Use Tracking Protection?

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Smokey20

Use Tracking Protection?

Unread post by Smokey20 » 2018-08-08, 08:10

Where did Use Tracking Protection go in Preferences? It still works but I can't make any changes! Plus, I don't know how well it is working because the icon doesn't show up at some sites where it does show up on Fx 52.9 ESR. In fact, because I noticed this discrepancy between Tracking Protection in the two browsers, I opened Preferences just now and the setting is not there!

about:config settings for tracking protection are still there though. Such as "privacy.trackingprotection.ui.enabled;true"

But to change the preferred Block List, I need the UI in Preferences/privacy. I also need the UI to be able to look at (and change) the Exceptions list.
Tuesday, August 07, 2018 22;04;37001.png
Screenshot is from Fx 52.9 ESR but it was in Basilisk in the past.

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Moonchild
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Re: Use Tracking Protection?

Unread post by Moonchild » 2018-08-08, 08:15

Tracking protection (Disconnect) won't work without safebrowsing and an API key. Streamlining all that is an open issue on the UXP repo, but for now the about;config prefs are still there -- it just won't do anything. Because we don't want to advertise something that doesn't work, the UI was changed to give control over the one thing that CAN be controlled: the DNT header.
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Smokey20

Re: Use Tracking Protection?

Unread post by Smokey20 » 2018-08-08, 11:46

Moonchild wrote:Because we don't want to advertise something that doesn't work, the UI was changed to give control over the one thing that CAN be controlled: the DNT header.
That makes sense. But I'm still confused. Did it never actually work (and I just thought it did)? No, it must have worked at one time because on some sites I would have to disable it for the site to work correctly. Ahh...I see now. At a site where I disabled it (so I could support the site by viewing a few ads), I now see that I can't reenable it after I clicked on the icon in the address bar like I can on Fx. The icon just disappeared, whereas, it should (if working correctly) have told me I had tracking protection disabled for that site and offered me a button to click on to reinstate protection. I need to click the icon off of all sites that it appears on since it is misleading as it doesn't work.

I like it and have used it from way back on Fx and used the Disconnect extension too (which never worked well on Fx but only on Chrome based browsers). I think it would be great if, in the future, you can offer Disconnect to Basilisk users.

Thank you for explaining!

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Moonchild
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Re: Use Tracking Protection?

Unread post by Moonchild » 2018-08-08, 12:24

We can't offer it because it require API access which we don't have (and don't have the rights to).
"Sometimes, the best way to get what you want is to be a good person." -- Louis Rossmann
"Seek wisdom, not knowledge. Knowledge is of the past; wisdom is of the future." -- Native American proverb
"Linux makes everything difficult." -- Lyceus Anubite

jimmyfenger

Re: Use Tracking Protection?

Unread post by jimmyfenger » 2018-08-08, 18:19

Since Tracking Protection appears to have worked in earlier versions, based on one of the above posts, does that mean you had the rights to the required API access and now no longer do? If so, did Mozilla rescind those rights or was this a Basilisk decision?

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Re: Use Tracking Protection?

Unread post by Moonchild » 2018-08-08, 19:19

jimmyfenger wrote:Since Tracking Protection appears to have worked in earlier versions, based on one of the above posts, does that mean you had the rights to the required API access and now no longer do? If so, did Mozilla rescind those rights or was this a Basilisk decision?
None of the above.
It never should have worked and likely never did. The ductwork was there but nothing to actually use it. And if it did work by chance (because of not strictly checking access), then that was unauthorized use of their API and should have been stopped anyway.
Last edited by Moonchild on 2018-08-08, 19:20, edited 1 time in total.
"Sometimes, the best way to get what you want is to be a good person." -- Louis Rossmann
"Seek wisdom, not knowledge. Knowledge is of the past; wisdom is of the future." -- Native American proverb
"Linux makes everything difficult." -- Lyceus Anubite

jimmyfenger

Re: Use Tracking Protection?

Unread post by jimmyfenger » 2018-08-08, 19:47

That was fast! Thanks for the thorough explanation.

Smokey20

Re: Use Tracking Protection?

Unread post by Smokey20 » 2018-08-09, 05:59

Moonchild wrote:
jimmyfenger wrote:Since Tracking Protection appears to have worked in earlier versions, based on one of the above posts, does that mean you had the rights to the required API access and now no longer do? If so, did Mozilla rescind those rights or was this a Basilisk decision?
None of the above.
It never should have worked and likely never did. The ductwork was there but nothing to actually use it. And if it did work by chance (because of not strictly checking access), then that was unauthorized use of their API and should have been stopped anyway.
It WAS working from shortly after I got the first version of Basilisk last November on my Windows 8.0 Pro computer as I set it up like I had the preferences (to show the UI, etc) on Fx 52 ESR where the UI had not been showing on the ESR version by default.

I'm on the Windows 8 computer now and I have the 2018.07.18 (x64) version of Basilisk.

Back around the end of December 2017, I tried to check my order status on the new Dell XPS 8930 Windows 10 Pro desktop machine that I had just received and set up and installed Basilisk on. I had tracking protection working on Basilisk but I had to disable it at Dell because I couldn't get the captcha to appear and thus was blocked at that page on Dell. When I disabled tracking protection for Dell website, the Google recaptcha appeared.

The last time I checked Dell website for order status was in April and I had to disable tracking protection on Basilisk then to get the recaptcha. So, the change from tracking protection working on Basilisk to it not working happened sometime AFTER the REfork from Fx 55 to Fx 52 ESR and I only noticed it not working recently after you removed the UI for it a few weeks ago so it happened within the past few weeks as tracking protection works fine on Fx 52.9 ESR so it was not reforking Basilisk that caused it to stop working rather it was your removal of the UI in the latest version.

So you used an unauthorized API for over eight months? I admit I was remiss in not reading the release notes for this latest version of Basilisk (I read previous ones but updated this time because it was bugging me to update so I did but was busy and forgot to later read the release notes). Your removal was incomplete in that it left the icon and the structure at websites when you click on the lock so it APPEARS to still be working. Plus, the really unfortunate thing here is that users believed tracking protection that WORKED from the first version of Basilisk until the latest version was a permanent, welcome part of this browser as we knew nothing about about it using an unauthorized API all this time.

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Re: Use Tracking Protection?

Unread post by Moonchild » 2018-08-09, 06:47

Smokey, you seem to have some complaint, but I'm not clear what it is.

Basilisk has used and is using some Mozilla-sourced infrastructure because it is a reference application that has been cloned from Firefox. It's not possible to change all of that immediately. Yes, it's possible that the disconnect infra was used for months while we were sorting out the code. If that worked, then that was merely by chance and not by design.

So what's you're issue? Is you issue that it doesn't work after we changed it to be compliant?
Or is your complaint that it took us a while to sort things (in which case: why didn't you help) ?

Please clarify.
"Sometimes, the best way to get what you want is to be a good person." -- Louis Rossmann
"Seek wisdom, not knowledge. Knowledge is of the past; wisdom is of the future." -- Native American proverb
"Linux makes everything difficult." -- Lyceus Anubite

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