On Wed, Feb 8, 2012 at 9:12 PM, . . <kerdezd...@gmail.com> wrote: > > https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=718066 > > what the hell is this?!
I'll bite ... (I know your question was rhetorical) It's a very bad idea IMO. >From TFA: (https://wiki.mozilla.org/MetricsDataPing) "Mozilla has a critical need to be able to understand the factors that cause installations of Firefox to no longer be used. The system must have some way to detect an abandoned installation." Their proposed solution seems to be (from the bug and wiki) to include code in Firefox to submit a lot of information to mozilla.org, on a regular basis, about the individual FF installation ... date installed, list of add-ons installed, with date each add-on installed, date FF last used, OS type, FF version, whether up to date when last used, etc. Far too much information for comfort - sufficient to _enable_ fingerprinting and tracking of individual FF installation use (e.g. "is this browser installation using Tor the same as that other browser not using Tor ?"), even if that is not the _intention_. Contravention of EU data protection laws seems probable, or at least German laws. OT: They should just make FF quality high and the design impeccable - that's all they need do to win our hearts and minds (many other FLOSS projects exist to attest to that). The engineers know what's needed, and the users have spoken out endlessly on the forums - metrics are for managers. Sigh. Nick -- public void Ballmer(Developers developers) throws Chair _______________________________________________ Full-Disclosure - We believe in it. Charter: http://lists.grok.org.uk/full-disclosure-charter.html Hosted and sponsored by Secunia - http://secunia.com/