Any Firefox Pioneers here?

[hermetic]

I just got asked to let them track and save all my browsing so they can "improve" their product. That sounds good but was just wondering if any of you think it sounds devious? TIA

[MontanaMama]

1. I use Firefox.

I said NO on letting them track my browsing. I figured enough people out there would let them without a thought and that'd allow them enough product improvement. Yeah...it sounds devious to me! Everything seems devious to me these days, however!!!

[hermetic]

5. Oh, yeah

Ain't that the truth? I couldn't decide so I thought I'd just pose the question here. Glad I did.

[steve2470]

2. I don't know the details of that specific program but...

it probably anonymizes your data so it can't be directly traced back to you. Mozilla, who runs Firefox, is a pretty good outfit overall, so I think you're ok.

[steve2470]

3. here's an entire web page about it

https://medium.com/firefox-context-graph/make-firefox-better-with-pioneer-10c82d0f9301

Of course, Pioneers will be able to opt out of individual studies and Mozilla will be up front about what information is being collected at any given time so that Pioneers are able to make an informed choice. We’ve also put in place a number of other limits to make sure our Pioneers are protected:

Data about individuals will not be shared publicly or sold. Raw data will only be available to a small number of researchers, and those researchers will only have access to studies relevant to their work. Aggregate information will only be disclosed in ways that minimize risk to user privacy.

Proposed studies are reviewed by a team dedicated to ensuring user privacy and will not proceed without their approval.

Users are given a random ID unique to Pioneer. It will not be correlated with any other user information and will be the only identifier that links your data on our servers.

Pioneer will not attempt to collect cookies, account names, passwords, email addresses, or POST form values. No probe will look at what happens in Private Browsing windows.

eta: also this page https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/firefox-pioneer/

About this Add-on

Pioneers are willing to contribute sensitive data to help make Firefox better. Once you have installed the add-on, you may be included in studies about how you use the browser. Some of these studies will be passive and simply listen. Others may alter the behavior of your browser a little bit to see if it improves how you browse the web. Others may occasionally ask a question to help us understand how you’re interacting with a page.

Participation is voluntary, and you can remove yourself by disabling the add-on after you install it.

[hermetic]

6. Thanks, Steve

They did send me that page. What I was most concerned about was: "Others may alter the behavior of your browser a little bit.." Hmm. Then, right after I posted this question, my internet crashed! I had to do all that reset the modem froofra. I'm sure that was just a coincidence....but, was it?



I'll have to think about it a bit, I guess.