topic Re: Privacy and Security in Discussions

Privacy and Security

Stixoffire — Sat, 04 Mar 2023 15:20:42 GMT

I notice Firefox is saving my websites that I go to - I never did this for my financial websites and business websites - it is a security risk if someone is able to view those sites I visit they have part of the puzzle to attempt access to my personal things!
Privacy and Security is important - if my computer were to be compromised in some way by a website visit that might be able to glean that information or otherwise that it would be possible for bad actors to know the sites I visit. I don't store them as favorites, I don't store them as quick links and I don't save usernames either for the convenience or passwords for the convenience or any combinations thereof.
Don't do this!

Re: Privacy and Security

jscher2000 — Sat, 04 Mar 2023 23:02:41 GMT

If you like the convenience of having Firefox keep history for most sites but want to avoid saving history for some sites, try opening those few sites in private windows instead of regular windows. (In other browsers, private windows are called incognito windows.) More info: https://support.mozilla.org/kb/private-browsing-use-firefox-without-history

Re: Privacy and Security

fyX2lXqLfmAIU — Fri, 10 Nov 2023 06:48:57 GMT

I highly recommend you avoid using Firefox until security is fixed. Firefox and and Thunderbird on Windows now contains countless security compromises. The programs are infiltrated by snoopware requesting translations, dozens of requests -as many as 8 in a row- for primary passwords even when sites have not been saved in password manager. Neglectfully Firefox has no way to logout after you use the Primary password. It is beyond belief that this leaves secured sites wide open if you forget to close the program after using a password protected site. And no jscher2000, your information is incorrect as security is just as compromised in Private windows. All the info appears to be bleeding into your flawed synchronisation software. This is typically what happens when programmers let themselves be influenced by the likes of Google MS and others. I was about to make a funds transfer to support Moz but since October this program should not be used by anyone concerned about safety and security. Happy to send images to prove my point but I'm obviously not supplying Moz with more data.

Re: Privacy and Security

fyX2lXqLfmAIU — Fri, 10 Nov 2023 06:57:20 GMT

I have numerous problems. So why only one attachment?

Re: Privacy and Security

fyX2lXqLfmAIU — Fri, 10 Nov 2023 06:58:12 GMT

Weird to have to reply to my own message, just to show the error messages.

Re: Privacy and Security

fyX2lXqLfmAIU — Fri, 10 Nov 2023 06:59:34 GMT

As I said, replying to myself JUST to add error files even though there is a max attachment size of 5MB.

Re: Privacy and Security

fyX2lXqLfmAIU — Fri, 10 Nov 2023 07:09:19 GMT

Synchronisation appears to be the wide open door to passwords being syphoned off.

Oh and did I mention you can no longer use your URL as a search window without being bombarded with more NAG screens?

Re: Privacy and Security

jscher2000 — Fri, 10 Nov 2023 08:42:08 GMT

@fyX2lXqLfmAIU wrote:
And no jscher2000, your information is incorrect as security is just as compromised in Private windows.

This discussion was about history. You have posted some other questions that could be addressed either on Mozilla Support or in a new discussion thread here.

Translations. This is the support article: https://support.mozilla.org/kb/website-translation. There is a preference to keep the panel from dropping automatically , although I haven't seen the panel yet, so haven't tested with/without:

(A) In a new tab, type or paste about:config in the address bar and press Enter/Return. Click the button accepting the risk.

More info on about:config: Configuration Editor for Firefox. Please keep in mind that changes made through this back door aren't fully supported and aren't guaranteed to continue working in the future.

(B) In the search box in the page, type or paste browser.translations.automaticallyPopup and pause while the list is filtered

(C) Double-click the preference to switch the value from true to false

Re: Privacy and Security

fyX2lXqLfmAIU — Mon, 27 Nov 2023 06:13:11 GMT

My reply certainly is all about past and current history including information being typed into the URL window. The moment you click 'return' the text typed into the URL becomes history in Mozilla and whoever Mozilla shares it with.

URLs are matched to the language of visited sites which prompts the translate popup courtesy of the leak to Google. Am I now using Goozilla? Mozleaks?

Re: Privacy and Security

jscher2000 — Mon, 27 Nov 2023 07:03:00 GMT

@fyX2lXqLfmAIU wrote:
My reply certainly is all about past and current history including information being typed into the URL window. The moment you click 'return' the text typed into the URL becomes history in Mozilla and whoever Mozilla shares it with.
URLs are matched to the language of visited sites which prompts the translate popup courtesy of the leak to Google. Am I now using Goozilla? Mozleaks?

If you do not want Firefox to store history, turn it off using the Settings page.

As far as I know, history is stored in your local Firefox data folder, and you can choose to send it to the Sync cloud (in an encrypted form). I can't think of anyone it is shared with. Although obviously your network provider (ISP or VPN vendor) knows what sites you request files from because they relay the request to the web server.

The Translation feature predicts the page's language using a built-in machine learning model, not by asking Google. It would defeat the purpose behind creating a purely local translation feature if Google needed to chime in on any aspect of the process.

Re: Privacy and Security

fyX2lXqLfmAIU — Wed, 03 Jan 2024 07:56:30 GMT

Good day to all and Happy New Year,

I would still appreciate an explanation as to why non-password-saved sites prompt for a password. Who and why is my bank history saved somewhere to enable this incessant password prompt. And yes, I am talking about dozens of password requests when visiting a site for which I have not saved passwords.

As to other issues, it seems strange to turn off history and thus create a dysfunctional browser just to deal with program glitches.