Closed Bug 1204309 Opened 9 years ago Closed 5 years ago

It is not clear to me exactly what private information the Tiles feature leaks to Mozilla, and third parties (including intelligence agencies)

Categories

(Firefox :: New Tab Page, defect)

40 Branch
defect
Not set
normal

Tracking

()

RESOLVED WONTFIX

People

(Reporter: sam, Unassigned)

Details

(Keywords: privacy)

User Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (X11; Linux x86_64) AppleWebKit/537.36 (KHTML, like Gecko) Chrome/45.0.2454.85 Safari/537.36 Steps to reproduce: Opened new tab page Actual results: Observed suggested tiles appearing. No explanation for what this feature is, or how it works, is found anywhere in the browser. Expected results: Underneath each tile there should be a "what's this?" link. Clicking on this link should display information to the user, written in plain, readable English (i.e, devoid of marketing bulshytt or legalese) exactly how the feature works, and what private data of theirs, if any, is being leaked to Mozilla, web site owners, or other third parties including spy agencies. I appreciate you've put time and effort into the feature to make sure that as little private information as possible is leaked, such as filtering the suggested sites on the client rather than on your servers, but there's nothing in the browser itself that actually confirms this. The user should be happy that you're going to these efforts to protect their privacy, so tell them about it! :)
Component: Untriaged → New Tab Page
Keywords: privacy
Click on the icon on the top right of the new tab page and select Learn about New Tab.
Status: UNCONFIRMED → RESOLVED
Closed: 9 years ago
Resolution: --- → INVALID
An "About New Tab" menu option hidden away in a sub menu is not discoverable enough. I would like to see this information displayed when I click a "What's this" link or similar underneath each suggested tab. IMHO hiding it away behind the gear icon smells like a dark pattern. In addition, the information at the bottom of the page is not clear enough about exactly what data is shared, with whom, and how long it is retained for. I would suggest scrapping the "Personalization with your privacy in mind" paragraph entirely, and put the information directly under the "Suggested sites" heading; something like: Firefox will make suggestions to you based on categories matched to your browsing history. In doing so, your personal data, including your browsing history, will not be shared with Mozilla or any third parties. You remain in control of your personal data, and can disable recommendations whenever you choose, by going to the icon at the top right of the new tab page and unchecking the "Include suggested sites" menu entry.
Status: RESOLVED → UNCONFIRMED
Resolution: INVALID → ---

Hello!
This bug has been closed due to inactivity and/or the potential for this bug to no longer be an issue with the new Discovery Stream-powered New Tab experience.
Please help us triage by reopening if this issue still persists and should be addressed.
Thanks!

Status: UNCONFIRMED → RESOLVED
Closed: 9 years ago5 years ago
Resolution: --- → WONTFIX
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