Firefox's AI kill switch still leaves telemetry and ads running, retest finds
Firefox's AI Switch Is Off. Telemetry Isn't
Marius Quabeck retests Firefox's AI kill switch in version 155, six months after his initial investigation. While Mozilla has expanded the switch to cover more AI features, including the new Smart Window, telemetry and advertising continue unabated. The test reveals that the switch's low usage rates may be due to poor discoverability, as the onboarding flow never mentions AI controls. Mozilla's CEO acknowledges the issue, calling the ability to turn off AI 'the most important AI feature.'
The most important AI feature may be the ability to turn it off.
- jasonvorhe
> To be clear, I know that the AI kill switch does not claim to disable telemetry or advertising.
Well, at least it's not the closing sentence.
- userbinator
It's somewhat cathartic to go through the settings and JS parts, using the source as a guide, and rip out/disable all the spyware, which you can do even without having to build the whole thing from source.
Since I do my content filtering at the proxy level, all I want is just a browser .
- overflowy
I love Firefox but I don't understand why anybody would use it without a custom config like BetterFox[1].
- VCFundedGenYer
Vanilla Firefox is a swamp of user-hostile defaults, telemetry, useless AI features, and forced addons that try to upsell you.
The most sensible way to get around this is to use LibreWolf or Waterfox. They aggressively rip all of this out.
- jqpabc123
Just follow the money.