On Friday, June 5, 2015 at 2:59:56 PM UTC-7, tucker....@gmail.com wrote: > (Pasted from https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1172126. There are > some comments on Hacker News at https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9667809). > > Mozilla's recent integration with Pocket, a proprietary third-party service, > is a mistake. > > It is very exciting to see the ways in which Firefox continues to improve. > And it's even more exciting to see the ways that Mozilla advances it's stated > mission outside of the Firefox browser with new developments like Firefox > Accounts. Pocket now allows you to log in on their site using your Firefox > Account; being able to authenticate with a trusted third party like Mozilla > is a huge win for online privacy advocates and the Mozilla community. > However, adding Pocket as a built-in feature to Firefox should not have been > done. > > This is particularly surprising since it was Firefox that made browser > extensions mainstream. Pocket should have been an extension (in fact, a > Pocket extension used to exist). It could have even been bundled with the > browser. This distinction is important, since extensions can be removed > entirely, whereas currently Pocket can only be disabled. > > The user experience of disabling Pocket is not good, either. It needs to be > disabled in about:config, which is not at all user friendly, and therefore > not in line with Mozilla's mission. In the past, Mozilla has been very good > about showing the user what new features have been added to the interface and > explaining any privacy implications that may come with them. That is why I > was so surprised when the Pocket icon suddenly appeared in Firefox Developer > Edition a couple days ago. It is so unlike Mozilla to introduce something > like that, I ran a virus scan and checked what programs had been installed > recently -- I assumed it had been put there in the same way that IE users > used to get the Ask Toolbar installed. > > It may also not be clear to some users that, even when signing in with your > Firefox account, you are still giving your email address to a third party > whose privacy policy is different than Mozilla's. Many users would not assume > this, since it is a feature that is bundled with the browser. > > Mozilla's recent blog post about the Pocket feature is titled "Firefox Puts > You in Control of Your Online Life" > (https://blog.mozilla.org/blog/2015/06/02/firefox-puts-you-in-control-of-your-online-life/). > Had this been coming from a startup, that post would be humorously ironic. > But given how much people care about Mozilla and it's stated mission, it is > more painful than funny. > > Firefox should continue to add new features that benefit its users, but those > features must be done in accordance with Mozilla's core values. This feature > should've been done as an extension, which allows for greater user choice and > avoids bloat. Most importantly, there was very little public discussion about > this inclusion of a proprietary, third-party service. It's a huge departure > from Mozilla's commitment to transparency. The existence of the Pocket code > in Firefox is a bug in the browser, and it does not adhere to Mozilla's core > mission.
Agreed _______________________________________________ governance mailing list governance@lists.mozilla.org https://lists.mozilla.org/listinfo/governance
