You are pretty much telling the world “please track me” when you are on the internet, it doesn’t matter which OS you use.
#FIREFOX DOWNLOAD ANDROID#
If you really care about “being tracked” you would NOT use internet or any device or phone (because I am sure you have either Android or iPhone).
You make it seem like only because you are Linux you are already protected.
#FIREFOX DOWNLOAD INSTALL#
There are 800 ways to install Firefox, even through Microsoft Store, people don’t need to download it, I mean, people don’t even need to download Firefox at all, Microsoft includes Edge now and MacOS have the Safari which is okay as well. But, hey, we’re all like special agents in that we have to be aware of not only the bad guys but as well of the “good guys”, those who track us for our good, to protect us, for a better e-experience … See what they’ve done to me, ma? Twenty years ago when I started surfing on the Web I’d post my name, email and so on (fortunately a good guy told me then to at least always avoid sharing my true “snail-mail” address) and now I behave as a newborn soldier, always cautious, often over-cautious, maybe occasionally paranoid. I just dislike IDs hanging around and if my battle doesn’t change anything at least it doesn’t harm. Setting both to “” (about:config or with user.js) doesn’t change anything, but because I set pref values with Firefox Autoconfig rather than with a user.js file I can clear both on start and this time they are rebuilt but with different values :ĬlearPref(“”) ĬlearPref(“”) Īm I over-reacting? Maybe. No idea what the second relates to, but the first is surprising given all telemetry is blocked here. I just downloaded FF98.0 from the latter and it’s exactly the same as the installer from the former : hence, no dltoken identifier.īesides this dltoken, there are two more IDs right in a Firefox’s profile, in the prefs.js file, accessible as well in about:config : AND I always download the installer from but I do acknowledge provided in the article. I do download a new installer each time a new Firefox version is released and perform a clean install (previous version is uninstalled). Now You: how useful do you think is the information to Mozilla? (thanks PMC for the tip) A quick check of Chrome installers returned identical hashes each time. How users may opt-out before the installation of Firefox is unclear.
Mozilla notes that the opt-out mechanism is the standard Telemetry opt-out. The downloaded installers do not have the unique identifier, as they are identical whenever they are downloaded. Download Firefox from third-party download sites that host the installer, e.g., from Softonic.Download the Firefox installer from Mozilla's HTTPS repository (formerly the FTP repository).A search for dltoken using any hex editor reveals the string in the Firefox installer.įirefox users who prefer to download the browser without the unique identifier may do so in the following two ways: One of the easier ways is to check the hashes of two or more Firefox installer downloads (the same version, language and architecture). Interested users may verify the findings. The feature is powered by Telemetry in Firefox and it applies to all Firefox channels. This will allow us to track which installs result from which downloads to determine the answers to questions like, "Why do we see so many installs per day, but not that many downloads per day?"Īccording to Mozilla's description, the identifier is used to analyze downloading and installation trends among other things. This data will allow us to correlate telemetry IDs with download tokens and Google Analytics IDs. The linked document is not public, but the listing itself confirms the use and provides an explanation on why it has been implemented: While it is possible to download new installers each time a new Firefox version is released, it is also possible to use the downloaded installer again for that purpose.Ī bug report on Mozilla's official bug tracking website confirms the use of the download token.
The identifier is unique to each Firefox installer, which means that it is submitted to Mozilla whenever it is used. The identifier, called dltoken by Mozilla internally, is used to link downloads to installations and first runs of the Firefox browser.
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