Comment on I made a Firefox fork with Fediverse integration

lambalicious@lemmy.sdf.org ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

• rozodru@lemmy.world ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

  No automatic browsing activity reporting - The extension only searches for Lemmy discussions when:

  1. A page finishes loading (background.js:119-128)
  2. URL changes are detected (content.js:37-54)

  What data is sent:

  • Only the current page URL and its variations (content.js:73-80)
  • URL variations include cleaned URLs (no tracking params), with/without www, http/https variants (content.js:109-168)

  Where data is sent:

  • Only to Lemmy instances you’ve configured (background.js:149-152)
  • No third-party analytics or tracking services
  • All requests go directly to Lemmy APIs for post searches

  Privacy protections:

  • Results are cached locally for 30 minutes (background.js:141-143)
  • No persistent logging of browsing history
  • You can disable the notification indicator (content.js:172-184)
  • Only sends URL when you actually visit a page, not preemptively

  User control:

  • You choose which Lemmy instances to search
  • You can remove instances at any time
  • The extension only activates on http/https URLs

  Answer: No - The extension does not report all browsing activity to third parties. It only queries your configured Lemmy instances with the current page URL to find relevant discussions, and only when you actually visit a page.

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  • lambalicious@lemmy.sdf.org ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

    Sending the current URL and directly from your own IP too is quite the privacy hurdle already. I’ve already posted on what kind of things could be done to improve this, but first, a notice.

    Your README says in the Privacy section:

    Does not track your browsing

    On the current implementation, this should be changed to:

    Enables unverified third parties to track your browsing data

    As that honesty is quite important.

    As for measures that could be taken to improve on this issue, I have three suggestions (I might Issue Tracker them to the codeberg later, if I can find my credentials XD)

    • Set up a uBO-stye control pane that allows to set this on or off per-domain or per-site. Bonus points if it allows for per-site specific on which lemmy instances to use the same way as uBO’s “3p” Custom Rules does. This already prevents a number of undesirable use cases, such as automatically sending LAN / non-DNS names to third parties when they can’t really be searched for anyways.
    • Anonimyzing assist: Allow for sending only the global context of the visited site (eg.: only the domain) instead of the full URL.
    • Anonimyzing assist: Allow to cache requests to send them later / send them in batches, to avoid clock-based / timezone-based tracking attacks.
    • Anonimyzing assist: Allow for the browser-specific request being sent through a proxy or relay, so that IP origin information is not leaked. (I think this only really makes sense for users not logged-in?)

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    • rozodru@lemmy.world ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

      Thanks, when I have the time I’ll look into implementing this.

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      • woelkchen@lemmy.world ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

        I don’t think the ideas of Lambalicious work with Lemmy. What would sending the domain name only achieve? I assume it uses the same logic as Lemmy uses to find crossposts? Obviously it needs the whole address then.

        Maybe instead of crawling automatically, the users need to click a button to look up discussions? (I have yet to install your extension, so I have yet to experience the workflow myself, sorry.)

        Maybe link to the privacy terms of the default instances? In general, I think your approach is good. You don’t collect any data, the feature is 100% opt-in. A central relay/proxy is even worse than your current approach. People are obviously free to set up their own Lemmy/Mastodon server if they want a relay.

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