1848319 - Request for SUMO page discussing our new upcoming fingerprinting protections [Desktop V118]

Status: RESOLVED FIXED

(support.mozilla.org :: Knowledge Base Content, task)

Description

[Martin Balfanz [:mbalfanz]]

Product

Firefox

Select the type of request

New feature or functionality

##What product version number does this change align with? [REQUIRED]
118

This will be a continuous effort and new protections will be added in the next couple of versions. The first one is targeting 118.

##What is the anticipated release date? [REQUIRED]
September 26, 2023

##What is the proposed deadline for the content to be published? [REQUIRED]
Latest on release day or shortly before release date

Until then, a placeholder page would be appreciated, as we want to link to the SUMO page from within about:preferences (and potentially about:protections).

Please include any related JIRA/Github/Bugzilla tickets, documentation, demos or practical use cases. [REQUIRED]

• approval to ship
• description and planning
• [draft spec] (https://docs.google.com/document/d/1C53pJtYcG0hitath1LZYHuPW2f4L21JcchI-EIVD89o/edit) (might add more context)
• Jira PM
• Jira Engineering
• V1 experiment brief
• meta bug

I'm happy to give a walk-through of the feature and answer any questions you might have.

Please add instructions for testing or links to any design assets or visuals. [REQUIRED]

Relevant user facing change will land in Nightly in the next 1-2 weeks.

Protections will be enabled by default in private windows or can be controlled as part of ETP custom settings. Soon after (probably 119, if we can't make it into 118), the protections will also be part of the ETP strict setting.

Under about:preferences#privacy, there will be two entries for Fingerprinting protections. The currently existing one will be renamed from "Fingerprinters" to "Known fingerprinters". The new addition will be called "Suspected fingerprinters" and offers a choice of "in all windows" and "Only in private windows".

Once enabled, the protection will function automatically. We made a lot of efforts to reduce webcompat impact to a minimum.

If a user encounters a webcompat issue that may be related to any of the protections, they can turn off the protections for a specific site through the shield icon in the awesome bar.

Future versions will expose more of the feature, e.g. in the shield icon, about:protections, and site issue reporting. But those additions won't make it into the initial release.

Does the content need to be localized in any languages outside of our priority locales (yes or no)?

no

Does the content require legal review (yes or no)?

no

Is the content embargoed (yes or no)?

no

Comment 1

[Alice Wyman]

Related KB article: https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/firefox-protection-against-fingerprinting

Comment 2

[Martin Balfanz [:mbalfanz]]

Thanks for pointing to this link. It could be a good option to update this page instead of creating an entirely new one.

Comment 3

[JR Johnson]

Attachment: Screenshot 2023-08-15 at 22.31.46.png

Posting some comments from Martin from our DM on this update:

"I went through the article again, and it appears to be specifically about a pref that we don't want users to use. I think adjusting this page, pointing to the new feature, and reducing the emphasis on the currently documented, experimental one, can be the way to go.

The changes are mostly backend right now. It's a new layer of protection we're adding to ETP. However, users do have some control over this protection.

The protection will enabled by default for all ETP Strict users and for private windows.

A user can adjust the setting (toggle, and decide the scope between private and all windows) in about:preferences (see screenshot).

A user will be warned that some content may not display correctly when enabling this setting.

A user will also be warned if they choose the experimental feature that's documented currently on the page, letting them know about the caveats.

If a user chooses the feature and encounters an issue on a website, they can disable the protection using the awesome bar shield icon > ETP toggle.

We think that it might be confusing for users that there are two different fingerprinting protecitons. That's why we'd like to link to a support page from about:preferences (and later about:protections) that explains:

• what fingerprinting is (that's covered)
• how we're protecting them with this feature (might be similar to the current section with adjusted list)
• how to enable/disable the feature, globally and per page

We could then keep current content in abbreviated form. I mentioned that we don't encourage users to use it, but it happens to be part of many "how to harden firefox" and pre-defined user.js (like arkenfox) efforts. Some users have it enabled unknowingly, and it's a constant cause of bug reports for us. I'd like to keep a highlight on this being experimental and that it will cause issues for most people.

The current copy in the "heads up!" is still being discussed. as it currently reads, it may be enough to link out to the ETP page. I will work with the content designer on refining it

Comment 4

[Tim Huang[:timhuang]]

Attachment: Screenshot 2023-09-05 at 19.05.26.png

We will be adding a LearnMore line to https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/firefox-protection-against-fingerprinting on a ResistFingerprinting(RFP) warning banner in Bug 1841116. This banner is to warn users who have RFP prefs enabled that could potentially cause site breakages.

We would like to add a section in the new SUMO page about the instructions that users can take to handle the warning. The instructions include

• How to disable the two RFP prefs
  ** privacy.resistFingerprinting: RFP in normal windows
  ** privacy.resistFingerprinting.pbmode: RFP in private windows.
• Offer the new Fingerprinting protection option that users can opt-in to replace RFP.

Martin, do you have anything to add here? Thanks.

Comment 5

[Tim Huang[:timhuang]]

The learn more link in the about:preferences page is going to be https://support.mozilla.org/1/firefox/119.0a1/Darwin/en-US/firefox-protection-against-fingerprinting. The link doesn't link to the KB article. We should fix this as well.

Comment 6

[Lucas Siebert]

Hey Tim! I've just configured a redirect in Kitsune for the "learn more" link (https://support.mozilla.org/1/firefox/119.0a1/Darwin/en-US/firefox-protection-against-fingerprinting). It will now take users directly to the "Protection against Fingerprinting" SUMO article (https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/firefox-protection-against-fingerprinting).

Comment 7

[Martin Balfanz [:mbalfanz]]

The information looks complete to me. The current content of this site is still accurate for resistFingerprinting, so I think we can adjust it according to our new needs for FPP.

Comment 8

[Lucas Siebert]

Draft: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1-u4t_uZIPxIc2hyqXj_IAMTuxU-bURK9YQiVcU_H73M/edit

Comment 9

[Alice Wyman]

https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/firefox-protection-against-fingerprinting was just updated, based on this bug. I have a revision pending review, to change Preferences to Settings. See https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/firefox-protection-against-fingerprinting/history

Comment 10

[Alice Wyman]

Lucas, do you want to add back content for fx117 and below? The new content you added to the article is for fx118 and above. A few other changes are needed, including the search summary. I have a new revision that's pending review.

Comment 11

[Lucas Siebert]

(In reply to Alice Wyman from comment #9)

https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/firefox-protection-against-fingerprinting was just updated, based on this bug. I have a revision pending review, to change Preferences to Settings. See https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/firefox-protection-against-fingerprinting/history

Hi Alice! Appreciate the update you sent in earlier today. I've just published it.

Comment 12

[Lucas Siebert]

Article has been revised to accommodate the V118 updates. To provide better assistance to users with older Firefox versions, the previous content has been retained under a conditional markup {for not fx118} for the time being. https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/firefox-protection-against-fingerprinting