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Davesnothere
Change is NOT Necessarily Progress
Premium Member
join:2009-06-15
Canada

3 edits

Davesnothere to Mele20

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to Mele20

Re: [Firefox] Anyone know anything about this?

said by Mele20:

Why do I have a Safe Browsing folder in both my Fx 24 ESR and Pale Moon profiles? Can I just delete the folders? The Fx Safe Browsing files were modified TWO DAYS ago! Why? All that is supposed to be disabled. Besides, why are Safe Browsing files (big ones...on an SSD that I use where I don't have tons of room) in profile folders?

 
OK, I checked my main PM Portable install on my Vista machine, and it has the 'safebrowsing' folder which you show in your screenshot.

The folder datestamp is almost the same as yours (July 29th), and all files inside match the same date and time as the folder, so it suggests that they were all installed at one time, and not modified since then.

That install is the one which began at PM 24.5.0, IIRC, and was updated various times, as explained upthread, by method (1) whenever possible, and method (2) whenever (1) would not complete.

It is currently at version 24.7.1.

The fresh PM install last night on my XP PC was directly to PM 24.7.1, and it does NOT have that folder.

I would speculate that this is a folder which PM's dev allowed at first, but later chose to eliminate from the install in the 24.7.x series.

Delete it, you ask ?

From PaleMoon 24.7.x, prob'ly OK to do that, IMO, but not from FireFox, as it might still be in use there, especially as you noted the recent date modified in your FF profile.

I have not yet checked my FF profiles to see what may be THERE, just those of PM.
Davesnothere

Davesnothere to carpetshark3

Premium Member

to carpetshark3
said by carpetshark3:

Running PM 24.7 x64 on 7Pro laptop.

Have none of those entries in the Browser at all.

Could be because....

 
Did you install directly to PM 24.7.x, or get to it by updating an earlier version ?

(see my last post for why that might make a difference)

therube
join:2004-11-11
Randallstown, MD

therube to Mele20

Member

to Mele20
Most likely any of these Google services are at most only partially working, with or without updates, on anything other then an official Firefox.

carpetshark3
Premium Member
join:2004-02-12
Idledale, CO

carpetshark3 to Davesnothere

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to Davesnothere
I think I save and install when I feel like it. I don't like reboots in the middle of what I'm doing.

If Google shows up, I'll remove it again. If it wasn't for Play for my phone, I'd blacklist Google.
Mele20
Premium Member
join:2001-06-05
Hilo, HI

Mele20 to ZZZZZZZ

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to ZZZZZZZ
There is a simple answer why some of us have those safebrowsing entries in Pale Moon 24.7 and it's not because we did an internal update, or any reasons speculated in this thread. I have those entries because they are USER SET and the Pale Moon dev told me Pale Moon doesn't mess with user set values. He says if I reset them to default values then they will go "poof".

That is really refreshing as Mozilla devs think nothing of resetting user set values when the user upgrades.
bbear2
Premium Member
join:2003-10-06
dot.earth

bbear2

Premium Member

Another reason why I originally was on FF and am now on PM; taking clients with me.

plencnerb
Premium Member
join:2000-09-25
53403-1242

1 recommendation

plencnerb to ZZZZZZZ

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to ZZZZZZZ
Well, I did a lot of testing this morning on all of this. Before we get into all that, I do want to point out that I am also in the process of researching some Windows error and warning events. As such, I rebuilt my system on Wednesday morning, and have not done anything except to install Windows 8.1 Update 1 Pro x64. No software has been installed, outside of Palemoon many times! I felt this would be a good test as it is really a clean install of the OS, and clean installs of the different versions (both 32 bit and 64 bit) of Palemoon to try to determine what we are all seeing.

During my testing, I made zero changes to any options inside of Palemoon. So, things you see would be considered "default" for a given version. When removing Palemoon, I did a full uninstall, including my profile. I then went back and verified that any left over directories were removed from the AppData folder tree. I also want to point out that these are not the Portable installs, but the full installs.

The first thing I wanted to test was what default installs of 24.6.2 (x86) and 24.7.1 (x86) look like in regards to the "browser.safe" about:config preference items.

With Palemoon 24.6.2 (x86), we know that the preferences are present, as shown below




We also know that the two options
• Block reported attack sites
• Block reported web forgeries

do exist in on the Security tab of Options screen, enabled by default, as shown below




After removing 24.6.2 (x86), I installed 24.7.1 (x86).
As we have noticed, the preference names are all missing




Also, the Options on the Security tab are no longer present




I then tested to see if installing the 64 bit versions produced the same results. Nothing to show here, as the results were exactly the same as I noticed with the 32 bit install versions.

Next, I tested an upgrade install of both the 32 bit and 64 bit versions (started with 24.6.2, and upgraded to 24.7.1). Again, nothing to show here, as the results were the same in the end: 24.7.1 no longer has the check boxes on the Security Tab, and all of the "browser.safe" about:config preference items are gone.

My final test was in regards to Mele20 See Profile's last comment
said by Mele20:
There is a simple answer why some of us have those safebrowsing entries in Pale Moon 24.7 and it's not because we did an internal update, or any reasons speculated in this thread. I have those entries because they are USER SET and the Pale Moon dev told me Pale Moon doesn't mess with user set values. He says if I reset them to default values then they will go "poof".

I installed 24.6.2 (x64). I then went an unchecked the items on the Security tab as shown below.




Doing this of course is making a user modification to default install items.

If we look at about:config, it now looks like this




As expected, two of the preferences, as indicated by the red arrows, now have a status of "user set" and a value of "false", as these are the two check boxes that I unchecked on the Security Tab of the options screen.

I then installed 24.7.1 (x64) as an upgrade. The options from the Security tab, as shown below, are now gone.




However, as Mele20 See Profile made reference to, the "browser.safe" preferences that I modified remain, yet all of the other ones are gone.




Based on my testing, it appears that with Version 24.7.1, Palemoon did remove these items from the browser. However, if the user did modify them, they would be left behind. Not sure if they still function as they did in 24.6.2 or not. I don't know of a proper way to test that, otherwise I would have.

So, there you have it.

--Brian

ZZZZZZZ
Premium Member
join:2001-05-27
PARADISE

ZZZZZZZ

Premium Member

Just looking at your menus and for some reason my remember passwords menu is unclickable..........any ideas?

Davesnothere
Change is NOT Necessarily Progress
Premium Member
join:2009-06-15
Canada

1 edit

Davesnothere to Mele20

Premium Member

to Mele20
said by Mele20:

There is a simple answer why some of us have those safebrowsing entries in Pale Moon 24.7 and it's not because we did an internal update, or any reasons speculated in this thread.

I have those entries because they are USER SET and the Pale Moon dev told me Pale Moon doesn't mess with user set values. He says if I reset them to default values then they will go "poof"....

 
That makes sense, as I had not fiddled with those on any of MY installs of PM

AND, you got it from the horse's mouth, as it were.

So you will let us know whether they do go 'POOF !" on yours ?
Davesnothere

Davesnothere to ZZZZZZZ

Premium Member

to ZZZZZZZ
said by ZZZZZZZ:

Just looking at your menus and for some reason my remember passwords menu is unclickable..........any ideas?

 
I had noticed that in your screenshot, but forgot to ask at the time.

Maybe an about:config entry is interacting with it, or an add-on ?
Davesnothere

1 recommendation

Davesnothere to plencnerb

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to plencnerb
said by plencnerb:

....Based on my testing, it appears that with Version 24.7.1, Palemoon did remove these items from the browser. However, if the user did modify them, they would be left behind.

Not sure if they still function as they did in 24.6.2 or not. I don't know of a proper way to test that, otherwise I would have.

 
Thanks for doing all of that work, and the clear post.

So it just leaves that one question, for Mele to ask the PM dev, I guess.

ZZZZZZZ
Premium Member
join:2001-05-27
PARADISE

ZZZZZZZ to Davesnothere

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to Davesnothere
Found the answer..............I use Private browsing mode constantly.

carpetshark3
Premium Member
join:2004-02-12
Idledale, CO

carpetshark3 to plencnerb

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to plencnerb
Those items are not in 24.7.0 either. I do not have browser safe.
The options in the Security tab are also not there.

I also permanently use private browsing. I don't save passwords in the browser anyway, so I never noticed.

Davesnothere
Change is NOT Necessarily Progress
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join:2009-06-15
Canada

Davesnothere to ZZZZZZZ

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to ZZZZZZZ
said by ZZZZZZZ:

Found the answer..............I use Private browsing mode constantly.

 
Makes sense.

I do not use that mode, though.
Davesnothere

Davesnothere to carpetshark3

Premium Member

to carpetshark3
said by carpetshark3:

Those items are not in 24.7.0 either. I do not have browser safe.
The options in the Security tab are also not there.

I also permanently use private browsing. I don't save passwords in the browser anyway, so I never noticed.

 
So 24.7.1 was the transition point, then.

Good to know.

And I always untick any password stuff as I do not let the browser save them either.

However, I DO let it save 'form input', so that it will offer/autocomplete most of my login names - but that's as far as I go.
jupitermoon
join:2011-09-27

jupitermoon to ZZZZZZZ

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to ZZZZZZZ
The link posted by Mele20 earlier in this thread refers to yet another phone-home mechanism that is already built into Firefox which websites can use to track which links users click on and when. It is called hyperlink-auditing or <a ping> and is controlled by the following preference settings:

browser.send_pings
browser.send_pings.max_per_link
browser.send_pings.require_same_host

If browser.send_pings is set to true, it sends a POST request to URLs listed in the ping attribute of <a> HTML elements, which means it can contact servers different from the one that you connected to.

To disable it, browser.send_pings should be set to false.

This has been around for a long time. The following page in the MozillaZine Knowledge Base, last modified on February 2, 2008, suggests that if you are concerned about privacy, you may want to set this preference to false.

It was disabled by default in Firefox 30, but there is apparently pressure to have it enabled and some are even trying to get the preferences removed that control it!

»bugzilla.mozilla.org/sho ··· d=951104
»groups.google.com/forum/ ··· ZVnc8rfo

I checked and in Firefox 31.0, all three preference settings still exist with default values of false, 1 and false.

Something else to watch out for?

Mele20's link:
»www.wilderssecurity.com/ ··· .364904/

MozillaZine link:
»kb.mozillazine.org/Brows ··· nd_pings
Mele20
Premium Member
join:2001-06-05
Hilo, HI

Mele20

Premium Member

Did I understand correctly from that bug thread that both ping and beacon when turned on will force setting of third party cookies?!
Mele20

Mele20 to Davesnothere

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to Davesnothere
Yes, as soon as I set them to DEFAULT (not to user set TRUE) they went poof! I closed Pale Moon, restarted it and found that about:config page BLANK.

Tend to agree with bbear2 See Profile about why one should move to Pale Moon aside from dodging Austrailis.

carpetshark3
Premium Member
join:2004-02-12
Idledale, CO

carpetshark3 to jupitermoon

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to jupitermoon
Those three items show up the same way in Pale Moon 24.7.0
False, 1 False.

ZZZZZZZ
Premium Member
join:2001-05-27
PARADISE

ZZZZZZZ

Premium Member

Click for full size
V24.1.1 shows this too.

Davesnothere
Change is NOT Necessarily Progress
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join:2009-06-15
Canada

Davesnothere

Premium Member

 
24.1.1 ?

Did you mean 24.7.1 ?
Davesnothere

Davesnothere to Mele20

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to Mele20
said by Mele20:

Yes, as soon as I set them to DEFAULT (not to user set TRUE) they went poof! I closed Pale Moon, restarted it and found that about:config page BLANK.

Tend to agree with bbear2 See Profile about why one should move to Pale Moon aside from dodging Austrailis.

 
Good, good.

And I agree too that Australis is not the only demon in FireFox which PaleMoon lets us avoid.

The list is growing.