[HN Gopher] Each Firefox download has a unique identifier
       ___________________________________________________________________
        
       Each Firefox download has a unique identifier
        
       Author : gslin
       Score  : 173 points
       Date   : 2022-03-17 19:48 UTC (3 hours ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (www.ghacks.net)
 (TXT) w3m dump (www.ghacks.net)
        
       | EastSmith wrote:
       | Dead browser moves.
        
       | sciurus wrote:
       | It's sounds like this is describing the stub attribution feature.
       | You can read more details at
       | 
       | https://wiki.mozilla.org/Firefox/Stub_Attribution
       | 
       | https://bedrock.readthedocs.io/en/latest/stub-attribution.ht...
        
       | moonshinefe wrote:
       | "Principle 4: Individuals' security and privacy on the internet
       | are fundamental and must not be treated as optional."[1]
       | 
       | https://www.mozilla.org/en-US/about/manifesto/
        
         | encryptluks2 wrote:
         | If you tell a lie big enough and keep repeating it, people will
         | eventually come to believe it.
        
         | zagrebian wrote:
         | How was this principle violated in this case?
        
           | kreeben wrote:
           | It gives Mozilla the opportunity to connect my IP address
           | with my browser with my Mozilla account. Mozilla needs to bow
           | down to the US govt and supply them with this information
           | should they have stored it, if the govt feels they need it.
        
       | bayindirh wrote:
       | > A quick check of Chrome installers returned identical hashes
       | each time.
       | 
       | OK, however, are we completely sure that Chrome installer doesn't
       | generate this token on launch and talk with the mothership?
       | 
       | This sounds like whitewashing Chrome just to increase the impact
       | of the article or push Chrome or both.
       | 
       | Like Chrome is not tracking me in and out of the internet and in
       | the kitchen making tea and noting its brand and reporting to
       | Google.
        
         | Tijdreiziger wrote:
         | Chrome has the X-Client-Data header:
         | https://github.com/bromite/bromite/issues/480
        
           | aftbit wrote:
           | Of which there are (supposedly) only 2^13 possible variants:
           | 
           | >Additionally, a subset of low entropy variations are
           | included in network requests sent to Google. The combined
           | state of these variations is non-identifying, since it is
           | based on a 13-bit low entropy value (see above). These are
           | transmitted using the "X-Client-Data" HTTP header, which
           | contains a list of active variations. On Android, this header
           | may include a limited set of external server-side
           | experiments, which may affect the Chrome installation. This
           | header is used to evaluate the effect on Google servers - for
           | example, a networking change may affect YouTube video load
           | speed or an Omnibox ranking update may result in more helpful
           | Google Search results.
           | 
           | https://www.google.com/chrome/privacy/whitepaper.html#variat.
           | ..
        
         | zagrebian wrote:
         | > This sounds like whitewashing Chrome just to increase the
         | impact of the article
         | 
         | I removed ghacks from my RSS reader years ago because that
         | website tends to sensationalize these stories, and I can't
         | stand that.
        
         | brimble wrote:
         | Considering that ~everyone was tracking device or installation
         | IDs before Apple cracked down on it, on iOS, I think it's a
         | safe bet that ~everyone is still doing it on desktop, and yeah,
         | generating at install time is probably enough for most use
         | cases and makes your build and distribution processes simpler.
        
         | SahAssar wrote:
         | The way firefox does it can connect the downloading session
         | with the running session. You can argue with the value or
         | validity of that, but it seems like the chrome installer cant
         | do that, which is nice.
         | 
         | As for why it's in the article I think it's valuable to include
         | it since if chrome was doing it too it might be seen as just
         | "normal", but now it seems even more weird that firefox which
         | is supposed to be the privacy alternative is tracking something
         | that google is not.
        
         | LordDragonfang wrote:
         | >OK, however, are we completely sure that Chrome installer
         | doesn't generate this token on launch and talk with the
         | mothership?
         | 
         | That wouldn't give any information about where/when you got the
         | installer from, which is the topic of this article. Doing so
         | would be impossible without embedding information in the exe
         | (which would change the hash).
         | 
         | While I agree that it's a little weird to specifically note it
         | for Google of all companies, the relevance to the article is
         | that Chrome isn't engaging in _this specific type of tracking._
        
       | noobermin wrote:
       | Mozilla is fast becoming the bad guy even when they are pitched
       | as the "alternative to google (as in chrome)." This is so
       | disappointing.
        
       | klntsky wrote:
       | > This will allow us to track which installs result from which
       | downloads to determine the answers to questions like, "Why do we
       | see so many installs per day, but not that many downloads per
       | day?"
       | 
       | What value does Mozilla see in being able to do that?
        
         | Barrin92 wrote:
         | the reverse case might be more interesting. Many downloads but
         | few install follow throughs may suggest the installation
         | process is to cumbersome or something along those lines.
        
         | cxr wrote:
         | The prevailing belief in the industry is that any problem can
         | be solved with more data, dumpster-grade[1] though it may be.
         | It's appealing to think that it can be used in lieu of just
         | making thoughtful decisions.
         | 
         | 1. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25016532
        
         | ahmedfromtunis wrote:
         | I have no idea what the actual answer is, but one can image
         | that they want to understand where are people getting these
         | copies of ff if they do not download them themselves.
         | 
         | Why would this be important, again just speculating: to try to
         | leverage whatever channel this might uncover to distribute even
         | more copies of the browser.
         | 
         | Is this ID thing the best way to do it, though? Probably.
        
           | foerbert wrote:
           | Does this even help with that though? Without some further
           | means of identifying users, what use is there in saying
           | download#123 got installed x times? Even if you add the
           | obvious IP information to this, then what? Run GeoIP and say
           | "oh, interesting" when they do or do not correlate?
           | 
           | What could they realistically figure out from this that could
           | help them figure out how people are getting Firefox?
        
           | noAnswer wrote:
           | > but one can image that they want to understand where are
           | people getting these copies of ff if they do not download
           | them themselves.
           | 
           | These people are getting it obviously from their admins!
           | (Like myself. I push Firefox updates to close to 1000 PCs. I
           | thought (amongst other things) I'm doing them a favour by
           | saving them traffic.) They obviously know that! The real
           | reason they are doing this is simply because they started
           | collecting data. Now they are hooked and constantly want
           | more. That is all there is to it. They already identify each
           | individual installation, so someone on the team said: Let's
           | identify each download too.
        
             | detaro wrote:
             | > _These people are getting it obviously from their
             | admins!_
             | 
             | That's one possibility. And even if you pretend it's the
             | only one, it's still interesting how that's distributed. Is
             | it X admins of 1000-PC orgs, or X*500 people who also
             | install it on dads PC?
        
       | xnx wrote:
       | This is late-stage Firefox behavior. Like Yahoo in 2012.
        
       | marginalia_nu wrote:
       | This wouldn't be so bad if it wasn't that the entire brand
       | identity of Firefox is Privacy.
       | 
       | It's like discovering there's ham in a vegetarian sandwich. When
       | you ask them they look puzzled and say their focus group was
       | clear it tastes a lot better that way, besides it's just a little
       | bit and the bread is vegetarian and there's way more meat in a
       | Big Mac.
        
         | detaro wrote:
         | This also wouldn't be so bad if people were capable of nuance
         | instead of acting as if everything involving data were the same
         | thing. I won't claim Mozilla is in any way perfect, but even as
         | someone who is very much pro-privacy it is a little bit
         | ridiculous how much people loose their shit about tiny things
         | like this and claim there is no difference to what other
         | trackers do.
        
         | [deleted]
        
       | Wojakmeme wrote:
       | Opt-out after tracking already happend? Sounds GDPR violating to
       | me.
        
         | Teandw wrote:
         | That's not how GDPR works. This isn't gathering personal data,
         | PII or anything similar so wouldn't fall under the scope of
         | GDPR.
        
           | pbhjpbhj wrote:
           | IP address can be PII.
           | 
           | What are they hooking the download tracking code to if not
           | IPs?
           | 
           | If you sign up for a Mozilla account, providing PII, are you
           | saying they then throw away the link between the install and
           | original download?
        
       | gjsman-1000 wrote:
       | Remember what happened when Firefox OS died? It was forked into
       | KaiOS, which has become a superior product that actually found a
       | market.
       | 
       | I will not mourn the death of Mozilla. When it collapses, may it
       | be forked and turn into something decent by more competent
       | leaders who don't give themselves multimillion dollar salaries
       | and make pointless acquisitions.
        
         | soundnote wrote:
         | But KaiOS is not a high status Cali techie project.
        
       | [deleted]
        
       | cf141q5325 wrote:
       | From the linked bugzilla
       | https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1677497#c0
       | 
       | >One note, in case it's not already clear: The download token
       | will be available in the telemetry environment, but all web
       | session data that it is linked to will NOT ever be included in
       | telemetry, it is being deliberately kept in a separate data set,
       | and we will be limiting access to the ability to join these data
       | sets to a small set of people.
       | 
       | Small set of people? Pls do tell me more
        
       | blibble wrote:
       | how does this get through the MS smartscreen and authenticode
       | checks?
        
         | dataflow wrote:
         | In fact this _is_ how you get past SmartScreen checks. Windows
         | freaks out a lot more when it sees the same file being
         | downloaded by lots of people, but if you make them all
         | different, then it calms down.
        
         | laurent123456 wrote:
         | As long as the executable is signed (and it must be), and the
         | company well known, Windows should be fine with it.
        
       | whatshisface wrote:
       | Package manager installations wouldn't have this problem because
       | everybody gets the same copy of the same binary and associated
       | files, rights?
        
         | Tijdreiziger wrote:
         | Chocolatey and WinGet don't.
         | 
         | Looks like Chocolatey gets the binary from download.mozilla.org
         | [1], while WinGet gets it from download-
         | installer.cdn.mozilla.net [2] (which looks to be the HTTPS
         | repository mentioned in the article, thus being exempt from
         | tracking?)
         | 
         | [1] https://community.chocolatey.org/packages/Firefox#files
         | 
         | [2] https://github.com/microsoft/winget-
         | pkgs/blob/master/manifes...
        
           | eikenberry wrote:
           | This is the difference between a distribution and a simple
           | package manager. Linux distributions have a more holistic
           | approach to this and enforce it with checksums, signatures,
           | reproducible builds, etc. A package manager really only cares
           | about managing the packages installation, dependencies, etc.
           | Not the integrity of the packages themselves.
        
         | pxeger1 wrote:
         | Package manager installations are normally built from source by
         | the distribution maintainers, not downloaded as binaries from
         | the Mozilla website. So they wouldn't have any "download
         | identifier", unique or not, in them.
        
         | Arnavion wrote:
         | Yes. Just like with the Audacity kerfuffle some time ago, it's
         | not a problem for distro packages, only when you get your
         | binaries from upstream.
        
         | politelemon wrote:
         | Correct and it's just one of many reasons why checksums and
         | signatures are so important in package managers. There's an
         | automatic enforcement of privacy and integrity.
        
           | gary_0 wrote:
           | Reproducible builds are important as well.
        
       | pxeger1 wrote:
       | Is the current Mozilla CEO a plant by Google with the goal of
       | driving Mozilla into the ground as much as possible? I don't
       | understand how they can keep fucking up their business so badly.
        
         | soundnote wrote:
         | "The simplest way to explain the behavior of any bureaucratic
         | organization is to assume that it is controlled by a cabal of
         | its enemies."
        
         | wubbert wrote:
         | Mozilla does get a lot of their funding from Google...
        
         | peakaboo wrote:
         | A download identifier really isn't that bad. Maybe they need to
         | actually show some numbers of their downloads to justify
         | budgets and other things.
         | 
         | It's not like they are having tracking JavaScript on 80% of the
         | worlds Web sites like someone else I know, starting with
         | Googl...
        
           | paranoidrobot wrote:
           | Download counts dont need you to embed a unique token.
           | 
           | At the most basic level, you can get this by doing a count
           | over http logs.
        
         | [deleted]
        
       | brimble wrote:
       | How... does that play nicely with signing and notarization on
       | Windows and Mac? Asking for a friend :-)
        
       | bradyd wrote:
       | From the dltoken_data_review.md [1]:
       | 
       | >> 9) If this data collection is default on, what is the opt-out
       | mechanism for users?
       | 
       | >> Standard Telemetry Opt-Out
       | 
       | If you haven't installed it yet, how can you use the standard
       | telemetry opt-out?
       | 
       | [1]
       | https://bug1677497.bmoattachments.org/attachment.cgi?id=9195...
        
       | tag2103 wrote:
       | Oh look- yet another company that has been discovered to be
       | dishonest in their approach to user privacy.
        
       | dmead wrote:
       | Why?
        
       | mindslight wrote:
       | IMO as market optimization turns the screws ever harder, the
       | escape hatch is to head towards source distributions. Outrage
       | articles are only necessary because people have come to rely on
       | these monolithic binary downloads with their "channels" and
       | "installers" and "auto updaters", that are gatekept by
       | centralized entities like Mozilla. Whereas if say the source
       | tarball used by Nix is engaging in similar shenanigans, that is
       | fixable with a self-applied patch rather than needing to convince
       | Mozilla to change.
        
       | russdpale wrote:
       | The state of web broswers is so pathetic I wish the government
       | would step in and limit the amount of out right spying that is
       | going on. We have created an entire society which thinks that so
       | long as the data is simply 1 degree removed from anonymity, that
       | everything is ok.
       | 
       | Privacy is largely a mirage, where are our representatives to
       | protect our privacy when the "free" market cannot, and indeed
       | will not, do it for us?
        
       | fleddr wrote:
       | "Mozilla notes that the opt-out mechanism is the standard
       | Telemetry opt-out. How users may opt-out before the installation
       | of Firefox is unclear."
       | 
       | As dry as German humor gets :)
        
       | gjsman-1000 wrote:
       | I hate WebKit and Blink's domination as much as anyone, but
       | rather than put up a strong fight, Firefox is _begging_ to lose.
       | 
       | And unfortunately, I can't help but admit that Firefox _deserves_
       | to lose (not just from this, but from other terrible decisions
       | added up), even if the consequences of a web monoculture are
       | terrible.
        
         | noobermin wrote:
         | How much of the drama of the last three years can be laid
         | squarely at the feet of the CEO who gave themselves a raise
         | right when they laid off the MDN staff?
        
       | car_analogy wrote:
       | Suppose you want to do something anonymously.
       | 
       | 1. Download installer from Mozilla from your home network -
       | Mozilla now has your home IP and installer ID.
       | 
       | 2. Transfer it via USB key to a secure, anonymous computer - one
       | not linked to you, on a network not associated with you, such as
       | public WiFi.
       | 
       | 3. Install Firefox using that installer on said computer. It
       | transmits the installer ID to Mozilla, which matches the one
       | given to your home IP, thereby deanonymizing you.
       | 
       | 4. Mozilla receives a warrant for this information, or it is
       | hacked, or the organization is infiltrated by a single government
       | or corporate spy.
       | 
       | Edit: It gets worse. Suppose a newspaper IT department takes care
       | of providing Firefox and other trusted software installers to
       | their reporters. Now Mozilla can determine who that newspaper
       | helped with IT, such as journalists or sources. Or if you provide
       | trusted software to your friends, Mozilla gets part of your
       | social graph.
        
         | zagrebian wrote:
         | > Mozilla now has your home IP
         | 
         | Since when does Mozilla collect IP addresses?
        
           | car_analogy wrote:
           | Any connection to Mozilla's servers reveals your IP to them.
           | Given the amount of telemetry in Firefox, it's foolish to
           | assume they don't log these IPs. And in either case, they
           | could be legally compelled to. But afaik, under US law, they
           | cannot be compelled to subvert their software, e.g. to add
           | such spyware features if they were not already present.
        
             | zagrebian wrote:
             | Why would Mozilla need the IP address? It doesn't seem
             | useful for their telemetry.
        
           | idiotsecant wrote:
           | They had to serve you the file, for which they needed your
           | IP. If they're willing to assign each downloaded client a
           | unique ID what are the odds they are _not_ storing the IP
           | address associated with that unique ID?
        
             | zagrebian wrote:
             | Why would Mozilla need the IP address?
        
               | bobkazamakis wrote:
               | ...to respond to requests to their server? you can't
               | establish a tcp connection without both ends.
        
               | car_analogy wrote:
               | Why would they need installer IDs? The question is if
               | they collect it, not if they need it, and all their other
               | behavior suggests that they do collect it.
        
               | zagrebian wrote:
               | The article explains why: to figure out why there are
               | more installs than downloads.
        
               | kreeben wrote:
               | Playing your game, why would Mozilla need to know this?
        
               | Zircom wrote:
               | They can probably reach the same conclusions about why
               | there might be more installs than downloads by thinking
               | about it for maybe 5 seconds instead of tracking people.
               | 
               | Easiest explanation off the top of my head, without
               | reading the article, would be IT departments including
               | Firefox in their base image they use on all their
               | standard issue computers, resulting in hundreds and
               | possibly thousands of different installs having the same
               | download ID. That alone by itself would cause an
               | absolutely massive discrepancy between download and
               | install numbers. My company includes Firefox in our base
               | image and it's on at least 200,000 different laptops and
               | desktops, with a handful of different download IDs
               | between them depending on when they got issued the
               | computer.
        
           | KennyBlanken wrote:
           | You seem to be unaware that intelligence services have been
           | hoovering up internet traffic wholesale for decades, and that
           | telcos do it internally as well. Verizon's "supercookie" is a
           | great example.
        
             | zagrebian wrote:
             | But Mozilla is not a government agency or a telco.
        
               | foerbert wrote:
               | Are government agencies somehow restricted to compromise
               | telcos but not any other organization?
        
         | systemvoltage wrote:
         | I can't remember exactly but Apple also does this with apps.
         | "Downloaded from ...".
        
           | dylan604 wrote:
           | Isn't that just storing the domain name from which served the
           | file? I actually find this useful for those times when I
           | can't remember where a file came from but need to use the
           | site again. Having that data in a Get Info windo has been
           | useful and faster than web searching.
        
           | weikju wrote:
           | Except this is an attribute saved on the file locally on your
           | system, added by your browser when you download it, not
           | something that Apple stores on their servers and tracks.
        
         | Nbox9 wrote:
         | What's your point, that someone can attempt to do something
         | anonymously and fail?
        
           | car_analogy wrote:
           | My point is that they failed only because they were betrayed
           | by the free software tool they thought they could trust.
        
           | encryptluks2 wrote:
           | No the point is that Mozilla is dishonest about their causes
           | and consistently take actions that are hostile to user's
           | privacy.
        
       | hosteur wrote:
       | How is this not a blatant violation of EU GDPR?
       | 
       | This is involuntary non informed tracking.
        
         | woodruffw wrote:
         | My understanding of the GDPR is that it doesn't apply if the
         | analytics are fully anonymized, and only partially applies if
         | the analytics are pseudonymous[1]. It's exceedingly likely that
         | one of these cases applies, since the ID in question is tied to
         | a single Mozilla _installation_ , not individual user or even
         | browser profile.
         | 
         | [1]: https://www.ucl.ac.uk/data-protection/guidance-staff-
         | student...
        
       | kbelder wrote:
       | Firefox users who prefer to download the browser without the
       | unique identifier may do so in the following two ways:
       | Download the Firefox installer from Mozilla's HTTPS repository
       | (formerly the FTP repository).       Download Firefox from third-
       | party download sites that host the installer, e.g., from
       | Softonic.
       | 
       | It's nuts and another indication Mozilla doesn't understand the
       | reason they exist, but it's not that hard to get around... if
       | you're one of the 0.1% that hears about this.
        
         | [deleted]
        
       | freediver wrote:
       | Zero telemetry is the only way to go for a modern browser with a
       | sense of decency for the web and the users.
       | 
       | I invite everyone on a Mac to try and support Orion browser -
       | zero telemetry by default.
        
       | layer8 wrote:
       | > This will allow us to [...] answer questions like, "Why do we
       | see so many installs per day, but not that many downloads per
       | day?"
       | 
       | That's really not something they should spent much time puzzling
       | over, much less implement tracking IDs for.
        
       | knodi wrote:
       | wtf Mozilla, why are you making me stop using you?
        
         | seba_dos1 wrote:
         | As if there was any serious alternative that wasn't much worse.
        
           | tick_tock_tick wrote:
           | I mean if they both are going off the deep end for tracking
           | chrome is faster and a ton of developers seem to only care if
           | it works on chrome....
        
             | seba_dos1 wrote:
             | Well, Firefox' tracking is usually meant for determining
             | things like where did the installer came from and
             | collecting feature usage data, while Google's is all about
             | building marketing profiles to sell targeted ads. You
             | decide how bad each of them is.
        
         | [deleted]
        
       | idonotknowwhy wrote:
       | So downloading from the arch Linux repo via pacman, I don't have
       | a unique ID?
        
         | encryptluks2 wrote:
         | No, but unless you go tweak a bunch of things you are still
         | sending your information to Mozilla. Also, they've had a few
         | "convenient" bugs that reverted privacy settings in the past.
        
       | gandalfff wrote:
       | I don't really understand telemetry. How is Google Analytics
       | helping them to improve the browser? Is it to see which features
       | are actually being used?
        
         | brimble wrote:
         | Imagine you could stick a camera over your users' shoulders,
         | mostly without them knowing you're doing it, instead of doing
         | actual user research.
         | 
         | That's what the stuff's for. Some of the tools for these things
         | record entire sessions, including mouse movements. It's creepy
         | as hell and even the tamest of "telemetry" 100% would have
         | gotten something classed, unambiguously, as spyware, in the
         | distant past of ~15-20 years ago.
        
         | emerged wrote:
         | They ignore their users in all other aspects so it seems
         | unlikely to be driven by that.
        
       | gjsman-1000 wrote:
       | How much R&D do you think Firefox squandered on making a custom
       | installer generator for every download and being unable to cache
       | the files on a cheap CDN?
        
         | oh_sigh wrote:
         | Not much? I did exactly this when I worked on a really popular
         | P2P file sharing client (at one point estimated to be installed
         | on >15% of all PCs worldwide). It even improved our actual
         | installs, but that is probably about just using an ultralight
         | weight installer rather than having a tracking ID integrated
         | into it. It literally took me a week. Granted, things were
         | really fast and loose back then. It would probably take me 2
         | years and a team of engineers to do a similar thing at my
         | current FANG job.
        
       | ordu wrote:
       | They seem to be trying to gather a lot of telemetry to measure
       | how they can boost popularity of Firefox. I wonder did they tried
       | to measure how the measurement itself influences popularity?
       | Social measurements are like quantum ones, they change reality.
       | 
       | There was a funny story of a Hawthorn Experiment[1], which tried
       | to find ways to boost productivity but at the end managed to
       | state just that the very attempt to conduct an experiment boosts
       | productivity. It seems to me that with Mozilla the effect has a
       | opposite sign and any attempt to measure decreases the target
       | variables of decision making. And therefore they need to find
       | ways to measure "non-invasively", not to measure every little
       | thing they can measure.
       | 
       | [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hawthorne_effect
        
         | delusional wrote:
         | I think the physical analogy you're thinking about is "the
         | observer effect"[1]. And it's actually a pretty much universal
         | problem in physics, not just quantum mechanics.
         | 
         | [1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Observer_effect_(physics)
        
         | threatripper wrote:
         | Maybe they just kind of forgot how to make good software and
         | now desperately try to recreate that magic using loads of
         | metrics and social experiments leading to loads of competing
         | interpretations and infighting.
        
         | causality0 wrote:
         | Well they've spent a decade trying the "be more like Chrome"
         | method. I suggest they try the "be more like Firefox from when
         | Firefox was successful" method.
        
           | LordDragonfang wrote:
           | Firefox was successful when it was the alternative, better,
           | option to the dominant Internet Explorer. Now the dominant
           | browser is Chrom(e|ium). The two scenarios are _very_
           | different.
        
             | causality0 wrote:
             | Precisely. Firefox is never going to defeat Chrome in the
             | "being Chrome" category. If it wants to exist as more than
             | a tool for Google to avoid antitrust lawsuits, it can't
             | keep playing that game. It has to differentiate. Privacy is
             | not differentiation because it's invisible and HN
             | commentators are 90% of the people who care about it. I
             | want the sense of power back. I want the feeling that
             | Firefox gave me a decade ago that my browser behaved
             | _exactly_ the way I wanted it to and _nothing_ about it
             | ticked me off because if I didn 't like it I could just
             | change it.
             | 
             | Nowadays using Firefox feels more like holding a political
             | demonstration in an empty room than using the finely-tuned
             | instrument I once had.
        
               | function_seven wrote:
               | > _Nowadays using Firefox feels more like holding a
               | political demonstration in an empty room than using the
               | finely-tuned instrument I once had._
               | 
               | I can't think of better words to describe my feeling as a
               | Firefox holdout. It's still my default browser, and the
               | one I use for 97% of my work. Mozilla is breaking my
               | heart with their floundering. Like a fantasy author who
               | keeps getting mired in side quests and can never get back
               | to the main plot.
               | 
               | Stop with the goofy marketing tie ins, the hostile
               | telemetry choices, the side products like Pocket and VPN,
               | and just make a fucking browser that doesn't attempt to
               | hide complexity from the user. Focus on that, do yearly
               | fundraising like Wikipedia does, and be content.
        
         | rurp wrote:
         | > They seem to be trying to gather a lot of telemetry to
         | measure how they can boost popularity of Firefox.
         | 
         | This might sound like a crazy idea, but they could always try
         | listening to users! Everytime I get annoyed by something in
         | Firefox and try to find a fix for it, I find a _lot_ of people
         | with the same issue across HN, Reddit, the Mozilla forums, etc.
         | There is rarely any sign that a decision maker from Mozilla
         | cares one bit. But rather than listening to the many vocal
         | complaints, suggestions, and other copious public feedback...
         | they add a unique download identifier. Ok then.
         | 
         | I really, really hope that Mozilla gets new management before
         | it's too late (if it's not already).
        
         | estaseuropano wrote:
         | That seems like a very harsh interpretation. Very few people
         | will care whether their specific download is tracked. I do
         | honestly wonder how that adds vakuento Mozilla, but no one will
         | _not_ use Firefox due to this- especially as every single
         | alternative is much worse than Firefox on such metrics.
        
       | rkagerer wrote:
       | How long has it been that way?
        
         | cf141q5325 wrote:
         | https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1677497 Its from a
         | year ago
        
       | lostgame wrote:
       | Okay, first the stupid fucking 'Turning Red' advertisement that
       | dared to call itself 'adorable', and now this?
       | 
       | Seriously, does FireFox hate itself, or just hates it's dwindling
       | but loyal user base?
       | 
       | We used to use Firefox because they _didn't_ do shit like this.
       | 
       | I actually deleted Firefox after about 15 years of loyal use
       | after the 'Turning Red' incident. Glad to hear I made the right
       | call.
       | 
       | I've been using Safari and have no regrets.
       | 
       | Goodbye, Firefox. Good riddance, if this is how you'll behave.
       | 
       | It's sad to watch the dream of a mainstream open-source browser
       | that wasn't evil vanish.
       | 
       | We will need something else, but I don't see huge potential
       | adoption for anything.
       | 
       | It was hard enough to get people to swap browsers in the 00's,
       | it's gonna be way harder with each platform pushing its own pre-
       | installed browser.
        
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