topic Re: We want BlueTooth back in Discussions

We want BlueTooth back

Boca — Wed, 10 Apr 2024 09:08:05 GMT

Bluetooth has been disabled on firefox and now we are force to go back to other browsers.
Is this wise Firefox?
If,.. it is an security issue let the ppl make there own dissision. Make an on/off switch.
Simple.

Re: We want BlueTooth back

jscher2000 — Wed, 10 Apr 2024 20:32:21 GMT

What kind of Bluetooth feature was disabled? Is this related to headphones/headset, mouse/keyboard, something else?

Re: We want BlueTooth back

Boca — Thu, 11 Apr 2024 06:14:59 GMT

I use MeshTastic via bluetooth, now i have to go to Micro$oft Edge they support it via the browser.

Re: We want BlueTooth back

Boca — Thu, 11 Apr 2024 06:17:12 GMT

So https://client.meshtastic.org/ here is the link..

Re: We want BlueTooth back

jscher2000 — Thu, 11 Apr 2024 17:00:42 GMT

Aha, in the Connect Device dialog it says "Web Bluetooth and Web Serial are currently only supported by Chromium-based browsers."

It looks like Mozilla considers direct/raw Bluetooth device access too dangerous for the average user and therefore isn't going to implement the Web Bluetooth API:

https://github.com/mozilla/standards-positions/issues/95#issuecomment-644962468 (as of June 2020)

A WebUSB exploit was cited as an example of the risk to users: https://www.wired.com/story/chrome-yubikey-phishing-webusb/

I understand your suggestion to have an extra switch for this, so it takes more effort beyond clicking "Allow" or whatever the normal permission dialog says. Users often follow unsafe instructions to get what they want from a site, so I doubt that would be enough for the developers. Maybe this will be worked out someday, but for now, nope.

Re: We want BlueTooth back

Boca — Thu, 11 Apr 2024 18:36:22 GMT

"Users often follow unsafe instructions to get what they want from a site, so I doubt that would be enough for the developers."

They see us as little children who need protection from Firefox... I think we can make our own decisions.

But oke, if they want us to go back to Edge so be it..

Re: We want BlueTooth back

jscher2000 — Thu, 11 Apr 2024 22:31:12 GMT

As far as I can tell, "Web Bluetooth" was never enabled in Firefox, so if the site worked before, maybe the site changed.

Re: We want BlueTooth back

pauljhonson614 — Fri, 12 Apr 2024 00:32:32 GMT

Offering a toggle option for Bluetooth could be a good compromise for users' grinder preferences and security concerns. Your feedback is valuable for Firefox's improvement. Thanks for sharing.