr: it’s very likely that not a single soul at Google even looked at this, as this is just the regular behavior of the Play Store with apps that changes their data policy or indicate sharing user data with third parties.
Why the dichotomy between the chrome listing on the store then?
No idea, I’m not that obsessed with it. But do note that “The developers of these apps provided info about their data sharing practices to an app store. They may update it over time.” and “Data sharing practices may vary based on your app version, use, region, and age.”
The recent changes to Firefox terms of use (well, their introduction really) was supposedly meant to appease some regional lawmakers. Maybe it is a regional thing. Maybe they changed it again. Maybe it’s, as often with store page update, rolled out progressively to people (in either direction, whether it’s adding or removing these terms).
The point is, that’s neither a “Google” operation to put Firefox in a bad light, nor a Mozilla operation to… do whatever it is they’re doing these days. It’s just a regular message. Which, reading a lot of the replies here, is something that have to be said.
Lol if Google really wanted to kill FF they would just stop paying them half a billion a year.
It is true, unfortunately.
Mozilla now sells your data.
They literally removed the “we don’t sell your data” promise from their FAQ a few weeks ago.
terrible choice of link. There was a stack of reporting from various tech-news sites and blogs; but you’ve given as the nazi site.
The story I heard was that by of California’s definition of selling data, doing anything with user data that could benefit the company was considered selling data. So they updated their FAQ to be in line with that definition. But I could be wrong, if someone could point me to a good article I’d appreciate it.
You’re saying “exploiting” user data might have been more precise than “selling”. Either way I don’t want them doing it.
Here’s Louis Rossmann’s wiki where he details it. I hope that helps.
Thanks! Sounds like limiting risk fun y the California bill is a plausible reason, but it isn’t confirmed.
Legal Definitions of “Selling Data” Under the CCPA Are Broad: As noted above, the CCPA’s definition encompasses many data-sharing practices that may not align with common understanding of “selling data”.[16] Even if Mozilla was not directly selling user data, its search partnerships, telemetry data sharing, & sponsored content could have been interpreted as data sales if Mozilla received any financial benefit from them, all of which were actions that Mozilla has already been transparent & upfront about.
Mozilla’s Search Engine Deals Could Be Considered Data Sales: As mentioned earlier, these partnerships could legally qualify as data sales under the CCPA definition, despite being an existing part of Mozilla’s business model that consumers are already aware of.[1]
Sponsored Content in Firefox’s New Tab Page Involves Data Exchange: Mozilla dReferencesisplays sponsored content and ads on the Firefox New Tab page, which may involve user interaction data being shared with advertisers.[11] Even if the data is anonymized, the CCPA considers certain types of aggregated data as personal information if it can be linked back to users.[16]
It sounds like a bullshit excuse, to me.
If they wanted to cover their ass, they could have changed their ToS any number of different ways than what they went with.
Let’s not be naïve. All corporations are the enemy, including Mozilla.
To be fair they are a company with bills to pay and they have to shield themselves from being fined or sued. At this point I assume almost everything has been backdoored to hell and I’d rather use the product from the company with better overall terms and principles.
i’m a person with bills to pay, but if i paid those bills by endangering people, i’d be a bad person.
corporations exist to protect people from the financial and legal repercussions of their business activity.
they should not exist, and so, I will celebrate if Mozilla goes into bankruptcy.
we do not need them. control of firefox should be in the hands of a not-for-profit group, not a company.
ACAB? C being Companies.
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In short: yes.
So you’re advocating that Google shouldn’t broadcast that firefox is broadcasting your current location? Even though they do this for every other app available on Android, you’re saying they shouldn’t do this for firefox?
Why?
This notice is effectively added by the Firefox developers when they select the ability to enable location services and also tick a box thay they collect data.
They want to scare people to stay on Chrome now that they discontinued support of uBlock (not that it was ever supported on Chrome for Android anyway)
So they do this for all apps. Every single app that is in the Android ecosystem. But in your mind they’re specifically targeting firefox with this to make people “scared” huh?
Must be nice to live in denial.
There isn’t to much to reduce. I don’t think Google is scared or afraid by Firefox, like at all.
I wonder if they say people should be careful with Chrome 😂
they don’t have to! they microsoft explorered that shit
Like chrome does something different?
It integrates into the Google ecosystem well, and if that has value to a person it may just be enough to bring them back to chrome.
Who would use the Google ecosystem? Yuck. 🤮
Yes, chrome is doing something different. It is even worse!
That’s not the point they’re trying to make I think. It’s more of an attack on perfection. Like “the alternative is not perfect either so why not just stay with Chrome”. It’s not a very strong argument in general but it might be enough to keep people from switching.
the alternative is not perfect either so why not just stay
It does work for a lot of people. Seeing they need to change and adapt if they do change, and it seemingly seems to be as bad as what they’re using now, why change and face headaches and hassle.
exactly, when confronted with cognitive dissonance people look for any shitty excuse to avoid changing their minds.
No but where are you going to go. The options are shrinking.
Iron fox is another option.
Zen browser is great on desktop
Zen, at least from the few times that I’ve tried it, also has some major issues that aren’t . Like forgetting tabs in a window that has just been closed. If you accidentally close a window that you’re working, without quitting the browser, you lose everything in it. As someone who is prone to doing that when closing a tab, it’s a bit of a deal-breaker.
Waterfox works great on Android.
Fennec on mobile. LibreWolf on desktop.
Do they mean “Firefox can get your location data to pass on to pages you give permission to, who we cannot guarantee won’t share it with advertisers” or “Firefox reserves the right to do a deal to monetise the tantalising firehose of location data coming from your device unless you specifically opt out”?
Get ironfox?
fennec vs ironfox opinions?
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I would love to see a real comparison.
I’ve not heard of ironfox before this thread! Could you possibly link it? Doesn’t seem like it’s on FDroid or IzzyOnDroid
its for android, mobile.
IronFox is on F-Droid. That where I got it from at least
You have to add IronFox’s repo in F-Droid before you can install it from there. This is their Github link.
In addition to what others have said, it can be downloaded from the Accrescent app store:
I had already downloaded and installed Ironfox (FF Android fork) on my phone and have been using it for a week or so. It works identically to FF for android. Ublock Origin is working in Ironfox too.
Friendship ended with Firefox. Waterfox is my new best friend ❤️
IceCat.
Unfortunately I am primarily an android user, as I always have my phone with me.
I shall give it a go for desktop at some point though
Ironfox seems to work well on Android.
Google: “Forcing us to divest Chrome could have impacts on our ability to support Mozilla and their high executive salaries as we own the space with Chrome.”
Also Google:
Pot Calling Kettle… etc… 🤣
This is not at all a pot kettle situation, there is no reason to warn about Firefox.
There is: default search results on FF have always legally been sold to Google, the public didn’t know since there were no terms of service or mention by FF whenever they uploaded the android version on the playstore that their users data would be collected and some be sold. Position is one of the data that may be sold as it could be used by Google to dermine which localised version of the search result is the best one to serve
And it’s not going to be Google in the future: it could be Bing, startpage, ecosia, qwant etc… As long as someone pays, then the results are sold and there needs to be a warning to users.
I know, right, the fucking balls of Google to fucking say this
Because they are legally obligated to mention it?
Are they? What law?
Probably GDPR if I had to guess. Seems like anything decent these companies do can be directly traced back to GDPR.
No GDPR does not require google to display app permissions like that…
Your just making things up.
Do you want the short or the long version?
Show me where I made something up, boss. Or do you not know what “probably” means?
Do you? Because made up satistics are still made up.
This is how misinformation starts.
If your not sure, google it before commenting. For the sanity of the internet.
Google warning you about Mozilla is just peak fucking irony
You know what they say about people who live in glass houses…
Don’t advertise others’ locations?
Do they share location data without asking though? Google has an incentive to exaggerate.
I stopped my donations to Mozilla.
Well, if there was any doubt before, with the weird ToS p.r. dance they were doing last week, now we know, for sure.
I’ve already switched to LibreWolf on the desktop. Is there a good non-Firefox browser for Android available?
IronFox, Fennec, Mull, Tor Browser
Mull is supposedly no longer being developed.
Good to know! I primarily use IronFox.
Alright gang, what are some good open source Firefox forks available on Android and Linux?
Librewolf for Linux. And ironfox on android
On Desktop I use Zen Browser. On Android I still use Brave, but I’m considering switching to a non chromium browser there some time.
I moved from Firefox on Android to Brave recently because it was too often breaking sites or taking much longer to load. Firefox just added a report broken sktes feature to the app though so maybe I’ll go back. Be the change I want to see in the world and whatnot.
Waterfox
Hey guys, did you know?
Fennec is great on Android
Great app also maintained by Mozilla
(wait, don’t tell me y’all don’t know lol)
I’ve been pretty happy with it as my casual web search browser, putting all my social media on a different browser. And it’s in F-Droid, so that always feels good.
Deactivate from settings Have https always on, protection against tracking on strict, data collection and daily ping on off.
And that’s it.
