this post was submitted on 13 Mar 2026
169 points (98.8% liked)

Technology

82555 readers
3679 users here now

This is a most excellent place for technology news and articles.


Our Rules


  1. Follow the lemmy.world rules.
  2. Only tech related news or articles.
  3. Be excellent to each other!
  4. Mod approved content bots can post up to 10 articles per day.
  5. Threads asking for personal tech support may be deleted.
  6. Politics threads may be removed.
  7. No memes allowed as posts, OK to post as comments.
  8. Only approved bots from the list below, this includes using AI responses and summaries. To ask if your bot can be added please contact a mod.
  9. Check for duplicates before posting, duplicates may be removed
  10. Accounts 7 days and younger will have their posts automatically removed.

Approved Bots


founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
top 38 comments
sorted by: hot top controversial new old
[–] dorumon@lemmy.cafe 3 points 41 minutes ago* (last edited 39 minutes ago)

So I feel violated and gross and I never wanna use Firefox again. I don't care if you can self host it. I don't care if it's private. Mozilla propagandists need to fucking understand that their privacy policy does not reassure me. Nor does the fact that they went back on the AI kill switch and sent my information that should've been private to someone else's computer a good thing. It is fucking bad and I hope Mozilla fucking implodes. In the rise of fascist governments and the need for privacy. This is unacceptable and I refuse to even use a third party fork of Firefox. The best feature arguably that made Firefox worth while that being syncing has been basically weaponized potentially into something evil that will be used against people. Especially as they have long since updated their policies to make sure law enforcement can gain access to your personal information anyway. I will switch to Vivaldi. Something that doesn't have money issues and makes ad revenue through search engine deals that aren't Google and Bing. Something that will sync my browser data end to end encrypted where they cannot fucking see it. Truly go fuck Mozilla.

[–] XLE@piefed.social 37 points 2 hours ago (2 children)

Relevant section:

Smart Window uses ‘memories’, things Mozilla says “…it learns from your activity” to inform its responses.

You can delete memories individually, and you can set any given chat session to not use/store them.

Fine so far.

The problem? My memory list isn’t populated with things Smart Window learned since I enabled it. Oh no.

It has activity going back months. We’re talking searches and website interactions from long before I enabled this. features.

Firefox just handed that history to the AI models to plough from, without telling me upfront.

I found this the creepiest aspect of Smart Window.

Mozilla says this was a flub; it will refine the onboarding around Smart Window to limit memory formation to post-opt-in activity only. That’s obviously the right fix.

Because sharing a user’s prior browsing history with third-party AI models, silently, on feature activation, without any headset? Yeah, a bit icky – but that’s the price of testing features that are finished, I guess.

[–] floquant@lemmy.dbzer0.com 6 points 33 minutes ago

I'm willing to give them a pass since this was a development build and while someone probably should've thought of it, it's the kind of bug that can happen. If this was the public release it would be a lot more outrageous.

[–] Even_Adder@lemmy.dbzer0.com 9 points 2 hours ago (1 children)

There’s also an option to bring your own LLM, with fields for model name, endpoint, and API token available for entry when the manual option is enabled. However, the page itself warns local models may not work correctly.

It looks like there's an option for people to self-host too. You won't have to send your history to someone else's computer.

[–] XLE@piefed.social 7 points 1 hour ago (1 children)

If it's anything like how they handled the AI sidebar, this option is going to get hidden before it hits production.

[–] Even_Adder@lemmy.dbzer0.com 3 points 1 hour ago (1 children)

It would be really cool if they didn't do that this time.

[–] XLE@piefed.social 2 points 1 hour ago

Hey, I'm not excited about more stuff getting added into an already overflowing Firefox (why not an extension?!), but if they must promote AI choice, I'm with you: actually allow user choice.

(Based on how Mozilla has added two unrequested search engines while ignoring a request to add StartPage, the "choice" thing seems to boil down to backroom deals.)

[–] mintiefresh@piefed.social 2 points 36 minutes ago (1 children)

Waterfox. Librewolf. Zen. Floorp.

They're all good options in their own ways. Just pick one and go

[–] callyral@pawb.social 1 points 11 minutes ago

Have you seen the better browsing experience? It's on Zen. It's literally on Librewolf. It's on Floorp without ads. It's literally on Waterfox. You can probably find it on Ironfox. Dude it's on Ladybird. It's a Servo original. It's on GNOME Web. You can browse on GNOME Web. You can go to GNOME Web and browse it. Epiphany has it for you.

[–] the_riviera_kid@lemmy.world 55 points 2 hours ago (1 children)

The speed at which firefox has been enshittified is as impressive as it is sad.

[–] DarkCloud@lemmy.world 4 points 20 minutes ago

...and we'll all suffer as climate change increases. Seriously, none of this shit is worth frying for.

[–] TDCN@feddit.dk 46 points 2 hours ago (2 children)

F*** I really dont want to change away from Firefox. Pleas be good Firefox. Please! Don't F this up.

[–] Godort@lemmy.ca 46 points 2 hours ago (1 children)

Librewolf is exactly the same browser with all the security features dialed to 11 and all the AI removed.

[–] Steve@communick.news 48 points 2 hours ago (4 children)

And it breaks sooo many sites.
Waterfox, is Firefox that just works.

[–] cabbage@piefed.social 10 points 1 hour ago

I tried Librewolf for a while and found it to be a bit too much for me when all I really want is Firefox without AI. The privacy options are probably great but not for me.

Just installed waterfox. First impression is that I am super happy to be bock to the previous Firefox theme - it takes less space and looks nicer in my opinion. Seems promising. Thanks for the recommendation! :)

[–] XLE@piefed.social 6 points 1 hour ago (2 children)

It might be easier to soften Librewolf than harden Firefox, but fair point.

If you're a relatively normal user and you still want to use LibreWolf, I would recommend:

  • disable fingerprinting
  • not clearing history on exit

Most of this is easy to find, especially thanks to the LibreWolf menu

[–] fizzle@quokk.au 1 points 7 minutes ago

I just enable canvas on sites that need it.

Thats the only part of RFP that I find problematic.

[–] eli@lemmy.world 4 points 1 hour ago (2 children)

Yeah it's all just in the GUI to enable and disable what you don't want.

I don't get what people are complaining about with LibreWolf being "too hard". Like it's 1 minute clicking through menus and you're done. 5 minutes if you need to read and search things up real quick.

But LibreWolf, ublock installed by default, and then set up containers. Just pure bliss.

[–] Nelots@piefed.zip 0 points 7 minutes ago

Maybe, but if you want Librewolf but less extreme, that's what Waterfox is for. May as well just install that and avoid the 5 minute search. And this is coming from a long time Librewolf user.

[–] XLE@piefed.social 2 points 50 minutes ago

For us, sure. For the average Joe who doesn't know about the side effects of fingerprinting, not so much.

[–] chickenf622@sh.itjust.works 8 points 1 hour ago

Yeah Librewolf does go really fucking hard on security/privacy to the detriment of functionality, but the are upfront with that so you shouldn't be going in completely blind. I think Water Fox is a nice happy medium for users that don't want to fuck around with technical stuff.

[–] KiwiTB@lemmy.world 1 points 1 hour ago

Wait, it does? I've not had site issues with either.

Its too late, bro. You gotta break it off and start mingling with the forks.

[–] FartsWithAnAccent@fedia.io 5 points 1 hour ago

Glad I turned that shit off right away.

[–] FaceDeer@fedia.io 10 points 2 hours ago (5 children)

There's a master "kill switch" for all AI features in Firefox now. I suggest everyone who's concerned about this kind of thing just go and turn it off, and then we need never bother each other over this again.

[–] albbi@piefed.ca 4 points 1 hour ago

My master AI killswitch was just to switch to Waterfox.

[–] chickenf622@sh.itjust.works 8 points 1 hour ago (1 children)

Or pick a Firefox fork that doesn't have the AI bullshit. Libre Wolf is great for people who take security very seriously,l. I hear Water Fox is a much closer equivalent to Firefox without AI, and also has a focus on privacy. I've also been using Iron Fox on my android with basically no issues.

With Mozilla's current track record I don't trust them to not fuck with the AI "killswitch".

[–] AnchoriteMagus@lemmy.world 5 points 1 hour ago (1 children)

The only thing stopping me from switching is the unreliability of updates to uBlock on forked versions of Firefox.

[–] Dultas@lemmy.world 4 points 1 hour ago (1 children)

I've been using Waterfox for months and not had a single issue with ublock origin or any other extension.

[–] AnchoriteMagus@lemmy.world 1 points 1 hour ago

Good to know! The last time I looked into it was early last year, good to know it works good for you.

[–] XLE@piefed.social 4 points 1 hour ago

"When it comes to privacy, defaults matter."

- Mozilla

Why not remove the AI and offer them as a separate extension? That way you're happy, and everybody else doesn't have crap shoved down their throats.

[–] LostWanderer@fedia.io 1 points 42 minutes ago

It's still opt out, not opt in because on first install that LLM garbage is enabled by default. The kill switch should've been for people that chose to try LLM garbage and found it lacking; needing an easy way to disable it all.

I won't stop complaining until Firefox makes their LLM nonsense opt-in, letting a user choose at first boot if they want that shit or not. That would be the most ethical and user respecting way to handle their LLM shit.

[–] KiwiTB@lemmy.world 2 points 1 hour ago

Till those options are turned off by the browser updating like has already happened with some people.

[–] senna@lemmy.world 3 points 1 hour ago

Just let them shoot themselves in the foot. Get familiar with the forks. Someone at Mozilla has no idea what they're doing. You would think they would learn their lesson last AI garbage but I guess not.

[–] mimavox@piefed.social 10 points 2 hours ago

One would think they'd be extra careful not to piss the users off at this point... but no.

[–] Semi_Hemi_Demigod@lemmy.world 12 points 2 hours ago
[–] Dultas@lemmy.world 2 points 1 hour ago

Guess I need to self host sync now as I don't trust Mozilla with any of my data at this point.

[–] solrize@lemmy.ml 11 points 3 hours ago

They can't help themselves.