Android is now warning of Firefox sharing data
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Hopefully soon Librewolf, Fennec F-droid and other forks will become mainstream.
I haven't switched to Librewolf on pc yet; hoping that turning off the telemetry/etc options in ff is enough, but I'm starting to think it might not be long.
I switched over to LibreWolf recently. I discovered Vivaldi just a few hours before I learned about the Manifest v3 stuff for Chromium (which is a shame because I actually LOVED Vivaldi). I really want to try Zen Browser, but I’m using old, 2011-era Macs (running Ubuntu 24.04 on one) and it won’t install. LibreWolf is great because of its clean, minimal design and absolute privacy-forward thinking. I’ve enjoyed it so far (and I’m only running it on the Ubuntu machine).
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I've not heard of ironfox before this thread! Could you possibly link it? Doesn't seem like it's on FDroid or IzzyOnDroid
IronFox is on F-Droid. That where I got it from at least
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Pretty easy to disable the location app permission or set it to ask every time. Firefox hasn't asked me to enable it since turning it off.
Yeah I'm pretty sure Firefox won't ask for or use your location, unless a website wants it for some reason (which is almost never a good one).
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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.
exactly, when confronted with cognitive dissonance people look for any shitty excuse to avoid changing their minds.
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use ironfox or fennec
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So if Mozilla wants to monetize location data, what does this mean for all the custom ROMs that use Mozilla's location provider instead of Google's?
This might mean that we would have no true free location provider left.
Edit: just was thinking, what does this mean for Firefox forks that also use Mozilla's location service?
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Pot Calling Kettle... etc...
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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 isn't to much to reduce. I don't think Google is scared or afraid by Firefox, like at all.
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God damn why's the world so shit
This is the Bad Place
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fennec vs ironfox opinions?
I like fennec because the name is cute.
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Yeah I'm pretty sure Firefox won't ask for or use your location, unless a website wants it for some reason (which is almost never a good one).
and even then, for me at least, the dialog that pops up is broken and lot of times the "Allow" button literally does nothing
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Pot Calling Kettle... etc...
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Because they are legally obligated to mention it?
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So if Mozilla wants to monetize location data, what does this mean for all the custom ROMs that use Mozilla's location provider instead of Google's?
This might mean that we would have no true free location provider left.
Edit: just was thinking, what does this mean for Firefox forks that also use Mozilla's location service?
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Zen, at least from the few times that I've tried it, also has some major issues that I personally find to be deal-breakers. 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 not ideal.
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As of the latest Chrome update on PC, they have dropped support for uBlock. You can still technically enable it, but they disabled it by default once you update.
That got me back to Firefox with breakneck speed.
Frankly speaking, calling out Google and Chrome, then moving to Firefox while Mozilla have been doing it's best Google impression for years now is not that great of a plan.
I wonder how long Firefox will be ok with all that, since Mozilla bought that advertisement business a while ago.
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Pot Calling Kettle... etc...
This is not at all a pot kettle situation, there is no reason to warn about Firefox.
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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.
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That's a regular notification, which would happen for any application whose data policy is changed on the Play Store page. These policy are as declared by the app publisher. This would be the same for any application that didn't check that "sharing data with third party" box earlier, then checked it later on.
