On Thursday, June 18, 2015 at 11:39:35 AM UTC-5, Fred Wenzel wrote: > I'll mention that "voting with your feet" doesn't have to mean choosing a > different browser in this context. Merely not using Pocket will suffice. > > You can, after all, right click that button and choose to remove it from > the menu bar without ever having sent so much as a single byte towards > Pocket's servers. > > Usage numbers across the user base (vocal and silent users) will guide > future decisions regarding this and most other feathers.
It depends what someone is trying to accomplish with "voting with your feet." For example, I have friends that have voted with their feet by not using Chrome at all. One reason that I keep hearing seems to be related to the RLZ tracking ID which helps monitor where/when Chrome was downloaded and installed from. I will admit they rarely explicitly say "RLZ tracking ID" is the reason but what they describe seems to fit that. And usually when I pull up information about the RLZ tracking, they indicate that is what they where talking about. It appears to be true that the Pocket(TM) integration code for Firefox v38 does not send anything to Pocket(TM) until *use*. For this specific version, it does appear to be true you can "vote with your feet" merely by not using it. However, nothing promises that it will always be the behavior of the Pocket(TM) integration that it will never send anything on first startup of the browser. In fact, a careful reading of the Pocket(TM) Terms of Service indicates that merely *install* an application that contains their "supporting files" is enough to give them rights under their ToS/Privacy Policy. In addition, even the existing code has written in it use of a Firefox specific API key. It is possible that in the future Pocket(TM) will hand down a policy that each rebranded version of Firefox requires it's own unique API key and may even require the API key to be refreshed periodically. If you combine code the fires off on first use with unique API keys, you are essentially back to a browser that has something similar to a "RLZ tracking ID." I am not claiming that Pocket(TM) will actually do any of this or that Pocket(TM) is in anyway a malicious company. However, nothing in their Terms of Service/Privacy Policy promises that they won't do it. Instead, Pocket(TM) has granted itself "agreement" rights at *install* based on their Terms of Service. And so far, Pocket(TM) has refused to clarify that part of the ToS for me. Just please read carefully the ToS before advising people that disabling is sufficient. In the first paragraph of the ToS, Pocket(TM) themselves recommends to "not install" rather than just to disable the feature. If the behavior of future version of Firefox does change based on the rights Pocket(TM) has already given itself such that new install, re-installs, new Firefox profiles, etc. result in a first start execution of some Pocket(TM) integration code, then contributing to an internet searchable archive of claims that disabling the feature is sufficient will be misleading. Ironically, if RLZ-style tracking does come to Firefox either as part of Pocket(TM) or a different future third-party integration, it seems like Chromium (the open source version of Chrome which excludes several features such as third-party Flash integration) could be a potential "solution" to "vote with your feet." _______________________________________________ governance mailing list [email protected] https://lists.mozilla.org/listinfo/governance
