Complete User control Firefox and maximum browser privacy

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spearmintlinux

Complete User control Firefox and maximum browser privacy

Post by spearmintlinux »

My goal is to be able to have the "useragent" script and "internal address" in java script and other script in Firefox Mozilla or (Gnuzilla Icecat) or whatever version of Firefox report to websites whatever I want whenever I want instead of the sneaky defaults and others that compromise privacy. It's a simple concept, but I've been discovering some problems:.

I thought maybe this Icecat version might be a little better, but even that has some ridiculous defaults that compromise user privacy.

http://www.gnu.org/software/gnuzilla/ that need to be changed.

Here's one of the basics that google analictics seemed to somehow manage to bribe someone in Mozilla to default into:

How do I turn off Location-Aware Browsing permanently?

Location-Aware Browsing is always opt-in in Firefox 3.5. No location information is ever sent without your permission. If you wish to disable the feature completely, please follow this set of steps:

* In the URL bar, type about:config
* Type geo.enabled
* Double click on the geo.enabled preference sot it will toggle it to FALSE
* Location-Aware Browsing is now disabled
Along with some other problems

I think anyone who cares about privacy issues should respond. I can't really expect the Linux Mint developers who rigged useragent to say "Mint Linux" to understand and give a straight answer. It seems their goal is contrary to a lot of user goals because they would rather people be naive and spread the message that Mint is popular, but maybe there's a few true GNU Free software advocates who are true to Richard Stallman's philosophy who might read this and give advice?

Here's some links giving clues about what can be done and some of my struggles.

This solution is not really working for me at all, but the goal is some of what I want done:

http://www.5min.com/Video/How-to-Set-Us ... -177534531

These firefox ad-ons kind of help:

"No script "

Can hide the "internal address", but this has to add-on has other issues with certain sites:

What I mean by "internal address" is thoroughly explained in this thread:

http://www.linuxquestions.org/questions ... ed-853643/


"Quick Java" Is kind of nice
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/1237/

User agent switcher is kind of nice too

https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/59/

tends to only give the option to show the browser as "Windows Explorer," which can be a problem for some sites.

Here's some privacy testing sites:

http://www.auditmypc.com/anonymous-surfing.asp
http://browserspy.dk/
http://whatsmyuseragent.com/

------------------------------------------------

Of course there's the option of using a proxy server, but who really wants to do that?
Last edited by LockBot on Wed Dec 28, 2022 7:16 am, edited 2 times in total.
Reason: Topic automatically closed 6 months after creation. New replies are no longer allowed.
Habitual

Re: Complete User control of Browser Script and Maximum Priv

Post by Habitual »

Personally, I use flashblock but lots of sites have taken to localised adverts if flash isn't installed/configured/whatever.

I HATE those "Here's a <cheesy come-on> for <some crap> in <Your Town>" adverts. Sponsored by who else? Google!
I love google search engine but hate google analytics and they NEVER touch my domain with a bot.
I don't care about ratings.

I gotta try this. :)
spearmintlinux

Re: Complete User control of Browser Script and Maximum Priv

Post by spearmintlinux »

So if you DO NOT want every website you visit to say Linux Mint on your browser script. (Thank you Mint developers for your lack of concern for user's preferences. ) Install useragent switcher add-on to Mozilla firefox and alter the pref.s file.

If you understand this issue and want to disable the auto-reset functionality create a new preference 'useragentswitcher.reset.onclose' and set it to false
while Firefox is OFF..

[/quote]

Code: Select all

user_pref("useragentswitcher.reset.onclose", false);
pref.js is located here:

/home/username/.mozilla/firefox/*********.default/pref.js


http://chrispederick.com/work/user-agen ... elp/#reset

i can't overstress this issue:

and there's one other thing you forgot to mention about altering the pref.js file.

This warning:

" # Mozilla User Preferences

/* Do not edit this file.
*
* If you make changes to this file while the application is running,
* the changes will be overwritten when the application exits.
*
* To make a manual change to preferences, you can visit the URL about:config
* For more information, see http://www.mozilla.org/unix/customizing.html#prefs
*/
----------------

Read that very carefully. You can sit around and alter that all you want while firefox is still running, go to all the auditing sites, about:config and restart firefox over and over again, but if this stupid pref.js file is still running while firefox is running you'll drive yourself mad like I nearly did to myself.
spearmintlinux

Re: Complete User control of Browser Script and Maximum Priv

Post by spearmintlinux »

http://forums.linuxmint.com/viewtopic.p ... 27&start=0
robert-e wrote:What I find somewhat deceptive is Mint's tactics insuring the continued use of Google's Search. Mint restores Firefox's google search xml on each reboot, unless one takes extraordinary steps to prevent this behavior. Check:

/usr/share/linuxmint/adjustments/firefox, and
/etc/linuxmint/adjustments

There are both good and bad in any distro, but I find this plain ugly.

Regards,
Bob
spearmintlinux

Proof: distro developers don't care about browser user contr

Post by spearmintlinux »

If you don't tweak your firefox settings very carefully you are allowing the mint distributors to bend you over and take it for google analictics and shady entitites:


I've been tinkering around with this some times and the same crappy default preferences seem to be coming back from then undead. I don't understand why this is so complicated but there are lots of blocks of b.s. in the pref.js that I've tried and tried to kill over and over again and it's like a zombie apocolypse:





https://developer.mozilla.org/En/A_Brie ... references:
Changing defaults

A systems administrator can modify the default preferences in two ways:

1.

The administrator may edit the all.js† default pref file (install_directory/defaults/prefs/all.js). This has the advantage of changing the default value for both new and existing profiles. However, note preferences set in the profile will override the default settings. Also, note due to preferences file compression, some preferences are not saved if they match the default values, causing the profile to behave differently if used in a different installation.

† Because default pref files are loaded in reverse alphabetical order, all.js will be loaded near the end, preventing administrator values from being overridden.
2.

The administrator may add an all-companyname.js preference file (install_directory/defaults/prefs/all-companyname.js). This will be parsed last during the preference loading process.
3.

The administrator may alternatively put a user.js file in app_dir/defaults/profile/ ; this will put a copy of the user.js in all new profiles. This method has the advantage of resetting preferences back to administrator defaults at every start-up. Note that, because a user typically has access privilege to his or her profile directory, he or she can change the default values if he or she knows how. Another disadvantage is that existing profiles will not be affected.

Distributors can add default preference files via .XPI packages. The following is sample install.js code:

Code: Select all

initInstall("CustomPref", "/foo/custompref", "1.0");
addFile("custompref",           // displayName from contents.rdf
        "custompref.js",        // source
        getFolder("Defaults"),  // target folder

        "pref");                // target subdir

if (0 == getLastError())
	 performInstall();
else
	 cancelInstall();

spearmintlinux wrote:http://forums.linuxmint.com/viewtopic.p ... 27&start=0
robert-e wrote:What I find somewhat deceptive is Mint's tactics insuring the continued use of Google's Search. Mint restores Firefox's google search xml on each reboot, unless one takes extraordinary steps to prevent this behavior. Check:

/usr/share/linuxmint/adjustments/firefox, and
/etc/linuxmint/adjustments

There are both good and bad in any distro, but I find this plain ugly.

Regards,
Bob
spearmintlinux

Re: Complete User control of Browser Script and Maximum Priv

Post by spearmintlinux »

IF you don't need to show the world you are a MINT LINUX USER with " browser.search.param.yahoo-fr".

Here's some script to replace what is in this file

/etc/firefox/pref.js

Code: Select all

// This is the Debian specific preferences file for Mozilla Firefox
// You can make any change in here, it is the purpose of this file.
// You can, with this file and all files present in the
// /etc/firefox/pref directory, override any preference that is
// present in /usr/lib/firefox/defaults/pref directory.
// While your changes will be kept on upgrade if you modify files in
// /etc/firefox/pref, please note that they won't be kept if you
// do them in /usr/lib/firefox/defaults/pref.

pref("extensions.update.enabled", false);

// Use LANG environment variable to choose locale
pref("intl.locale.matchOS", true);

// Disable default browser checking.
pref("browser.shell.checkDefaultBrowser", false);

// Prevent EULA dialog to popup on first run
pref("browser.EULA.override", true);

// DO NOT identify linuxmint @ yahoo searchplugin
// DO NOT pref("browser.search.param.yahoo-fr", "linuxmint");

// DO NOT Set the UserAgent
// DO NOT pref("general.useragent.vendor", "Linux Mint");
// DO NOT pref("general.useragent.vendorSub", "10");
// DO NOT pref("general.useragent.vendorComment", "Julia");

pref("general.useragent.vendor", "");
pref("general.useragent.vendorSub", "");
pref("general.useragent.vendorComment", "");


Activate the backspace key for browsing back

pref("browser.backspace_action", 0);

// Disable ipv6
 pref("network.dns.disableIPv6", true);

// DO NOT Ignore Mozilla release notes startup pages
pref("browser.startup.homepage_override.mstone", "ignore");

Agent Twelve

Re: Complete User control of Browser Script and Maximum Priv

Post by Agent Twelve »

Or you can install Torbutton and the useragent switcher. :D
spearmintlinux

Re: Complete User control of Browser Script and Maximum Priv

Post by spearmintlinux »

Agent Twelve wrote:Or you can install Torbutton and the useragent switcher. :D
To sum a lot of crap I've discovered while tinkering with this b.s. default configuration

1. Those 2 plug-ins mentoned above (Torbutton (go through a proxy) & useragent switcher) are good, but useragent switcher doesn't stop the defaults from resetting. So that's why I found that other little hidden file. I can't count the number of times when I thought I had all my settings tweaked on firefox with this Mint 10.10 distribution, went through the "repair broken packages" b.s., or had a cold restart or some glitch, and the same useragent default script keeps showing it's ugly head.

2. So that's why you gotta scour all those hidden ***.js files, configure them the way you want looking for ideal default scripts and see just how bad some canned distro really is trying to screw you and compromise your God given right to confuse the living shit out of the people who want to profile your browsing habits.

p.s. proxies are for scared pissy cats.
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