Date: Fri, 15 Jul 2016 06:45:17 +0200 From: Ralf Mardorf <ralf.mardorf@rocketmail.com> To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Subject: Re: borderline OT fireox question Message-ID: <20160715064517.15ffaa62@archlinux.localdomain> In-Reply-To: <5798a075-66eb-dc37-729b-ba8e72f2e1df@hiwaay.net> References: <5e4a20fe-51a4-ac10-4f72-23fcc3d04c15@hiwaay.net> <20160714002117.224b64ae@archlinux.localdomain> <8cd76e2e-ed11-7b3b-be75-de6bb4dcc092@hiwaay.net> <20160714063744.snaqwdbmzhd4ndb5@dijkstra.sfs.uni-tuebingen.de> <86r3awnh1i.fsf@WorkBox.Home> <20160714220944.2f05391f@archlinux.localdomain> <86poqfohta.fsf@WorkBox.Home> <5798a075-66eb-dc37-729b-ba8e72f2e1df@hiwaay.net>
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On Thu, 14 Jul 2016 21:10:15 -0453.75, William A. Mahaffey III wrote: >On 07/14/16 19:46, Brandon J. Wandersee wrote: >> Ralf Mardorf via freebsd-questions writes: >> >>> On Thu, 14 Jul 2016 14:41:45 -0500, Brandon J. Wandersee wrote: >>>> Google and Mozilla are competitors (and therefore Google won't be >>>> getting anything from Firefox) >>> Type about:config into Firefox's address bar, then after >>> ignoring the warning, in the search bar type google . How do you >>> think works safe browsing and what do you think are the URLs good >>> for? What is the geo location URL good for? Firefox shares high >>> amounts of data with Google. >> This doesn't record personal information. The geolocation feature >> certainly uses the IP address at which you're currently accessing the >> Internet to tell where in the world you are at this particular >> moment, but not *who* you are or what you're searching for. (Unless >> you're browsing from home, and your ISP is openly sharing your >> account information with others, then the IP address can't reliably >> say anything about the who is doing the browsing, just where it's >> being done.) The Firefox "safe browsing" setting refers to the >> Google database of malicious/suspicious websites for its >> anti-phishing protection. It's not recording your every keystroke >> and feeding it to Google. >> >> This is all beside the point. The first sentence in this thread was: >> >>> I notice that whenever I start typing text into the serch-bar of >>> Firefox ... it suggests completions for me, implying that Google has >>> my identity pegged. >> That's just downright fallacious. The mere existence of the >> "suggestion" option doesn't mean every Firefox user's browsing is >> being tracked, and even if we assume that it did mean as much it >> does not follow that the entity doing the tracking must be Google. >> The "suggestions" option has nothing to do with Google *unless* you >> use Google as your search engine via the Firefox interface.[1] >> >> Of course I retrieved that information using Firefox, and for all >> anyone knows I may have landed on the linked-to page through a >> Google search, and Google may have deliberately led me to a site >> chockful of misinformation in order to sustain the large-scale >> cover-up of its nefarious solar system domination scheme. So maybe >> that information can't be trusted. >> >> [1]: >> https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/use-popular-search-suggestions-firefox-search-bar?redirectlocale=en-US&redirectslug=Search+suggestions > >As the OP, let me clarify the above. Whenever I start typing text into >the search bar, it suggests completions *that I have typed in recently >(last few weeks)*. My 2nd reply clarified that detail, not my 1st >post, sorry. That was already clear. It's based on your search history. However, Firefox's safe browsing de facto is Google's safe browsing and the collected data does say much about people living in some areas. And therefore the claim "Google won't be getting anything from Firefox" is a wrong claim. Other browsers have other pros and cons, I'm just referring to the claim "Google won't be getting anything from Firefox". People with a special IP/geo location might visit more heterosexuell or more homosexuell porn sites, might visit more Christian or more Muslim websites, might visit more racists websites, might visit more tobacco and liqueur websites, sport websites, etc. than people with other IPs/geo locations. The information about an IP + the information of Firefox's version and its window size and a few other hints even could be enough to know exactly what person visited which website. However, even if they don't know your name, the company knows exactly what groups of people live in which areas, in a more correct way, than by an averaged old school statistics. Regards, Ralf
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