Importantly, if you have already opted out of sending data to Mozilla, this change will not affect you. It only sends data if you have the setting turned on. It takes just a few clicks to entirely disable it, and Mozilla deletes all record of your browser within 30 days from turning off this feature. If you're worried about it, do it now, it's just under Settings > Privacy & Security. Instructions are also linked in the blog post.

I'm on the "OK but keep an eye on it" train, here.

Devs need feedback to know how people are using the product, and opt-out tracking is the best way to do it. In this case, it seems like my personal data is completely unidentifiable.

I was coding in the IE6 era, so I'd really prefer to not end up in a browser engine monoculture again.

Its exactly this kind of bullshit that firefox should not do...

To disable it in about:config

browser.search.serpEventTelemetry.enabled = false

browser.search.serpEventTelemetryCategorization.enabled = false

This looks fine, the browser just puts your search into a category like "health" or "tech", then sends the amount of each category completely anonymously.

Also, if you've opted out of data collection already that setting applies to this too.

i know they're a company and they need to float, but this should be opt in not opt out

All we want is 1990s Google, guys. That's really all we want. None of this AI BS that kind find a country in Africa that starts with a K, just Google without the evil enshitification layer on top.

Remember, you can always opt out of sending any technical or usage data to Firefox. Here’s a step-by-step guide on how to adjust your settings. We also don’t collect category data when you use Private Browsing mode on Firefox.

firefox develops an optional predictive search feature like every other search engine and browser has that actually protects user privacy that can easily be turned off so naturally the internet loses their mind over it and declares firefox dead.

To improve Firefox based on your needs, understanding how users interact with essential functions like search is key.

Buddy, I just want to type a search term and get results. Stop spying on my search. Your only job is to transfer it to the server and then present the result. I don't need you to suggest some bullshit to me, or think of "ways to improve search".

This helps us take a step forward in providing a browsing experience that is more tailored to your needs, without us stepping away from the principles that make us who we are.

No. What the fuck? They are sounding more and more like Google. We need a new alternative that isn't built from Gecko or Blink or whatever the engines are called.

Anti Commercial-AI license

The important part that you should know (and should already be using):

Remember, you can always opt out of sending any technical or usage data to Firefox. Here’s a step-by-step guide on how to adjust your settings.

As much as I hate to say it, Firefox is a privacy mess.

Pocket and Fakespot have very bad privacy policies. The Windows version has a unique Mozilla tracker if you download the installer from the website, and the android version has Google Analytics built in. The existing and new telemetry is a but heavy, but it's anonymised so it's really the lesser of the various evils.

My recommendation is LibreWolf & Fennec as alternatives.

sigh

There are definitely 2 kinds of people commenting this post. The first one who supports telemetry (and Big Tech) and another one that supports freedom and opt-in. This is interesting to see on something like Lemmy. I think the ones who support telemetry are devs and it is a little bit concerning to me

Here’s the current list of categories we’re using: animals, arts, autos, business, career, education, fashion, finance, food, government, health, hobbies, home, inconclusive, news, real estate, society, sports, tech and travel.

No pr0n?

Mozilla wants to be an AI company. This is data collection to support that. Telemetry to understand the user browsing experience doesn't need to be content-categorized.