Last Tuesday, July 9, Mozilla He launched a new version of your web browser. In the list of news of Firefox 128 There was one point that wasn't talked about much, probably because we didn't understand what it meant. But more than a week has passed since that launch and we have already found out something else. In part, or in its entirety, due to a thread on the Manjaro forum, in which nothing more and nothing less proposes changing the default browser in its distribution.
The point in question reads "Firefox now supports the experimental Privacy Preserving Attribution API, which offers an alternative to user tracking for ad attribution. This experiment is only enabled through Origin Testing and can be disabled in the new Website Advertising Preferences section of your privacy and security settings.«. In other words, a personalized tracking to sell advertising.
Firefox 128 flirts with personalized advertising
Due to a bug, I hope temporary in WordPress, I cannot upload screenshots, but if we open the Firefox 128 settings and move to the "Privacy & Security" section, we will see that below the compilation about the operation of the browser now appears Website Advertising Preferences, allowing websites to perform privacy-sensitive ad measurement. According to Mozilla, this helps sites understand the performance of their ads without collecting data on users.
En this link They provide more information, but it reminds me a little of what Chrome has offered for some versions: They analyze our browsing preferences so that companies can offer us personalized advertising. The differences I see are that Mozilla does not directly mention personalized advertising, and even fewer have access to our browsing history. But they do pay attention to what we do.
Mozilla bought an advertising company
In mid-June 2024, Mozilla I buy an advertising company. The entire website is paid for with advertising, and without it I would not charge a single euro for publishing these articles. The problem is when we are spied on and no alternatives are offered. For now, my webmaster It does not ask you to accept cookies or to subscribe, and I hope these words do not age badly. This would show that there are ways and means of doing things, and invading privacy does not seem to be one of them.
Mozilla is a company that has always cared a lot about our privacy, but it has had better economic times. Therefore the question is: Can we continue trusting each other? That same question is what have been made in Manjaro, to the point of asking the community if they move to Vivaldi or stay in Firefox.
As data, Vivaldi It is the default browser in Manjaro Cinnamon.
Goodbye Firefox?
I would like calm down a little. It is true that my default browser is already Vivaldi, but I still use Firefox as an option and to see things from another point of view - for example, web design -. Although the option may attract attention and dozens of apocalyptic articles have been published about it, it has an easy solution.
Right now, can be disabled by unchecking the box Advertising preferences on websites that are where we have indicated above. Unlike what we see in Chrome, it is just a checkbox. You don't have to dig a little deeper into the settings and disable more things. Furthermore, it is Mozilla, who has always looked after our privacy. Now, we ask ourselves again: is it time to change?
The feature is in the experimental phase, and the noise it has generated could make them turn back. But it could also become stable and always have that measurement if we do not deactivate it manually.
And if you have to change browsers, there are also more options. Vivaldi has a good philosophy, but its blocker does not block its partners' advertising by default. Compared to this of collecting information, peccadillo. Another reliable option would be Brave, the browser that I recommend if you want to use Chrome without Chrome.