Mozilla accused of tracking users in Firefox without consent
Mozilla accused of tracking users in Firefox without consent
cross-posted from: https://lemmy.zip/post/23424886
European digital rights group NOYB (None Of Your Business) has filed a privacy complaint with the Austrian data protection watchdog (DSB) against Mozilla, alleging the company uses a Firefox privacy feature (enabled without consent) to track users' online behavior.
Complaint: https://noyb.eu/en/firefox-tracks-you-privacy-preserving-feature
Firefox users can disable the PPA feature by opening the web browser's Privacy & Security settings and unchecking the option labeled "Allow websites to perform privacy-preserving ad measurement."
Opt-out as opposed to opt-in is not privacy respecting in any way, shape, or form.
I'm having a hard time being mad at Mozilla for this kind of thing. Which privacy minded person installs an application and doesn't go through the settings to find all of the privacy minded features and disables those they don't agree with? Do we not "Trust but verify" all the things because of these kinds of options that pop up? Who is at fault here, the application or the user?
We, as users, need to start taking our own settings on our systems more seriously and stop dumping all of our responsibility into the hands of someone else. Go through the settings of your apps. Save them so you can get to them when needed. Disable everything you can or want. Don't trust it until you've done the necessary research and tested it for yourself.
<...> privacy minded person installs <...>
That's the fallacy. You assume all Firefox users are privacy minded. Which is idealistic, not a reality. From Firefox being pre-installed on Linux to Mozilla themselves marketing it the opposite way.
Who is at fault here, the application or the user?
There is no universe where opt-out tracking is not abusive behavior. Literally, read the Mozilla blog and see how they used to condemn this same behavior before.