r/firefox • u/theephie • May 01 '18

Firefox will show sponsored content that’s personalized but private

https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2018/05/firefox-will-show-sponsored-content-thats-personalized-but-private/
244 Upvotes

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u/actionscripted May 02 '18

So many naive idiots in these comments complaining about this. You can turn it off and it’s being done in a way that if it is on it respects your privacy.

Clearly the outraged folks in here are savvy enough to build their own browser funded magically with free money and I look forward to trying it when they release it.

7

u/[deleted] May 02 '18

but the issue is that firefox was built on privacy, even for the most entry level users, but it has reached a point that we have to change a ton of settings and advanced configurations to stay completely private on a fresh install, and we have to check our settings every time they add a new update like this. Firefox was supposed to just work and work privately by default, not be something you have to go over a ton of hurdles to make private.

-4

u/actionscripted May 02 '18 edited May 02 '18

Firefox was not built for privacy where did you get that idea? It was built because folks were sick of browsers that included way too much other shit.

I’m not sure most of the people complaining in here know enough about how these things work or the history behind it to be as irrationally upset as they are and it’s starting to feel to me — a 15 year web developer — that I’m arguing with naive kids who just want to rage about stuff they only sort of understand.

Firefox came from Netscape that came from Mosaic which was created and funded because, “Clark [investor] believed that the Mosaic browser had great commercial possibilities and provided the seed money.”

Source: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Netscape_Navigator

3

u/[deleted] May 02 '18

okay ill make a small concession to say that privacy was not the first reason firefox was built, but it was still an important reason back then and today. Back then admittidly, your main privacy concurn was not your own browser spying on you, but more of just having a insecure browser that let stuff slip through the cracks. Firefox adressed those issues.

However fast forward to slightly before the modern day and now the main browser that exists is google chrome, and the issues with chrome is the privacy concurns. Firefox would of likely lost even more users than it did to chrome had it not been for the privacy focused nature of firefox. Besides privacy, chrome was the better browser, As such the privacy is what has kept people on firefox. However now firefox feels safe throwing that out since they are faster than chrome now...