1551675 - Remove Standard category pref in favor of using default values

Status: VERIFIED FIXED

(Firefox :: Protections UI, defect, P1)

Description

[Erica Wright [:ewright]]

after Bug #1529517 landed we've had some difficulty managing the

browser.contentblocking.features.standard and browser.contentblocking.features.strict prefs.
This is especially a problem when we want to run multiple studies or do rollouts which will all run at the same time, and effect one or more of the 5 prefs governed by these two prefs.

Generally we don't do studies with the strict pref, so we can save updating that for a future time since it is not so simple.

For the standard pref we should be able to remove it. We can change the standard UI depending on whatever the default value of each of the 5 prefs. For future versions we will simply ignore this pref if it exists.
We can also match users to this category if all of their prefs are default values, and enforce default values when they click to change to it.
If we can do this by 68 that would be ideal.

Comment 1

[Erica Wright [:ewright]]

Attachment: Bug 1551675 - remove the Standard category pref and depend on default values to compute standard settings.

The standard category pref is gone.
When the default values change the standard category will change it's expectations to match.

Comment 2

[Pulsebot]

Pushed by [e-mail]:
https://hg.mozilla.org/integration/autoland/rev/b8ad543d5447
remove the Standard category pref and depend on default values to compute standard settings. r=johannh

Comment 3

[Erica Wright [:ewright]]

Comment on attachment 9064891 [details]
Bug 1551675 - remove the Standard category pref and depend on default values to compute standard settings.

Beta/Release Uplift Approval Request

• User impact if declined: This is to remove the browser.contentblocking.features.standard pref as it causes a lot of trouble with various testing and rollouts involving the content blocking tests. If this is not uplifted we are at more risk of users involved in the ETP rollout of being stuck in a state in the future where we can no longer update prefs that are set in their standard category. This greatly simplifies the rollout and will allow the rollout to only involve a single pref change if uplifted.
• Is this code covered by automated tests?: Yes
• Has the fix been verified in Nightly?: No
• Needs manual test from QE?: Yes
• If yes, steps to reproduce: 1.

• start a fresh profile
• navigate to about:preferences#privacy, ensure you are in the standard category
• in a new tab go to about:config
• change the privacy.trackingprotection.cryptomining.enabled to false
• tab back to about:preferences#privacy, you should now be in the custom category.

• start a fresh profile
• ensure you are in the standard category on about:preferences#privacy
• download the addon https://addons.mozilla.org/en-CA/firefox/addon/enterprise-policy-generator/
• use the addon to create a new policy involving cookies such as:

{
  "policies": {
    "Cookies": {
      "AcceptThirdParty": "from-visited",
      "Default": true,
      "ExpireAtSessionEnd": true
    }
  }
}

• follow the instructions to use the custom policy then restart firefox.
• check the standard category at about:preferences#privacy
  ER:
• user should still be in the standard category.
• the standard category description should have changed, such as "Cookies from unvisited sites"

To test cryptominers or fingerprinters or others which are not editable with the policies you need to change the default value of the pref and ensure the standard category description has also changed. I've been testing by changing these defaults in firefox.js.

• List of other uplifts needed: None
• Risk to taking this patch: Low
• Why is the change risky/not risky? (and alternatives if risky): The browser.contentblocking.features.standard pref was only introduced in 68, this is removing that pref. Release users should have never seen this pref. For other users, the pref is simply being ignored, so no concerns for backward compat.
• String changes made/needed: none

Comment 4

[Raul Gurzau (:RaulG)]

https://hg.mozilla.org/mozilla-central/rev/b8ad543d5447

Comment 5

[Julien Cristau [:jcristau]]

Comment on attachment 9064891 [details]
Bug 1551675 - remove the Standard category pref and depend on default values to compute standard settings.

This change is already in 68, no need for uplift as far as I can tell.

Comment 6

[Erica Wright [:ewright]]

(In reply to Julien Cristau [:jcristau] from comment #5)

Comment on attachment 9064891 [details]
Bug 1551675 - remove the Standard category pref and depend on default values to compute standard settings.

This change is already in 68, no need for uplift as far as I can tell.

You are completely correct, sorry about that, I was forgetting that nightly was still 68.

Comment 7

[David Olah]

Verified the issue on Nightly 69.0a1 (2019-05-20) and 68.0a1. The browser.contentblocking.features.standard pref is successfully removed.