How to deactivate FireFox starts with "recommended" Ads/Updates of visited sites - security leak
Hello,
I notice on ubuntu with FireFox 68.0 64bit that some times after starting the browser that a small Ubuntu Notification appears: FireFox displays some recommendation to visit, f.e. did I received today a popup, displaying a new Reddit Post.
This is a huge issue, because: There was NO Reddit Tab open There was NO Tab loaded (browser started fresh) - the last selected Tab opened, which has nothing to do with Reddit There is NO cookie of Reddit on this computer / I use addons to auto-delete cookies after closing a Tab There is NO exception rule in this Addon for Reddit
To me this is some serious issue, that FireFox is doing something (like checking on websites) without my explicit command for it!
What is it by name and how to stop this? Are you aware of any other features like that, calling "home" or calling other servers (exept of update server) without my knowledge?
Thanks
All Replies (7)
Mh, I just went into about:config and had a look:
there is a whole set called "app.normandy..." Is it that "shit", because without notifing or asking me there is "shit" like unique users ID set with it and pointing to some shitty Mozilla URL.
Will deactivate it and report back. Anyway: Blame on Mozilla for this crap!
hi, such notifications would not be something that mozilla would be sending out - please check in your firefox permission settings if you have given a website the permission to send you push notifications and revoke them if you haven't done so intentionally: Web Push notifications in Firefox
I guess this could be it. When granting Notification Permissions a ServiceWorker is installed, like an invisible background website.
Is there any way to see what ServiceWorkers are in FireFox - a gathered list like with saved passwords would be helpful?
Thanks
you can see/control active service workers by typing about:serviceworkers into the address bar.
Thanks again! That worked - and that list had youtube, ebay and reddit. Ahhhhh - I get nightmares thinking of them collecting some data of me by me accidently allowing this. Is there any way to complete deactivate the notification feature, so I do not get prompted everytime?
Thank you
Found it by myself: See for "Menu" -> Preferences -> Notifications -> Settings for Notifications -> block all new request to allow notifications.
The list there also has other websites listed: In my case one website did not installed any ServiceWorker but still was allowed for Notification, as listed in here.
Topic closed.
Ps.: Doing it by about:config dom.webnotifications.enabled set to false