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Ads Based On Browsing History Are Coming To All Firefox Users

Posted by Soulskill on from the just-what-you-wanted dept.

An anonymous reader writes: Mozilla has announced plans to launch a feature called "Suggested Tiles," which will provide sponsored recommendations to visit certain websites when other websites show up in the user's new tab page. The tiles will begin to show up for beta channel users next week, and the company is asking for feedback. For testing purposes, users will only see Suggested Tiles "promoting Firefox for Android, Firefox Marketplace, and other Mozilla causes." It's not yet known what websites will show up on the tiles when the feature launches later this summer. The company says, "With Suggested Tiles, we want to show the world that it is possible to do relevant advertising and content recommendations while still respecting users’ privacy and giving them control over their data."

10 of 531 comments (clear)

  1. bye by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Interesting

    good bye Firefox. last nail in the coffin. I wanted to like it. I did. I still dislike Chrome's UI and the fact Google owns it.

    Crap maybe I'll switch to Opera it's actually really really nice now as a UI.

    1. Re:bye by paskie · · Score: 3, Interesting

      No vertical tabs 10 years after widescreen displays started spreading widely?

      Also (not so much about UI), if you have many open tabs, chrome eats much less CPU on the background, but is much more memory hungry.

      --
      It's not the fall that kills you. It's the sudden stop at the end. -Douglas Adams
    2. Re:bye by Translation+Error · · Score: 3, Interesting

      Anyone who's a fan of Opera back when it was still innovative and highly configurable (way back in version 12) might want to keep an eye on Vivaldi, a browser being created by a number of people who left the Opera team after the change in focus. It's based on the Blink engine and the developers are working on incorporating many of the features of Opera 12. It still has a way to go, as it's currently still at the technical preview stage.

      --
      When someone says, "Any fool can see ..." they're usually exactly right.
    3. Re: bye by jez9999 · · Score: 3, Interesting

      Every "ux expert" and "architect" seems to think they're god's own gift to mankind, and Mozilla is packed to the brim with those.

      The main problem is that Mozilla is filled with project managers and senior devs who LISTEN to the UX 'experts' and let them drive the agenda. Why they do is beyond me. Perhaps it is a plot by Google or perhaps they are just morons.

      --
      == Jez ==
      Do you miss Firefox? Try Pale Moon.
    4. Re:bye by byuu · · Score: 3, Interesting

      Which about:config value can I tweak to turn off Australis and have normal navigation+refresh+home buttons, and tabs under the URL bar? Which one will let me turn off download history (without killing my browser history as well)? Which one will let me show the compact one-line URL bar dropdown results? Which one will let me install unsigned extensions again? Which one will let me use HTTP/2 without TLS, as the RFC defines?

  2. WTF by EmperorOfCanada · · Score: 3, Interesting

    How can they be respecting my privacy seeing that such a feature would require that they have access to my browsing history. Even if (in theory) they aren't downloading my browsing history and it is my browser making the requests they can deduce what sites I must be browsing to request such "suggestions."

    So if I mostly go to sites that involve sex with bowls of pasta and my browser were to request suggestions involving bowls of pasta porn it isn't much of stretch for them to guess what kind of sites I go to.

    This shit pisses me off. I already use a VPN to keep my ISP from this sort of interference. Now it is my damn browser ratting on me.

    How about a big fat no. Firefox already has a dropping market share and now it will drop by at least one more(me).

    Just to be clear as to how much I value my privacy and don't want tracking. I use a VM for all services that I log into that goes through a separate VPN. Thus my day to day surfing is 100% separate from anything that has any logins. So any cookies/IP address that facebook, google, etc might have handed to me aren't available during my general web surfing.

    I break zero laws yet I still want nobody tracking me as is my right.

    1. Re:WTF by Luthair · · Score: 4, Interesting

      Why do you trust your VPN provider more than your ISP? Or your hosting provider if you're running your own VPN.

  3. Delete history and cookies by houghi · · Score: 5, Interesting

    I delete all history and cookies and cache each time I log out. Although I like the technical aspect of tracing me and showing advertisement, as a consumer and user I detest it.

    I detest it more than I like it. Or like Banksy says:
    People are taking the piss out of you everyday. They butt into your life, take a cheap shot at you and then disappear. They leer at you from tall buildings and make you feel small. They make flippant comments from buses that imply youâ(TM)re not sexy enough and that all the fun is happening somewhere else. They are on TV making your girlfriend feel inadequate. They have access to the most sophisticated technology the world has ever seen and they bully you with it. They are The Advertisers and they are laughing at you.

    You, however, are forbidden to touch them. Trademarks, intellectual property rights and copyright law mean advertisers can say what they like wherever they like with total impunity.

    Fuck that. Any advert in a public space that gives you no choice whether you see it or not is yours. Itâ(TM)s yours to take, re-arrange and re-use. You can do whatever you like with it. Asking for permission is like asking to keep a rock someone just threw at your head.

    You owe the companies nothing. Less than nothing, you especially donâ(TM)t owe them any courtesy. They owe you. They have re-arranged the world to put themselves in front of you. They never asked for your permission, donâ(TM)t even start asking for theirs.

    --
    Don't fight for your country, if your country does not fight for you.
  4. Re:How about ... by Mr.+Droopy+Drawers · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Provide a method to turn this off and I'll keep using Firefox. If not, I may need to like Chrome more...

    --

    To Copy from One is Plagiarism; To Copy from Many is Research.

  5. Re:Easily defeated.... by JMJimmy · · Score: 5, Interesting

    I keep 0 history. Soon as my browser closes, history is wiped. So if this simply looks at my history and serves me adds based on it, then hypothetically this would not work on my system.

    Of course if they look at other things (or FF stores info in some hidden super cookie) then I will be subject to adverts like everybody else.

    Are you sure about that? https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/s...

    It's been broken for some time. Install SQLite Manager addon to see what data is still lurking.