this post was submitted on 19 Jun 2025
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Mozilla Backs off on Data Collection: Firefox Labs to Not Require Telemetry or Studies in Future Updates (www.quippd.com)
submitted 19 hours ago by LWD@lemm.ee to c/firefox@lemmy.ml
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cross-posted from: https://fedia.io/m/firefox@lemmy.world/t/2320051

Starting in Firefox 138, Mozilla started gating Firefox Labs features behind data collection.

Mozilla had announced that some new Firefox features would be released via Firefox Labs.

It is now a few hours since I posted, and there is reason to celebrate – Mozilla is updating Firefox Labs to let people access features without needing to enable data collection.

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[–] SplashJackson@lemmy.ca 6 points 17 hours ago (1 children)

Firefox, sly as a fox, chicken as a chicken

[–] deathmetal27@lemmy.world 2 points 12 hours ago (1 children)

Why a chicken? At least they are not forcing it down our throats like others do.

[–] Coding4Fun@lemmy.ml -1 points 8 hours ago

They are not forcing it down our throats because of the backslash of the community. So...chicken!

[–] ByteMe@lemmy.world 7 points 17 hours ago

I'm really not happy with the path Mozilla chose.

[–] victorz@lemmy.world 4 points 17 hours ago (1 children)

Hey, I knew things would be okay in the end. ☺️

[–] LWD@lemm.ee 2 points 17 hours ago (1 children)

🤔 I thought you wanted Labs features to be gated

[–] victorz@lemmy.world 1 points 2 hours ago (1 children)

Must have been a misunderstanding. I merely said that it makes sense that you would want to collect usage data on potential new future features that are in development, to gather an understanding of what works and what doesn't. I didn't say that features should be arbitrarily gated. That would make no sense. 👍

[–] LWD@lemm.ee 1 points 1 hour ago

It might be me, but when you wrote

But it's Firefox Labs, this is to test features before they're ready. If you want to participate in that, you're doing it to help Mozilla with Firefox, and it should thus be imperative that you also help with usage data as well. It just makes sense. Nothing to do with preference.

It sure sounded like you supported Firefox Labs features being gated

[–] slackness@lemmy.ml 4 points 17 hours ago (1 children)

I am happy they're giving people a choice. On the other hand, the fact is, (privacy respecting) telemetry is the only way to make a program as complicated as a web browser better. Especially important when your competition is a giant data hoarder with orders of magnitude more users. And people will just not turn on opt-in telemetry.

[–] LWD@lemm.ee 12 points 16 hours ago

Do you really think Firefox did a better job of improving with every version from 57 to 139, vs 1 to 56? Personally, I haven't seen it...

Is Netflix doing a better job of improving its programming compared to network TV of the 1990s and 2000s?

Call my principles old fashioned, but if companies want to know what people want, they could always ask. Ask and then listen.