this post was submitted on 17 Jul 2023
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Privacy
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In the settings you can disable telemetry. It's very self explanatory. Also I think firefox may call home to check if you have telemetry enabled (y/n). But that isn't a big deal. Can you be more specific on what actual data you see Firefox still sending home and exactly what the problem is? Saying that firefox still phones home isn't helpful or a big deal in itself, without providing the actual data sent that you disagree with.
How would I check exactly what data firefox is sending home?
firefox.settings.services.mozilla.com
content-signature-2.cdn.mozilla.net
There are unexpected connections to these two domains that cannot be disabled using firefox options.
You would have to use wireshark or some other software to look at the actual data being sent. I'm not 100% sure. Likely the first one is just checking to see if you have telemetry enabled or something. Like I said, you can't just assume all of your data is being sent because it's phoning Firefox domains. You need to pick apart the traffic. It could literally just be sending (user has telemetry disabled) and that's it. You don't know. Firefox is open source. If it was sending massive amounts of user info despite telemetry heing turned off then it would be fucking obvious and you'd hear about it everywhere. You could try posting in a firefox community and asking if anyone knows. I'd be interested too
Honestly I don't think I'm technically adept enough to check this myself. I was following firefox privacy guides, and the (much more competent) people writing them were puzzled about those two.
Of course it's not necessarily malicious, but it has became hard to be trusting.
In the end I kind of just gave up on privacy, I take mitigation measures as a symbolic gesture, but still assume someone's watching over my shoulder whatever I do online. Not a good feeling to be honest.
Can you send me the link where people were trying to figure those 2 out?
EDIT: Nvm I found what these are. Check my other comment.
Sorry for linking to a Reddit thread, but looks like at least the first domain you listed is for checking blocklists and extensions:
https://www.reddit.com/r/waterfox/comments/fwc2sf/shavarservicesmozilla_and/
https://wiki.mozilla.org/Blocklisting/Admin
None of these seem suspicious or privacy-invasive. Like I said, the browser is doing a bunch of shit in the background. You have to actually look at the traffic being sent.
Believe me, i'm the same way. If I see an app sending out domain requests, I get automatically sketched out. But if you take a step back, and really try to research what these domains are for, you'll see that most (not all of them) are just normal data that you need for the software to function.
Thanks for taking the time to answer, I'll check the thread.
Yeah I switched from trust to paranoia, it seems, hopefully I'll settle on a middle ground.