1715129 - Collect Telemetry on how many instances of Firefox have Proton enabled

Status: RESOLVED FIXED

(Firefox :: General, task)

Description

[Mike Conley (:mconley) (:⚙️)]

As it says on the tin. We want to record the value of browser.proton.enabled. Ideally, this can be uplifted to 90.

Comment 1

[Mike Conley (:mconley) (:⚙️)]

Attachment: Data collection request.md

Comment 2

[Mike Conley (:mconley) (:⚙️)]

Attachment: Bug 1715129 - Collect telemetry on how many clients have Proton enabled. r?chutten! data-review=chutten

Comment 3

[Chris H-C :chutten]

Comment on attachment 9225755 [details]
Data collection request.md

DATA COLLECTION REVIEW RESPONSE:

Is there or will there be documentation that describes the schema for the ultimate data set available publicly, complete and accurate?

Yes.

Is there a control mechanism that allows the user to turn the data collection on and off?

Yes. This collection is Telemetry so can be controlled through Firefox's Preferences.

If the request is for permanent data collection, is there someone who will monitor the data over time?

No. This collection will expire in Firefox 92.

Using the category system of data types on the Mozilla wiki, what collection type of data do the requested measurements fall under?

Category 1, Technical.

Is the data collection request for default-on or default-off?

Default on for all channels.

Does the instrumentation include the addition of any new identifiers?

No.

Is the data collection covered by the existing Firefox privacy notice?

Yes.

Does the data collection use a third-party collection tool?

No.

---

Result: datareview+

Comment 4

[Pulsebot]

Pushed by [e-mail]:
https://hg.mozilla.org/integration/autoland/rev/dfa07d34465f
Collect telemetry on how many clients have Proton enabled. r=chutten data-review=chutten

Comment 5

[Narcis Beleuzu [:NarcisB]]

https://hg.mozilla.org/mozilla-central/rev/dfa07d34465f

Comment 6

[Mike Conley (:mconley) (:⚙️)]

Comment on attachment 9225756 [details]
Bug 1715129 - Collect telemetry on how many clients have Proton enabled. r?chutten! data-review=chutten

Beta/Release Uplift Approval Request

• User impact if declined: None.
• Is this code covered by automated tests?: No
• Has the fix been verified in Nightly?: No
• Needs manual test from QE?: No
• If yes, steps to reproduce:
• List of other uplifts needed: None
• Risk to taking this patch: Low
• Why is the change risky/not risky? (and alternatives if risky): This adds a very simple Telemetry probe for recording the state of a preference with Glean. It's a very trivial patch.
• String changes made/needed: None.

Comment 7

[dbben]

interesting. thanks for sharing all of the above. :-)

Comment 8

[Julien Cristau [:jcristau]]

Comment on attachment 9225756 [details]
Bug 1715129 - Collect telemetry on how many clients have Proton enabled. r?chutten! data-review=chutten

approved for 90.0b6

For my education, is there any perf cost to importing Glean here, or is that basically free?

Comment 9

[Mike Conley (:mconley) (:⚙️)]

ni'ing chutten for comment 8.

Comment 10

[Julien Cristau [:jcristau]]

https://hg.mozilla.org/releases/mozilla-beta/rev/94fc26b09944

Comment 11

[Chris H-C :chutten]

Glean aims to be as cheap as possible to use, but no cheaper. The instrumentation itself is dispatched off the instrumenting thread so the cost to the caller is minimized. If you do notice any Glean-responsible performance headaches, those are bugs and we'll treat them with due enthusiasm.

The cost from to the calling thread for instrumentation calls in JS should be the cost of manufacturing some objects for the named getters (category and metric), the ffi from JS down to C++, then just walking down the call frames from C++ to Rust (then finally into Glean proper. The rest of this is the FOG layer used to make Glean useful on Firefox Desktop) to the dispatcher and back up again. Maybe a little more expensive than Telemetry? (Telemetry doesn't create objects for its probes in JS). Or maybe a little cheaper? (Telemetry has to compare a provided string to all metric names to figure out which probe a string corresponds to). Might break even.

Hope that helps

Comment 12

[bobbuun]

Is it worth also checking to see if a custom userChrome.css loads to contribute further context to the data this would provide?

Comment 13

[Blake Winton (:bwinton) (:☕️)]

(In reply to bobbuun from comment #12)

Is it worth also checking to see if a custom userChrome.css loads to contribute further context to the data this would provide?

Interesting thought, but not for what we're interested in with this probe (which is mostly "How many people will we seriously annoy when we remove the pref in 4-8 weeks?").

Comment 14

[dbben]

"How many people will seriously be annoyed when the pref is removed" is a good question.

I think while its not exactly about the quantity (amount) of people it can be about the quality (type) of persons that if annoyed can lead to the risk of questions being asked (and published) like "Who is running the show around here?" "What is happening with all the donars monies?", "What is telemetry?", "Why are we forbidden to undo the upgrade", and many more why this's and why thats.

Business owners, managers, donars, publicists, investigative reporters, etc...,. will take notice. But is the risk worth it?

The above is just my 2-cents. :-)

Comment 15

[Chris H-C :chutten]

Oh, I can help with those questions:

"Who is running the show around here?"

At the Mozilla Corporation that'd be Mitchell Baker and her leadership team, at the Mozilla Foundation that'd be Mark Surman and his leadership team. You can find out more here. There's also information about Mozilla Reps and the Board of Directors if you're so inclined. But we invite contributors across the world to help shape the future of the Open Web, so really the answer is "Everyone, to a greater or lesser degree".

"What is happening with all the donars monies?"

Donations are collected by the Mozilla Foundation to fund the Foundation's activties. There is a Donor FAQ that answers this question by linking to this page that publishes the Foundation's current and past activities. The Mozilla Corporation (the part of Mozilla that pays people to build Firefox (and do other stuff)) doesn't receive donations.

"What is telemetry?"

Depends at what level you want to learn, but at the highest level "telemetry" is data we collect about Mozilla products in according to Mozilla's Privacy Principles and the product-specific Privacy Notices. If you'd like to get into the technical weeds I can dig up docs and publications about the code that collects and receives telemetry, most of which is linked to from https://telemetry.mozilla.org/

"Why are we forbidden to undo the upgrade"

You aren't? I'm not sure what you mean by this. Mozilla doesn't limit what programs you may install on your devices. If you're referring to downgrade protection, that can be suspended with a command-line switch as per this SUMO (SUpport.Mozilla.Org) article. We introduced that to try and help people manage situations where they have multiple versions of Firefox installed simultaneously so they don't lose their stored history/bookmarks/passwords/etc.

Does that help answer your questions?

Comment 16

[dbben]

You've tickled my funny bone! :-)

I should have cited the word, "Rhetorically" at the beginning of that paragraph

But you know what? I appreciate the integrity in your response. thanks! :-)

Comment 17

[Sören Hentzschel]

Is it worth also checking to see if a custom userChrome.css loads to contribute further context to the data this would provide?

Using userChrome.css is not necessarily related to Proton. From my experience as operator of the biggest German speaking Firefox support forum most people who requested changes after the launch of Firefox 89 (at least in our forum) were people who were already using the userChrome.css file anyway. Only a few percentage were new to the "individual customizations game".

Comment 18

[dbben]

(In reply to Chris H-C :chutten from comment #15)

Oh, I can help with those questions:

You aren't? I'm not sure what you mean by this. Mozilla doesn't limit what programs you may install on your devices. If you're referring to downgrade protection, that can be suspended with a command-line switch as per this SUMO (SUpport.Mozilla.Org) article. We introduced that to try and help people manage situations where they have multiple versions of Firefox installed simultaneously so they don't lose their stored history/bookmarks/passwords/etc.

Chris, I would like to know at what level you operate from at in the Mozilla Org and would like your take, albeit personal, professional or organizational on the following:

When it comes to the FF consumer desiring, demanding and or pleading to downgrade their FF because the upgrade created a unexpected castrophe for the user; I have been "advised" not to "advise" and or "guide" people on downgrading or I will incur a consequence. Of course, as a volunteer and a donar, I dont believe that I am misguided by my principles when it comes to helping people overcome a hardship.

So what i see and hear being conveyed to me and unhappy V89 users is that the v89 upgrade is a "Take it or leave it" situation. And if the FF user "leaves it for the competition", then so-be-it. However, i dont think that its V89 that is the cause of discontent for some people. Instead I believe it is the Proton concept that is creating the conflicts.

Although I find no official information against downgrading and instead find justification(s) that any version of FF is 100% accessable and downloadable by anyone and everyone for whatever reason, it seems that there is an exception for those who want to re-install V88.

Do you have a take on my observations above? If so, what are the official/formal justifications that support that lack of quality care for FF users needing to return to a functional, productive and happy state ? :-)

Comment 19

[Blake Winton (:bwinton) (:☕️)]

Let me just stop you all there. As interesting as this discussion is, this is not the right forum for it so I'm going to have to ask all of you to take it somewhere else. (Perhaps Matrix?) Thanks!

Comment 20

[Chris H-C :chutten]

Good point :bwinton. :dbben, you (and anyone else) can find me as :chutten on https://chat.mozilla.org/

Comment 21

[dbben]

I agree. If my comment / question can be deleted from this thread, its ok by me. i dont know how to do this. thanks! ~ben

Comment 22

[William Lachance (:wlach)]

:chutten, do we need to update the probe scraper to be aware of the new metrics.yaml file added as part of this ping? I'm not seeing this new telemetry in the glean dictionary:

https://dictionary.telemetry.mozilla.org/apps/firefox_desktop?itemType=metrics&page=1&search=proton&showExpired=1

Comment 23

[Julien Cristau [:jcristau]]

Isn't that bug 1715554?

Comment 24

[kuro68k]

(In reply to Blake Winton (:bwinton) (:☕️) from comment #13)

Interesting thought, but not for what we're interested in with this probe (which is mostly "How many people will we seriously annoy when we remove the pref in 4-8 weeks?").

Will this actually answer that question? A lot of the people who enabled that preference probably also disabled telemetry. Speaking to the people who are most upset about Proton on sites like Slashdot, most of them also disable all telemetry in every as a matter of course.

Comment 25

[Sören Hentzschel]

A lot of the people who enabled that preference probably also disabled telemetry.

People who disable telemetry don't want to be considered at all. That's what disabling telemetry means.

Comment 26

[kuro68k]

(In reply to Sören Hentzschel from comment #25)

A lot of the people who enabled that preference probably also disabled telemetry.

People who disable telemetry don't want to be considered at all. That's what disabling telemetry means.

I don't think it does. I means they don't want telemetry, not that they don't want their opinions to be counted. That's why the new Ideas platform is a good idea, it caters to the telemetry-phobic.

Comment 27

[Sören Hentzschel]

I don't think it does.

Maybe you didn't understand what telemetry is. But this is really not the right platform to discuss that.

Comment 28

[kuro68k]

(In reply to Sören Hentzschel from comment #27)

I don't think it does.

Maybe you didn't understand what telemetry is. But this is really not the right platform to discuss that.

Please reconsider comments like that. Try to be constructive.

Comment 29

[William Lachance (:wlach)]

(In reply to Julien Cristau [:jcristau] from comment #23)

Isn't that bug 1715554?

Sure is! Apologies for the noise

Comment 30

[bobbuun]

Where is the data that this is collected for people who had not opted out of telemetry and had also fixed their browser to use Proton away from the Photon crap for the extra two versions they could?

Comment 31

[Julien Cristau [:jcristau]]

Restricting comments to try and cut down on off-topic discussion.