Google warning you about Mozilla is just peak fucking irony
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Okay, turned it off. If a site needs my location it can ask me and I can politely tell it to fuck off unless it has a warrant.
Isn't that just because Firefox got access to location data because some site asked for it?
Yep. Like a map website...
Even if this isn't entirely true, you know Google wouldn't pass up the opportunity to reduce Firefox market share to scare everyone back to Chrome.
Like chrome does something different?
Yes, chrome is doing something different. It is even worse!
That's not the point they're trying to make I think. It's more of an attack on perfection. Like "the alternative is not perfect either so why not just stay with Chrome". It's not a very strong argument in general but it might be enough to keep people from switching.
There's no need to reduce Firefox marketshare. Most people don't even consider using anything else than whatever is default in their device.
Also, it's not a Google scare tactic or a flex. Every application on the Play Store must disclose the general outlines of their data policy, including the sharing of data. Lying with those checkbox is not a good idea but they are completely informative and put there by the publishing party, so the people responsible for publishing Firefox on mobile just updated these, and this is what is shown when an app publisher say their app is sharing data with third parties.
tl;dr: it's very likely that not a single soul at Google even looked at this, as this is just the regular behavior of the Play Store with apps that changes their data policy or indicate sharing user data with third parties.
"Quick! Jump to chrome instead!" - Google spokesperson
i mean it's just because you can grant websites location data and toggle telemetry.
Wait a second. You're expecting Google to not FUD? Ha ha ha oh wow. I mean I didn't actually expect them to do so, but yeah.
Google: "Forcing us to divest Chrome could have impacts on our ability to support Mozilla and their high executive salaries as we own the space with Chrome."
Also Google:
God damn why's the world so shit
i know, thats some really late stage capitalism bullshit.
That's a regular notification, which would happen for any application whose data policy is changed on the Play Store page. These policy are as declared by the app publisher. This would be the same for any application that didn't check that "sharing data with third party" box earlier, then checked it later on.
As of the latest Chrome update on PC, they have dropped support for uBlock. You can still technically enable it, but they disabled it by default once you update.
That got me back to Firefox with breakneck speed.
FWIW I'm not seeing this on the Play Store for Firefox 136.0.1 on my Pixel 8a, and I'm not seeing any warnings on Beta or Nightly either:
Deactivate from settings Have https always on, protection against tracking on strict, data collection and daily ping on off.
And that's it.
I stopped my donations to Mozilla.
Sigh
The DDG app shows no 3rd party tracking attempts made by Firefox at all... So far...
Alright gang, what are some good open source Firefox forks available on Android and Linux?
Firefox engines have telemetry since old ages. Do you know what even crazier ??? even other firefox browser like fennec has Mozilla telemetry.
PSA : disable it with Blocker (ROOT) for more privacy
Sending telemetry like crashes and what features you use/don't use isn't really in the same category as using location data for marketing purposes. It's a very important distinction to draw.
Pretty easy to disable the location app permission or set it to ask every time. Firefox hasn't asked me to enable it since turning it off.
NnnnnoooooooooooooooooooOOOOOOOOO