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service workers on your browser

about:serviceworkers
on the address line will show you whether you have any installed/registered and running in the background, intercepting network traffic, even when the corresponding web-pages are closed and haven't been visited for a while.
about:config      --> serviceworkers
Will reveal the switches that enable/disable them.

I didn't know of them till a few days ago, I didn't like what I read, I don't trust them, I wasn't aware I indirectly gave them the right to operate.  By turning them off and disabling them I have not noticed any difference other than the browser got faster and uses less ram.

I've never used chrome/chromium, so I don't know if the above syntax is the same for chrome, on mozilla based browsers and forks it is valid.

If anyone knows more and has thoughts to contribute the collective knowledge is better than the individual's perception.  Those that do know may think everyone does, and those that don't wonder how come they didn't know.

Re: service workers on your browser

Reply #1
I think everything that google puts their hands on or money to has some dodgy stuff implemented
Fortunately if i type about:serviceworkers i have nothing:
Quote
No Service Workers registered.
But i had .true in about:config so i set them to false now. Thanks.

btw. if everybody's gonna stop using firefox and go for chrome instead, it's not gonna be good.


Re: service workers on your browser

Reply #3
By default, firefox collects all sorts of data and makes all sorts of connections with other domains. Of course, Mozilla says that all this data is anonymous and not personally identifiable, but I haven't trusted them for years. The saving grace of firefox is that most of this can be turned off. I'd suggest using either GNU Icecat (based on ESR) or a preconfigured user configuration for privacy like Librefox (which can be used with the latest stable). Of course, Chromium shouldn't be trusted either. If you want a chromium-based browser, you can switch to ungoogled-chromium. Fortunately, all of this stuff is in AUR already so it's not much work to make the switch.

Re: service workers on your browser

Reply #4
I personally prefer gnu icecat 52.6.0 over newest version which is 60.3.0. Only if installing addons and plugins was so easy on it like it is on firefox. what is pain in the arse to me is that on gnu icecat 60.3.0 most of websites dont display for me normally.
and on icecat 52.6.0 everything is cool but i cant find a way to install tor plugin there, the one that they have on 60.3.

Trusted or not, still everybody goes on youtube, facebook and search engines like google, they're the biggest data collectors out there. This is why i stopped go on them, but if firefox does spy on me or not... I am writing from manjaro openbox now... Everything spies on me at the moment to be fair. I installed manjaro for wine to play windows games cuz i have like 20 of them now and gonna have more of them... To be honest i am only here for windows games, i am not fan of using windows stuff on linux... But i like how openbox is configured on manjaro, it has polybar, tint2 conky and some compositor. I am having fun there so i thought let's not waste time installing wine on Artix, i am gonna get manjaro for it.
I prefer to use non systemd for pure linux experience without windows. I have got LXDE Artix installed now and then i have got fresh untouched newest lxqt iso for battery life purposes (when i go out to watch movies)

So i think like if you don't like that they spy on you and you don't trust them, i should do what i decided, to stop going on youtube, google, facebook. If firefox does spy on me now i think it's a minor evil, the major one is avoided by me now. I spent nearly 1,5 years of escaping from corporates but now i wanna have some fun.

Re: service workers on your browser

Reply #5
Yeah I wasn't too big of a fan of the switch to Web Extensions either (the newer version of icecat). But it now mostly works alright for me. I still have some annoying workarounds (like using userChrome for autohiding the tab bar for tree style tabs), but it functions now. I've used a uMatrix setup with all scripts, frames, etc. blocked by default for years, so I'm pretty much used to broken websites. :P I certainly don't use facebook or google's search engine. I do use Youtube (which is google) on occasion, but I never watch anything with the in browser crap. I open every url with mpv.

On my main machine at home, I actually use librefox since only the later versions of firefox have support for the wayland backend. It works well for me.

 

Re: service workers on your browser

Reply #6
damn i installed this manjaro openbox and first dvd rom won't read and i rebooted and grub list has disappeared ;(((. stop job for 1 minute 30 seconds before laptop shuts down... and now i can't boot to it. it's a shame that this openbox with polybars etc. has been configured for systemd manjaro.. ;/ not for something else like Artix... edit: well okay i am on artix lxde now just installed one game on wine ;P. it's running too. but i like this manjaro openbox though...

yeah broken website is one thing but sometimes i noticed i can't write passwords for example on ebay twitter or other stuff when using this browser... i think it's just scripts they use...
i have 3 browsers gnu icecat 52.6 which is great one but doesn't have this tor plugin that 60.3 has. but right now i am writing from firefox-developer-edition i think i shouldnt be so paranoid... i only use https everywhere and tor switcher (have got ublock and matrix too but not enabled now). People use iphones or android smartphones and they're not worried and paranoid so i think this fact that i am writing from firefox now is okay... maybe i won't use it in the future...
Especially that in the beginning of last year i was still on Windows 10 before i migrated to devuan and then artix...

Re: service workers on your browser

Reply #7
I think we should consider getting Icecat into our repos. It does seem like many would be interested in using it, over Firefox.

Re: service workers on your browser

Reply #8
I think we should consider getting Icecat into our repos. It does seem like many would be interested in using it, over Firefox.
yeah, it is good idea i think
I looked up pkgbuild of it in arch aur and there it is:
https://aur.archlinux.org/cgit/aur.git/tree/PKGBUILD?h=icecat
It has libpulse in make depends so not sure if that should be in pkgbuild for artix if the full .isos have full alsa??
and maybe optdepends pulseaudio and networkmanager should be discarded too...
i have no idea what about anything else...
is it even legal to copy pkgbuild of somebody like this and even edit it and put it to repositories of another distro lmao...


Re: service workers on your browser

Reply #10
I think we should consider getting Icecat into our repos. It does seem like many would be interested in using it, over Firefox.


I am not sure what this has to do with this thread, but if you want it, you can build the package and put it in the repos and maintain it.  FWIW, I am not a fan at all of it and find it just broken.


https://aur.archlinux.org/packages/icecat/