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Yes, I would say so. It’s similar to RiseupVPN, which is also free as a matter of principle rather than as a business model. A common misconception is that free apps and services are inherently less private than paid apps and services, but really it depends on the business model (if there is one) and whether you trust the provider to honour any claims they make. CalyxVPN and RiseupVPN are not any less trustworthy than commercial, paid VPNs simply because they are free.
See here.
I’m not inherently against anonymised and aggregated data collection by services and organisations I support. I understand that it is difficult to compete in the tech industry without this, and in the case of Firefox I believe it is very important that they continue to survive as a mainstream alternative to Google’s market monopoly (even if things are trending in the wrong direction). I also understand that opt-out makes a lot more sense than opt-in for this kind of tracking, since opt-in would significantly reduce and skew the amount of data they had access to and limit its ability to improve the product. However, I think their explanation here is a poor one:
Having an understanding of what types of searches happen most frequently will give us a better understanding of what’s important to our users, without giving us additional insight into individual browsing preferences. This helps us take a step forward in providing a browsing experience that is more tailored to your needs, without us stepping away from the principles that make us who we are.
Again, I understand that it’s not always possible to provide an explanation that is as transparent and detailed as some users may want, but you need to do better than this. I am struggling to see how my browsing experience can be improved through this type of data collection. I don’t want or need a browser that is “tailored to my needs”, and that type of language sounds privacy-invasive to me. If you genuinely believe that what you have planned is going to improve my experience then you need to do a better job of explaining that before you ask me to provide more data.
In a way I think that makes it more scary though, at least in a figurative sense. It’s like a group of debt collectors constantly banging on your door to get in and you have your foot there and are telling them to go away but they won’t listen. If you take it away for a second, they knock it down and come charging in to take what they believe they are owed.
I haven’t seen that feature on the aurora store, but I probably just missed it.
It’s towards the bottom of the page for whatever app you’re viewing. Sometimes it won’t have a privacy report available by default, but you can always go through to the website and generate one yourself. One of the worst apps I’ve found so far is the Woolworths one (Australian supermarket). It contains 11 trackers and within the first 6 hours following installation my tracker blocker had already prevented 11,325 tracking attempts.
If you are concerned about analytics and tracking then I have bad news for you. Most apps on the Play Store are absolutely loaded with inbuilt trackers. You can check them using Exodus (or use the Aurora Store since privacy reports are displayed by default there).
First, my parents are understandably concerned and need me to use Google Maps’ location sharing whenever I go to school.
Is that understandable? I know millennial parents are notoriously terrified of the world because of their social media usage and clingy as a result, but is location tracking really the norm now?
Nah, it wasn’t depressing. The privileged middle class are completely clueless about life outside of their bubble, so good on you for sharing your truth.