Package: firefox
Version: 57.0~b9-1
Severity: normal
Tags: patch

The Debian package of firefox should disable Pocket by default, as this encourages the use of a non-free web service, and sends privacy relevant information without prior agreement by the user.

The suggested change is simply to change the default setting in

/usr/lib/firefox/browser/defaults/preferences/firefox.js
pref("extensions.pocket.enabled", true);

to "false". Then users can enable pocket in their profile by setting this to true if desired; but by default it will not use this non-free service.

To by default disable the "Recommended by Pocket" part of the front page, also add this:

pref("browser.newtabpage.activity-stream.feeds.section.topstories", false);

There may be other privacy-relevant settings of firefox to fine tune.

Unfortunately, Mozilla keeps on adding new extensions all the time that transmit data. But Debian should be a bit reluctant to enable such services by default, but rather leave the decision to the user of whether (or not!) to enable them.

With the current default, firefox will make requests to the Pocket API. The default should be to not do so.

-- Package-specific info:


-- Addons package information

-- System Information:
Debian Release: buster/sid
  APT prefers unstable
  APT policy: (500, 'unstable'), (500, 'stable'), (1, 'experimental')
Architecture: amd64 (x86_64)
Foreign Architectures: i386

Kernel: Linux 4.13.0-1-amd64 (SMP w/4 CPU cores)
Locale: LANG=de_DE.utf8, LC_CTYPE=de_DE.utf8 (charmap=UTF-8), LANGUAGE=de_DE.utf8 (charmap=UTF-8)
Shell: /bin/sh linked to /bin/dash
Init: systemd (via /run/systemd/system)

Versions of packages firefox depends on:
ii  debianutils               4.8.3
ii  fontconfig                2.12.3-0.2
ii  libatk1.0-0               2.26.1-1
ii  libc6                     2.24-17
ii  libcairo-gobject2         1.15.8-2
ii  libcairo2                 1.15.8-2
ii  libdbus-1-3               1.12.0-1
ii  libdbus-glib-1-2          0.108-3
ii  libevent-2.1-6            2.1.8-stable-4
ii  libffi6                   3.2.1-6
ii  libfontconfig1            2.12.3-0.2
ii  libfreetype6              2.8.1-0.1
ii  libgcc1                   1:7.2.0-14
ii  libgdk-pixbuf2.0-0        2.36.11-1
ii  libglib2.0-0              2.54.2-1
ii  libgtk-3-0                3.22.25-1
ii  libgtk2.0-0               2.24.31-2
ii  libhunspell-1.6-0         1.6.2-1
ii  libjsoncpp1               1.7.4-3
ii  libnspr4                  2:4.16-1
ii  libnss3                   2:3.33-1
ii  libpango-1.0-0            1.40.13-1
ii  libsqlite3-0              3.21.0-1
ii  libstartup-notification0  0.12-4+b2
ii  libstdc++6                7.2.0-14
ii  libvpx4                   1.6.1-3
ii  libx11-6                  2:1.6.4-3
ii  libx11-xcb1               2:1.6.4-3
ii  libxcb-shm0               1.12-1
ii  libxcb1                   1.12-1
ii  libxcomposite1            1:0.4.4-2
ii  libxdamage1               1:1.1.4-3
ii  libxext6                  2:1.3.3-1+b2
ii  libxfixes3                1:5.0.3-1
ii  libxrender1               1:0.9.10-1
ii  libxt6                    1:1.1.5-1
ii  procps                    2:3.3.12-3
ii  zlib1g                    1:1.2.8.dfsg-5

firefox recommends no packages.

Versions of packages firefox suggests:
ii  fonts-lmodern          2.004.5-3
ii  fonts-stix [otf-stix]  1.1.1-4
ii  libcanberra0           0.30-4
ii  libgssapi-krb5-2       1.15.2-2
pn  mozplugger             <none>

-- no debconf information

Reply via email to