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Mozilla Labs Wants To Monitor (Volunteers') Firefox Use

Posted by timothy on from the voluntary-counts-a-lot-for-me dept.

Howardd21 writes "PC World reports that Mozilla Labs wants 1% of its Firefox users to voluntarily provide information about how they use the browser, and their web browsing habits. This would be done through an add-on named "Test Pilot" that collects the information and associates it with some demographic information that the user has provided. Unlike other data collection utilities that software developers may include to provide usage information, the add-on will follow the same open source concept that Firefox adheres to, allowing the market to better understand what is being collected. Mozilla Labs stresses privacy when discussing how they will collect, store and use the data, including publishing it for other researchers to to analyze."

6 of 118 comments (clear)

  1. At least they are asking for volunteers... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Insightful

    instead of just adding it to the base code.

  2. Self-selection will skew results by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    "This is very odd... all of users primarily visit technology sites, and, uh, porn."

  3. How about add needed features instead? by duffbeer703 · · Score: 4, Insightful

    How about making it possible to update Firefox in a business environment without administrative rights? Maybe allow admins to push the browser and patches?

    --
    Conformity is the jailer of freedom and enemy of growth. -JFK
  4. Who would volunteer? by MrEricSir · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Seriously for a sec -- what kind of person would volunteer for something like this? And would that person really represent the average user?

    --
    There's no -1 for "I don't get it."
  5. Re:I hope they aren't planing to follow M$ office by Btarlinian · · Score: 3, Insightful

    I hope this information about most used features isn't going to be used to develop a Mozilla ribbon.

    Sure, discounting the fact that the ribbon was probably the best UI design MS has ever created. (The only people who might dislike it are those who have learned the intricacies of the Office menu structure and they still have the option to switch back.) If Mozilla can come up with something as good as the Ribbon from this, I'd say it's a good thing

  6. Stupid statistics by turkeyfeathers · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Conclusion: 100% of our users aren't at all concerned about their privacy (based on our 1% voluntary sample size). -Mozilla Labs