Mozilla removes the usage data collected from the Firefox add-in patch



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Firefox

Mozilla has decided to remove all telemetry data, or usage and user performance, collected by Firefox during the launch of the study to correct disabled Firefox addons.

On May 4th at 01:00 UTC, a certificate used to sign Firefox addons has expired. Since the browser requires a valid signature for all addons, Firefox has disabled all addons on certificate expiration.

Disabled addons

To solve this problem, Mozilla has released a system extension in the form of a study called "hotfix-xpi-signature-intermediate-bug-1548973" that would be distributed to all users for which studies are enabled. For many people, this was a problem because it was necessary to authorize the download of usage data on Mozilla to allow studies.

Study solution

Eventually, Mozilla released Firefox 66.0.4, then Firefox 66.0.5 to fix the issues related to the expired certificate without prior study, but for many, it was too late because they had already enabled studies in the browser.

Mozilla wants to expiate

In order to apologize to all those who allowed the studies and therefore the telemetry, Mozilla decided to delete the telemetry data collected during the patch application period for all Firefox users.

"In order to solve this problem as quickly as possible, we used our" Studies "system to deploy the initial patch, which requires users to be connected to Telemetry," said a Mozilla article on the blog. "Some users who had withdrawn from Telemetry have re-entered the process to obtain the initial patch as quickly as possible, as we announced in the Firefox add-ons blog for 2019- 05-08T23: 28: 00Z, there is more if you need education to receive updates, check that your settings match your personal preferences before reactivating the studies, which will occur after 2019 -05-13T16: 00: 00Z, in order to respect the potential of our users as much as possible, based on our current configuration, we will delete all our source data for telemetry and studies for our entire population Users collected between 2019-05-04T11: 00: 00Z and 2019-05-11T11: 00: 00Z. "

For ease of understanding, at least for us in the US, this means that Mozilla will remove all performance and usage data from the entire Firefox population collected between May 5 at 6:00 am EST and May 11 at 6:00 AM EST.

They also want to point out that if you do not want your telemetry data uploaded to Mozilla, you can disable it in Firefox because the studies are no longer needed.

To disable studies and telemetry, go to Firefox preferences -> Privacy and Security and uncheck Allow Firefox to send technical data and interaction to Mozilla as shown below..

Telemetry off
Telemetry off

Once this option is unchecked, studies and telemetry are disabled in Firefox.

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