Firefox app on android. Never seen this before until today. But Firefox is now putting ads in the app?
you can literally turn it off. firefox is one of the last good browsers out there.
I always wonder how these links even work. Who would even click on them except by accident?
They’ve been doing it on desktop Firefox for ages
WaterFox and LibreWolf are decent alternatives if you get tired of needing to opt out of Mozilla nonsense.
Fennec!
As has always been the case, you can turn off Sponsored Shortcuts and Sponsored Stories.
Yeah… Never knew that setting existed because this is the first time I’m even seeing a sponsor.
If it was something besides some big Corpo I’d probably not have minded…
Mozilla’s #1 sponsor is Google, which is why you’ll see two Google logos on a fresh install of FF (after you click through their initial setup screens)
So, every real alternative to Firefox, is most likely based on all the work that Mozilla has done on Firefox. People get it for free, and yet they crumple and whine, when Mozilla tries to get the money to keep steady development going.
I want it free, I want them to do all the work, and then I’m going to use another browser, based on their work, because I don’t like that great development cost money - and I won’t pay! Buhuu!
Get over yourself. Mozilla does great work for users worldwide. Don’t like to see ads? Then start donating! Grow TF up, and realize that nothing is free in a capitalistic world!
My question is: can it be turned off?
Mozilla has been trying to get me to look at news or use Pocket for years now, but it’s easy to turn off.
Edit to add: my above reference to turn off two different settings I’ve turned off for years now seemed obvious to me that I assumed it could be turned off.
Lot of people didn’t read past the first sentence.
Oooh this is lemmy.ml. Fuck gross bye
Goodbye, have a good day.
Settings>Homepage>Sponsored shortcuts
I turned it off a long time ago, I don’t think this is new.
Yes. I’m pretty sure you can disable sponsored suggestions in the options, or you can also just delete the individual sponsored options. I’ve not seen one of these in the last 4 years.
Mozilla Firefox have never forced you to do anything in regards of ads. They fight for your right, for your freedom. Do you know there’s a help file in the browser? It’s a lot easier to use, than to write in here about mundane problems.
It was more of a rhetorical because of the second sentence, but it’s clear you didn’t read that far.
Is lemmy.ml chock full of dumbshits?
Why ask a question you have the answer. So weird
Well, you are here…
I would pay for Firefox. The same way I donate every year to Thunderbird!
But do you?
While I get the sentiment, I think you are missing the two pieces here. One is that advertising is not the only method of monetization which can support something like Firefox. The second is that advertising is by it’s nature influence. Both in influence over the purchaser and reader. It’s an influence we should not approve of in both cases, without better boundaries.
Oh, do enlighten me. How should they get som money otherwise?
I think Mozilla loathe ads as much as you and I… But do enlighten os, how can they earn enough money otherwise?
Donating to Mozilla doesn’t change any behavior in Firefox.
Also, donations to Mozilla don’t go towards Firefox development. As far as I’m aware the only way to “give” money to Mozilla Corp (who work on Firefox, as opposed to the Mozilla Foundation) is to subscribe to the VPN service they resell.
It might… But I guess it’s easier to just badmouth Firefox.
I prefer to view this as a socialist. Firefox is the work of tens of thousands of laborers, and is not owned by an out of touch upper class. Yet, they are mismanaging it.
It took me time to realize that I, a highly trained engineer, was a laborer and have similar issues to most people the last few centuries.
It is literally needed that the workers of Firefox rise up and revolt before the entire project is harmed beyond repair
That might be… Then you should work for that.
librewolf :3
How do you install it on Android?
It’s not on Android. The Android “equivalent” would be IronFox.
u dont unfortunatly :'3 theres waterfox tho. idk if its any good?
Based on Firefox, and would not exist, if Mozilla didn’t have income.
I guess you want it all for free, and are not yet grown up, and know how the world works.
Now? That’s one reason I stopped using it 10 years ago
And what do you use now?
Use Fennec on FDroid. While you can, lol.
There are more shitfox
Explain? I use ironfox and its great.
I can’t remember the details but aparently firefox on android is not the bastion of privacy it is on the desktop.
You’re best off with a chromium fork like bromite.
Also, now I think about it… I think mozilla is well meaning but they’re pretty much cooked. Just a litany of errors and refusal to listen to users over the last 10 years has made their products pretty unappealing. Ads on the new tab page is a pretty good example.
Edit: the thing I was trying to remember is site isolation. Android Firefox doesn’t have site isolation. Chromium does. I hate google as much as the next guy but there’s plenty of chromium forks that don’t send telemetry.
Bromite is dead. You mean cromite. Vivaldi is fine too I think. Firefox is private enough on Android, the app is just not good
It’s just a link. I don’t see how this has anything to do with privacy.
Sorry chief, if you don’t see how monitoring your browsing behavior in order to choose what ads to show you has anything to do with privacy, then I don’t know how to help you.
Setting aside that embarassing that turd of stupidity, my comment offered ads as an example of Mozilla’s flagrant disregard for the desires of users.
The privacy issues I was trying to remember is that Firefox on Android does not have site isolation. Desktop firefox does (containered tabs by default). Chromium does on Android, not sure about desktop.
To my knowledge, there is no monitoring involved for selecting those links. They have different sponsorship deals per locale, so they show different links when you switch your phone’s language, but they can decide that on your device.
For a while, desktop Firefox would select different news articles based on your browsing history, but again, they have your browsing history on your device. They’d be mad to upload all of that just to pick one article or the other. They did also publish a blog post at one point where they explained how all of that worked, so that’s not me spitballing, they did actually select that exclusively on-device.
Back to Android Firefox, presumably they do send Adidas the information that someone clicked on this link via Firefox Android, so that Adidas knows how valuable their sponsorship deal is. But yeah, that is fine in my opinion. It’s hardly personal information and nothing happens, unless you click the link.
The privacy issues I was trying to remember is that Firefox on Android does not have site isolation. Desktop firefox does (containered tabs by default). Chromium does on Android, not sure about desktop.
Right, yeah, Android Firefox doesn’t implement process isolation of tabs. (Container tabs is a different privacy mechanism, which neither Chromium nor Android Firefox have.)
The lack of process isolation is typically deemed a security issue, since it’s only relevant when someone tries to do something actively illegal, but sure, the security measure exists to protect your privacy.I would argue that Chromium is terrible for privacy in many other ways (see e.g. https://github.com/ungoogled-software/ungoogled-chromium/blob/master/README.md ; albeit I don’t know how much of that applies to the Android version of Chromium), but if you deem the process isolation to be significantly more important, then that is an opinion to have.
Wow. Wtf… Thats absolutely ridiculous.
Edit: oh its the tab page. Never used it…
Making a browser is expensive (especially with such incompetent management), they need to make money somehow.
They’re already getting money.
I think those have been there since forever?
Pretty much
The default search engine being google is a much worse offence imo, but somehow people dont complain about that.
That’s the one thing keeping Firefox (and all it’s forks) afloat.
You can literrally change that with just a few clicks. It takes a few seconds…
But I guess you don’t like that great software costs money to develop, so you will start using those alternatives that wouldn’t exist, if it were not for Mozilla/Firefox… Make that make sense!
I’ve been using Duck Duck Go through Firefox for years now.
Me too, but its surely still a decision that has much worse of an impact on the average non techie user than a random little bookmark thats even easier to remove.
This should be towards the top. I’ve been on FF4A for years now and they’ve had those links there the whole time. You can toggle them off if yku don’t want them.
how many people see that page tho? when i open a new tab i don’t even see the page, I open new pages quite often, all i see is the address bar until i type and hit enter. never even saw the “sponsored content”
You must have changed an option, by default the page shows up every time you open a new tab. (Though you can disable the ads on it)
