Mozilla to Delete Firefox Telemetry Data Collected After Certificate Blunder

[The AchieVer]

Mozilla to Delete Firefox Telemetry Data Collected After Certificate Blunder 

 

Mozilla has issued a public apologyafter the certificate blunder that caused Firefox extensions to be disabled, revealing that it plans to delete all telemetry data that it collected when shipping the initial fix.

 

The company blames “an implementation error in one system” as the reason add-ons were disabled, explaining that while the issue has already been fixed now, “we will be working to refine these systems so similar problems do not occur in the future.”

Mozilla goes on to reveal that while it collected usage data as part of the Studies program, which it used to deliver the emergency fix, it now wants to delete it completely from its servers.

“In order to respect our users’ potential intentions as much as possible, based on our current set up, we will be deleting all of our source Telemetry and Studies data for our entire user population collected between 2019-05-04T11:00:00Z and 2019-05-11T11:00:00Z,” Mozilla says.

Some users joined the Studies program only to get the fix on their devices, and Mozilla says that everyone should check their settings before it’s being re-enabled, “will happen sometime after 2019-05-13T16:00:00Z.”More details to be shared soonTo enable or disable Studies in Firefox, open the browser and go to the following path in the application:

Firefox Menu > Options > Privacy & Security > Firefox Data Collection and Use

Mozilla says that even though the issue has already been fixed as part of Firefox 66.0.4 and Firefox 66.0.5, the company will continue its investigation and share more details as they are discovered.

“We let you down and what happened might have shaken your confidence in us a bit, but we hope that you’ll give us a chance to earn it back,” Mozilla concludes.

You can download the latest version of Firefox with the certificate bug fix included from Softpedia using this link.

 

 

 

Source

[funkyy]

I'm still having bother...I applied the fix soon after the add-ons problem began and everything seemed ok. I then updated to FF 66.0.4 and then 66.0.5:-

1) Add-ons are working. (Win 7 x64)

2) Themes won't stay enabled...I open FF and my usual theme choice appears, but when I open another tab it doesn't have the theme. I go back to the original tab and the theme is gone there too.

3) I open "Themes" and the chosen theme only shows "remove" as if it is enabled but NOT visible, while the rest of the themes show "enable" and "remove".

4) I uninstalled-reinstalled FF...problem persists.

5) I tried adding the fix to FF 66.0.4 and 66.0.5 but this made my add-ons disappear from the toolbar at the top of the page and the themes problem still persists.

6) I deleted the fix xpi file from the profile folder and my add-ons now appear on the toolbar again...but still no joy with the themes.

7) At the same time as the original certificate/add-ons problem started I have periodically got a popup that says "Additional log on information may be required....." and my network

    icon shows a no connection flag. I Googled this error message but it seems to relate to PV4 and PV6 and WiFi...I am on a cable-router connection and don't use A WiFi  connection, My       wife though has WiFi for her phone and her notebook. I have NEVER made any changes to my cable - router so I can only guess as to why I have this problem now...coincidence?? 😀😀😀

P.S:- I still like FF and will continue to use it...but really, they have caused me more aggravation and lost time than any virus, malware, or hacker out there!!!

[DKT27]

I personally do not mind sharing the data with Mozilla specifically though. Any big software or site relies on user data to learn user patterns to improve themselves. When it comes to browsers so big and Firefox taking so big steps in speeds, such data is important to share. That, as long as it's secure. That is why this is a good action taken by Mozilla there.