📣 Release Notes

• Disable AI features in Firefox, including tab grouping, link previews, and sidebar chat. Thanks for the nudge @westlandnigel!
  • Mozilla's implementation is still very experimental. Open an issue if the current prefs inside Betterfox do not disable all AI
  • There's now info to re-enable AI features in Common Overrides.
• Enable exceptions to relax Strict Enhanced Tracking Protection (ETP) yokoffing/Betterfox@84a2550
• Add a new feature to block CSP reports. Please report issues at https://github.com/yokoffing/Betterfox/issues/
• Uncheck the "Support Firefox" checkbox on the New Tab
• Firefox Nightly has rolled out testing for text fragments, controlled by dom.text_fragments.create_text_fragment.enabled. Users can experiment if there's still issues as described in yokoffing/Betterfox#397 and report feedback
• Unit Conversion in the address bar is now a default
• Fix yokoffing/Betterfox#417 with https://github.com/yokoffing/Betterfox/pull/
  • Thanks to @minh2134 and @Denperidge!

📜 Commentary

AI Features

I won’t be long-winded here. I’ll just say Mozilla’s rollout of AI features feels half-baked. And outside of that side panel chat, I don’t see how these features are useful for the average person as they stand currently.

Tab groups can be useful if they improve it over time.

I had high hopes for the tab previews, but I was very whelmed by that, too. I think Safari’s page summaries are the best implementation of AI overviews so far. Mozilla’s three bullet points just comes across as mediocre.

Strict ETP

Firefox 142 is the first release in months to pique my interest. This is largely in part to the two check boxes under ETP Strict mode in the Firefox UI.

There are now granular exceptions afforded to tracker blocking with Strict ETP. "Exceptions are split into baseline (core functionality) and convenience (extra features)."

• Avoid major website breakage. Enabling this is a no-brainer.
• Fix minor issues and make convenience features available. Less obvious. It's unclear what Mozilla considers "minor issues" and "convenience features".

Firefox has always kept an internal allowlist to unbreak sites with Strict ETP. However, as some of you have reported, sites still break. I welcome the new changes so that users have an another alternative besides downgrading to Standard ETP.

In the recent past, I've seen many folks encourage users to use Standard ETP and let uBlock Origin (uBO) handle the rest. This is saying in essence, "Let the browser be the browser, and let uBO manage your ad blocking and privacy protection." I agree with this when it comes to most browsers, but not Firefox. That's because Strict ETP is more than just more aggressive tracker blocking. The most recent protection introduced by Strict ETP is fingerprint protection.

Fingerprint Protection

Fingerprint Protection (FPP) does more than block trackers, but yet it also doesn't break shit like the old privacy.resistFingerprinting (RFP). Mozilla is navigating the waters to find a nice middle ground.

FPP is just as an example. There are other distinctions between the two ETP modes, but my main point is Strict ETP is more than just aggressive tracker blocking. It's why I've hesitated to ever demote ETP to Standard for the Betterfox project as a whole.

Suspected Fingerprinters

To combat fingerprinting attempts that Firefox cannot block (because we are unaware of the script, or because it is integrated with the site in a way such that it cannot be blocked), Firefox will limit the information it exposes to the web at all times, for every webpage.
Firefox's protection against fingerprinting

So, fingerprint mitigation:

• Reduces the distinctiveness of your browser/device profile across sites.
• Makes cross-site fingerprinting and long-term tracking harder; weakens profiling based on device characteristics.
• Lowers the signal available to passive fingerprinting techniques, forcing trackers to rely more on other signals.

Other Browsers

With Chrome, you have no choice than to let uBO (Lite!) handle trackers, but Edge comes with tracking prevention enabled by default. Edge's tracker protection is based on different batches of Disconnect filter lists, similar to the tracker blocking portion of Firefox's ETP modes.

But unlike Firefox's ETP, Edge only uses different batches of Disconnect filter lists, and the coverage is extremely unbalanced. Ironically, Edge's tracking prevention comes in Basic, Balanced, and Strict, but it might as well be Nothing, Almost Nothing, and OMG Why Don't a Third of My Websites Work?.

Another contrast can be drawn be between "just tracker blocking" and Safari's relatively new Advanced Tracking and Fingerprinting Protection — which will be enabled by default in the next iOS release. This is on top of all the other privacy protection in Safari. (Yes, I use em-dashes when I write. No, I didn't use ChatGPT.)

And while browsing on Safari is awful (mobile is okay), they seem to have struck a good balance in recent years by not breaking things in the privacy protection department. Most providers shit the bed when it comes to allowlisting site breakage. Plus, Apple's protections may be more advanced than Mozilla's at this point; I haven't compared the two in awhile.

The Future

Thankfully, using Standard ETP has become less of a concern in recent years due to Mozilla beefing up Firefox's default prefs, but I've still never been comfortable downgrading to Standard ETP.

Admittedly, I'm unsure if these two exception prefs in v.142 affect the tracking protection filter lists used, fingerprint protection, or both. Information is currently limited as to what these prefs change, and I haven't had enough time to test sites. We will be enabling both exceptions for now and monitoring what effect they have.

Of the two exception prefs, the only one up for debate is the second one affecting "extra features" on sites… whatever that means.

🦊 Firefox Releases

141.0
142.0

💗 Thank You

• Big thanks to everyone who submits feedback and sponsors the effort.

Repo Changelog: 140...142