> From: Sid Stamm [mailto:[email protected]]
> > Users today can block third-party cookies if they so choose, they
> > don't need this patch.
> 
> I disagree.  The meat of this discussion is about default behavior.
> People can set master passwords (to encrypt their stored passwords on disk),
> but few do.  So it's not protecting many people, and the defaults matter
> significantly for security and privacy.

I think you misunderstand - I wasn't saying that this patch isn't needed, I was 
saying that the push to Beta doesn't make sense since there's a question of 
breakage and if users are impatient, they can block cookies themselves today by 
adjusting their preferences (i.e. they don't need this patch to block 
third-party cookies).  Some of the comments make it sound like users are 
exposed because this patch hasn't gone live, but the truth is any user that 
doesn't want third-party cookies can block them now, without this patch.


> Plus, this patch blocks third party cookies in a new way; the "softer"
> from-visited blocking was not implemented previously, and regardless of what
> we do with defaults I think maybe it's a keeper since it breaks fewer things
> than disabling cookies for all third parties.

I agree that the "softer" approach is better.


> What people *do* and what people *want* are often different.

I agree.  People say they want to live a long, healthy life, but then eat 
poorly, smoke, and drive without their seatbelt.


>  We use default
> configurations to help get Firefox users closer to what they seem to want,
> especially when it's not easy or worth their time to understand how the
> relevant part of the Internet works.

I was curious what people seem to want by looking at what some of them have 
done.


> >   Do we know how many have done so?
> 
> Not certain, but Monica estimates[0] about 0.83% of users have changed the
> cookie behavior away from the default.  So that's an upper bound on how many
> people disable third party cookies.

The low number doesn't surprise me, the cookie preferences are hard to find.  
I've been using Firefox for many years and I had to look up how to do it.  I 
suspect most users will just browse through the preferences, and if they do, 
the cookie preference isn't visible.


> That's pretty low especially when > 10%
> of users are enabling DNT (which is a much clearer indicator of what people
> want than cookie setting twiddles).

Jonathon estimated that 10 to 20% of Safari users have turned off third-party 
cookie blocking.  My guess is users want privacy, but they also expect their 
web experience to work.


- Bil

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