The launch of Firefox Quantum in 2017 has been the most important revision of the browser for 13 years, but it is also a change in attitude. Since then, we have seen a more rebellious attitude from Mozilla: We are not afraid to call out our competitors for their unscrupulous behavior and their laxity regarding user privacy.
The Glass Room art installation (hosted by Tactical Tech and presented by Mozilla) has highlighted the practices of Alphabet, Amazon and Facebook. Sculptures, videos, and other works illustrate the labyrinthine links between companies that fall under each of their umbrellas, highlight the length and complexity of their terms of use, and show the amount of user data that was released in the event of a breach of data.
As a result of the Cambridge Analytica scandal, Firefox has released a Facebook container extension, which prevents Facebook from collecting your data while browsing other sites.
Other recent additions include Firefox Send, for secure file transmission, Firefox Lockwise for password management, Advanced Tracking Protection to prevent advertisers from creating a single "fingerprint" based on their hardware, and Firefox Monitor. , which allows you to see if your data has been disclosed. in a data breach.
In the Android plan, Mozilla launched Firefox Preview, an experimental browser that attacks Google's doorstep and aims to cancel Chrome's monopoly on the mobile Web. The preview is based on Mozilla's Gecko engine, rather than Google's Blink search engine, which powers most of the major browsers in the world. By exiting Blink, Firefox is no longer tied to an infrastructure designed to serve Google's best interests.
The last two years have been busy, but what can we expect in 2020 and beyond? To find out, LaComparacion spoke to Dave Camp, Senior Vice President of Firefox in Mozilla's London office.
Free and premium
We started by interviewing Camp about the highly-discussed high-end features Mozilla was considering adding to Firefox to transparently pay bills, without the need for ads or tracking.
"Without this clear idea of what we are doing, we have run into similar problems," he said. "What will it look like? And I think it's totally reasonable. Totally valid."
"I think people generally understand what we are trying to do, it's like finding a clearer way to get back some of the value that we deliver." People expect details and that is quite understandable.
You wouldn't be drawn to the new features (despite our best attempts), but clarified that a separate, paid version of Firefox is definitely not on the cards. Instead, he and his team are exploring privacy-related tools that will enrich the existing browser.
We've seen hints of such features before, when questionnaires seemed to ask Firefox users for their opinion on private non-public network (VPN) news services, and how much they might be willing to pay for them. services. However, as Camp explains, these were just tests to get the opinion of the average user.
Test the waters
Mozilla has already found it difficult to provide feedback. In January 2019, it closed Firefox Test Pilot, its program to test new features, gather feedback, and verify their feasibility before deciding whether to integrate them into the browser.
"The test driver was great," Camp said. "I liked it, I liked it, but it ended up being a biased sample." It was a self-selection, and the audience that used to pick Test Pilot and I was ### used to end up becoming a very similar audience to us, so that didn't help our intuition as much as we hoped.
"Part of the idea of putting things in front of users is to replace intuition with understanding, and Test Pilot sometimes has a hard time replacing our intuition. So if you've seen the VPN test we did, where we just asked a Firefox user sample if they would be interested in a product like this, this would advance the Pilot test work, but one by one and with more random samples of people to get something a little more representative.
The required sample size means that not all Firefox users will be prompted, but don't be surprised if you see an occasional survey or quiz in the coming months as the team continues to test the quality of the sample. Water.
The future of the mobile.
Beta testing is another way to measure user reviews. That's what Mozilla is trying to do with Firefox Preview: a new experimental browser for Android that not only uses a different framework, but also incorporates some privacy-focused Firefox browser features. Focus.
"The reception was good and we enjoyed developing it," Camp said. "It is currently in a preview state, but users seem to like it. There are still many users in our current main browser, but we are eager to publish it more widely. The beta is going very well. I think in the long run we hope that most of our users end up in what is now called Firefox Preview. "
Existing Firefox for Android will continue to be available for the near future, but the team will monitor Preview performance and make sure users are as satisfied as possible before considering phasing it out.
Firefox for iOS doesn't have the same issues as the Android version (Apple's default browser Safari relies on the company's WebKit platform rather than Blink), so Mozilla doesn't display to replace your iPhone app. Instead, it intends to update the existing browser with features that work well in the new version of Android.
The wind of change
New features like Firefox Lockwise and Monitor were warmly welcomed. "The Facebook container has been very popular," Camp said. "This is a very good example of what we were able to do to simplify complex problems a bit for users. People really like that.
"Firefox Monitor, our breach detection service, is a resounding success. We had many, many recordings for that, so it was quite positive. We expected a lot, we met high standards, but I think it sounded in a way that made us very happy. . "
The introduction of the GDPR in the European Union and the Cambridge Analytica data scandal mean that privacy protection has been the headline in recent years. Has the Firefox team noticed a change in the air?
"I think people are beginning to realize what they are trading for the services they get online," Camp said. "And that's part of what got us thinking about the Firefox bonus: people are becoming more aware of what they are trading for the services they get online." We wanted to have a more transparent way of obtaining services. I think that in general there has been a cultural shift in favor of protecting privacy and defending your rights. "
Vision 2020
So what are Mozilla's plans for 2020 in light of this change? "Our primary goal is, at a very high level, to provide users with the experiences they love on the Internet without compromising their privacy and security," Camp said.
"We're seeing a lot of great things created on the web, and users love that and want to use it. And we think it's great. We're not here to try to tell people to stop using the internet because it's scary. But what's wrong is that they do not understand what is happening behind the scenes.
"We recently released improved protection against tracking. The idea behind this is that you go to a site, you like the site, it's amazing. It's great, we want you to have this experience, but you don't realize that some parts of it page you thought might just be an ad also formed an opinion about you, save this review and use it to fund additional ad and advice. So we want to create products that allow people to get the experience they expect and understand, and protect themselves from experiences they don't know about. "
For now, Camp's advice for staying safe online is to grab a password manager if you don't already have one, but also to think more generally about the software you choose to use.
"It helps to think about the people who provide your software, what motivates them," he said. "I think one of the things that makes Firefox great is the way we operate and the motivations for our products. What matters to us, how we think about people, is important.
"I think I think about the relationships you have with the companies that you do business with, it really matters."