- Thursday, 9 July 2009
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I'd love to come for a drink. Where is the nearest defibrillator? - Mike Magee
Next Firefox will tell Google all about you
THE FORTHCOMING version of the Firefox browser, Gran Paradiso, will ship with a function that will tell Google all about your browsing habits.
The feature is supposed to be designed to allow the browser to check the URL against a list of phishing sites which is stored at Google.
The downside is that while the punter gets some form of malware protection, Google is getting shedloads of information on the sorts of sites you are visiting.
It can sell this information or offer advertising companies lucrative product information packages.
As it has been pointed out on Slashdot, the "feature" is disabled by default so any user who is daft enough to actually think it is pretty nifty is going to have to press a few buttons to make it happen. µ
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I have absolutely no idea how the comments system works on the Inquirer, so I just hope this will end up below the correct post:

The "ask google" selection is already available on Firefox2.

Personaly, I think it's really useful as an option for libraries, kiosks and the like. And that's all it's really is: an option. The Firefox guys have taken great pains to ensure that even the most computer-unsavy user knowns what happens when you enable this option. Aside from the description "Ask Google about every page" (rough translation, since I'm using the German version), you get an extra info box... There are scenarios where this is useful, so I don't see why it shouldn't be there as long as people are told what it does.

Hans Schmucker
Germany
Firefox 2 already has an option for this for phishing protection. Firefox 3 also has an option for malware protection.

By default, Firefox regularly downloads a list of known evil sites from Google and provides phishing and malware protection based on that list. Mozilla recommends keeping this default setting because it provides most of the protection without the privacy problem. However, if users want to be *absolutely sure* they're checking the site against the latest list, you can have Firefox directly ask Google about every page you visit. Mozilla fully acknowledges that this is a major privacy issue and that it really doesn't provide much more security than the default option.
Querying websites for information about domain names is nothing new. Anyone who uses the Google Toolbar extension for their web browser (available for Firefox) and enables the PageRank function will be querying Google for the PageRank of every webpage they visit. 

Every time you use a domain name your request is sent to a DNS server, where every request could theoretically be recorded. Your ISP not only knows and has the capability to record every website you navigate to, but also has your personal information and billing details. Every single router or networking switch out there on the big, bad Internet could theoretically record the websites you access as your requests pass through them.

If you don't trust clearly-outlined privacy policies and relevant laws (such as the Data Protection Act here in the UK), Google having the ability to record what websites you visit is the least of your worries...
Everytime I google something, there appear a series of ads that seem to know where I am and what I might be looking for in pretty good detail. What would be different about the new version of Firefox, except an incremental improvement in their ability to serve up what they think you want through their already efficient tracking algorithms?
Ha! Like it's been said before, this is already available on Firefox 2. For those who think it's a "privacy" issue, get off the Internet A.S.A.P. as it'll NEVER be 100% safe and anonymous anyway.
Why don't they just call it GoogleFox instead?
"Axis of weasel"

Clever.