TL;DR: Mozilla has a new CEO and a new mission: transform Firefox into an AI browser. That has run into some snags, as Firefox users don’t seem that interested in AI. Mozilla is forging ahead, utilizing deceptive patterns (previously known as dark patterns) to nag and annoy people into enabling AI features. You can see this in the introduction of Link Previews, an extremely invasive anti-feature that exists solely to push AI into your experience.
Zen figured out link previews without using AI and the solution is really as simple as it gets. Maybe stop trying to manufacture problems for AI to solve?
From the linked article I learned that Firefox’s solution also doesn’t use AI, not by default at least.
And the Zen way of doing it has the exact same (imaginary) privacy issue for which the article blames Firefox.
The feature was introduced as a way for users to get relevant information faster, by providing them with an image, the webpage title, and AI-generated key points.
The AI part was made optional. That doesn’t mean they didn’t try.
Is this guy for real?
Mozilla says that key points are processed locally to protect your privacy in the release notes, but says nothing about leaking your privacy in showing the link preview (and enabling it by default).
As opposed to the case where you don’t have a link preview, and you click on a website to see what it contains, and they get your IP. The author seems to think Mozilla should have protected our privacy by having someone act as the proxy for the request. Because involving a thirds party that receives all these requests and does work for us for free is absolutely how we protect our privacy.
The user might also have mobility impairments that makes a fast click harder, resulting in a longer hold time.
Yes, a feature clearly designed for pushing onto that juicy “people with mobility impairments” userbase.
I don’t like the direction Firefox seems to be headed in, but damn people really enjoy getting outraged over everything they do. Around here they get ten times more shit than any other comparable project.
The author seems to think Mozilla should have protected our privacy by having someone act as the proxy for the request.
On the proxy part, they actually already have that and using it for some other parts:
https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/ohttp-explained
TL;DR: Imagine an HTTPS-over-HTTPS proxy. Try to explain it like something groundbreaking without referencing existing tech. Now you have OHTTP.
https://firefox-source-docs.mozilla.org/browser/components/mozcachedohttp/docs/index.html
https://www.fastly.com/blog/firefox-fastly-take-another-step-toward-security-upgrade
It makes me scratch my head a bit why I’ve never see it enabled for DNS-over-HTTP in default stock Firefox config despite it being supported for years - the endpoints are just not configured. You have to know about it and configure the barely documented URL in
about:configfor that. Unlike for newtabpage and the FF shopping feature where OHTTP is used by default. Infra costs?Interestingly, I just interviewed the Waterfox developer, who actually references Oblivious HTTP and his interest in developing this into a paid feature for Waterfox.
That is interesting!
BTW in case you’re not aware, direct links to
fedia.iolike the one you posted just lead to a loginwall so you probably don’t want to share those publicly. This one viabeehaw.orgworks for everyone, though: https://beehaw.org/post/24563411Ooops, I posted a reply to someone earlier and got it right (and forgot this one). Thanks for the heads up (fixed now)!
The author seems to be more interested in generating outrage than anything, but I think the point about AI still stands. From a UX standpoint, key points that may be incorrect are a terrible idea. That they originally intended to force AI on the user, at least from how it seems, is problematic.
The author’s privacy and accessibility concerns seem artifical to me.
As opposed to the case where you don’t have a link preview, and you click on a website to see what it contains, and they get your IP. The author seems to think Mozilla should have protected our privacy by having someone act as the proxy for the request. Because involving a thirds party that receives all these requests and does work for us for free is absolutely how we protect our privacy.
But that is exactly what Mozilla is telling us – trust us.
Why was the feature added if my browser is going to browse to the page anyway? What is the value add? I was looking for some way for it to make sense - ah right, it could be a privacy preserving feature - I can preview the link and verify whether I want to visit it before I actually visit it. But that isn’t how it works.
Yes, a feature clearly designed for pushing onto that juicy “people with mobility impairments” userbase.
Love that you ignore all of the people who are currently seeing the popups and not understanding why.
