User points out the shady privacy policy of Fakespot in r/firefox. Gets banned by mods afterwards

[jobbautista9]

So if you haven't heard the news yet, Mozilla has acquired Fakespot, and is planning to integrate it to Firefox: http://blog.mozilla.org/en/mozilla/fake ... ouncement/

My immediate first thought was: "this is going to be another Pocket, isn't it."

However, turns out it's even worse. Of course it has to be worse: https://old.reddit.com/r/firefox/commen ... f_firefox/

Apparently Fakespot is straight up saying in their privacy policy that it is selling and sharing your data, as mandated by Californian law (yay for California I guess ): https://old.reddit.com/r/firefox/commen ... illas_new/

Link to Fakespot's privacy policy if you want to see for yourselves: https://www.fakespot.com/privacy-policy

I'm not sure why a service that is simply supposed to detect if a review is fake or not needs your personal data, let alone sell it to third-parties...

But wait, there's more! Our dear Great Leader nextbern has blatantly abused their mod powers to damage control and downplay privacy concerns about Fakespot, by sticking a comment saying that the post is FUD. Because of course everything that doesn't toe the Mozilla party line is FUD. Mozilla is our only saviour after all. Oh, and what's funny is that he has gone so far as to say that you shouldn't use Firefox if you're concerned about Fakespot's privacy policy. I mean, I agree; if a browser no longer works best for you, it's logical to throw it out. It's just that I didn't expect hearing this from a fanatic who seems hellbent on defending Mozilla and shoving their beloved browser to our mouths!

This subreddit just gets worse and worse over time...

[Likestofish]

With this, Firefox will be at least as privacy hostile as Chrome, perhaps even more so. But I honestly don't know if all that garbage can be stripped out of Firefox - and kept out - without a substantial pruning of its code. Which of course would require a not-insignificant team of developers to achieve and to maintain. Firefox has become so badly bugged it may be beyond reasonable or practical rescue.

[Mæstro]

Does anyone else remember the Cliqs affair? This is nothing new.
We have the advantage of never having put this rubbish in, but I know that LibreWolf and Tor manage somehow to peel it away.

[Moonchild]

I know that LibreWolf and Tor manage somehow to peel it away.

As far as I know it's still there just crippled.

[Mæstro]

So you are the only one who even tries to cut it out of the source code?
The thought that the others leave so much vestigial code is stunning, even if I know that the UXP has only slowly removed useless segments.

[Moonchild]

So you are the only one who even tries to cut it out of the source code?
The thought that the others leave so much vestigial code is stunning, even if I know that the UXP has only slowly removed useless segments.

Remember they are rebuilds, not forks. Mozilla is moving too fast for them with their constant code churn to actually touch most of it. So just cutting some parts of the plumbing to cripple it is the most these rebuilds can generally do unless Mozilla has actively made concessions to their desired feature set (which i think is only done in some respects for the Tor browser...)

[moonbat]

My immediate first thought was: "this is going to be another Pocket, isn't it."

Of course it is. First get rid of XUL/XPCOM and hook up Firefox to Chrome's extension system along with all its malware, then forcibly integrate features that were better off being optional via extensions. If Webextensions are so wonderful, why aren't these acquisitions simply showing up on their addons site as optional extensions?
I remember back in the day when there was Mozilla Labs, originally they would demo new features as extensions and based on user feedback they got integrated, dumped or remained extensions for those that wanted them.

As for r/firefox, just don't waste your time correcting anything there.

[Sajadi]

It's just that I didn't expect hearing this from a fanatic who seems hellbent on defending Mozilla and shoving their beloved browser to our mouths!

This subreddit just gets worse and worse over time...

What else can you expect from Mozilla these days other than extremism? What else can you expect by a browser "company" who hates Conservatives and blindly obeys every insane leftist dogmatic which appears "in the wild" ? Not only that, they also betrayed their power users and theme and add-on developers as Mozilla planned to attract the generic simple Chrome user in trying to be Chrome with just a different engine? They lack genuineness, honesty and true values and morals - all that Mozilla has been casting aside many years ago sadly...

Reasonable and skilled Mozilla is dead, what's left are insane and intelligence lacking fanatics... No matter if at leader, developer, mod or even user level

I vote for calling Mozilla more like FUDzilla these days

[Mæstro]

You have got a leftist Mozilla? The one I know likes to applaud factions in the USA’s internal culture war from time to time, but remains firmly in the pocket of the seventeenth-highest grossing firm in the world and does nothing to oppose its monopoly.

…can we trade?

[Moonchild]

You have got a leftist Mozilla?

Maybe LINO (Leftist In name Only)?

[jobbautista9]

Off-topic:
I prefer PINO (Progressive In Name Only). Perfect in Filipino where you can say "pinong-pino".

[Sajadi]

Oh, and what's funny is that he has gone so far as to say that you shouldn't use Firefox if you're concerned about Fakespot's privacy policy.

Well Mozilla is on the pay-list of Google, they have to do everything so more people are switching over to Chrome, that's the price to pay if a company decides to become such a dedicated crawler into Google's back-end and desperately does EVERYTHING so that their paycheck is delivered... in time

Mozilla is just existing for one reason, so that Google can say: "Hey, why do you complain about us being anti-competitive, take a close look, there is Mozilla too"

[Moonchild]

We've ben calling it the "controlled opposition" for years for good reason.

Oh, and of course it's convenient that the "standards bodies" require two votes for proposals to be on the standards track. Guess who always gets 2 votes for new things they implement...?

[Sajadi]

Oh, and of course it's convenient that the "standards bodies" require two votes for proposals to be on the standards track. Guess who always gets 2 votes for new things they implement...?

Not surprisingly Google... backed up by their convenient obedient lapdog Mozilla

Anyway, my main issue with both Google and Mozilla - both developers are basically cultists which are attracting "Knight templars" kind-of staff/users (https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/KnightTemplar) - And such developers and their user bases are highly toxic and interacting with them if you do not agree with their status quo instantly can lead to an escalating conflict.

What's worse, that kind of organizations have no issue with spreading half-truths or straight-forward lies - if they deem both convenient for their own causes.

[moonbat]

both developers are basically cultists which are attracting "Knight templars" kind-of staff/users

Goes back to what I said, stay away from their subreddit to preserve your sanity. Though it's good to lurk there and read the controversial threads to see how they handle user complaints

Or look at any GHacks story about Firefox - all the talk of 'hardening' or making a dozen different about:config tweaks on the privacy respecting browser to make it do its job
There's extreme masochists and then there's Firefox users.

[loxodont]

Why did my personal fakespot turn red on

"ethical AI and responsible advertising" and "higher satisfaction with their purchases and return products less often ... the environment benefits"

in the moz announcement?

- thx for OP warning

[Moonchild]

Why did my personal fakespot turn red on

"ethical AI and responsible advertising"

Well obviously, there is no such thing as "ethical AI" OR "responsible advertising"... so it MUST be fake!

[loxodont]

This is what my rhetorical question wanted to express about modern Moz BS

I even doubt there is such a thing as "AI", at least in the shopping area - amazon for example still suggests me to buy books similar to that one I bought 10 years ago, or flea spray I once bought there for another person.
If they all power up to their own "ChatGPT"s, maybe stupid shopping suggestions will be reduced one day. Of course fake customer GPT reviews will be harder to detect then.