| FireFox 2.x - Bookmark Properties Accesses Website While cleaning up / out some bookmarks in FireFox 2.0 just a little while ago, I right-clicked on a bookmark to check the properties. Upon clicking the Properties menu item, I was presented with cookie dialog box. I denied the cookie, but was surprised to suddenly realize simply checking the bookmark properties causes FireFox to access the bookmarked website. Further testing confirmed this to be true in all cases of checking bookmark Properties.
I was only able to find one discussion of this here:
»groups-beta.google.com/group/moz···324a99f9
Maybe I missed discussion of this somewhere along the way, but it certainly was a surprise that such functionality is built-in with no apparent ability to disable it.
Does anybody have any further information about this or how to prevent the behavior?
Thanks.
Note:
My FF installations have already been modded to turn off the "network.prefetch-next" behavior (set to True by default). This has no relationship to or impact on the issue described above other than both are unwanted features with possible privacy and security implications:
»kb.mozillazine.org/Network.prefetch-next |
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 La LunaSurvived AshrafulPremium
join:2001-07-12
Warwick, NY
kudos:3 | I don't get a cookie dialog box when right clicking>properties on bookmarks. I tried different bookmarks, I only get the properties box.
Using Fx 2.0. |
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| said by La Luna:I don't get a cookie dialog box when right clicking>properties on bookmarks. I tried different bookmarks, I only get the properties box. Using Fx 2.0. You'll only get a cookie dialog box under certain circumstances, e.g., the status of your cookie settings, whether the site in question sets cookies, etc. I only mentioned it because it was the thing that clued me in to the behavior. Without the cookie pop-up, I would likely have not noticed or it would have taken longer to notice.
However, the absence of the cookie (or cookie dialog) does not change the fact that the Properties dialog is accessing the website(s).
Thanks. |
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La LunaSurvived AshrafulPremium
join:2001-07-12
Warwick, NY
kudos:3 Reviews:
 ·Vonage
 ·Optimum Online
| reply to BandHeight
Ahh, I see. You're right. I changed my option to "notify me every time", and yes, then I did get that box. Normally I have it set to keep cookies until I close Fx.
I'm assuming that Fx verifies that the site link is good, which triggers the site to want to set a cookie? |
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 hpguruCurb Your DogmaPremium
join:2002-04-12 | said by La Luna:I'm assuming that Fx verifies that the site link is good, which triggers the site to want to set a cookie? Just a guess (since I reverted to FF 1.5x) but FF 2.0 is probably attempting to update the favicon for the bookmarked site. Some sites will try to serve a cookie in response to every request, even if you are just fetching a favicon. If this isn't what is happening then it may be yet another cause for concern with this new version.
Anyone here using Proxo can easily confirm whether or not it is fetching a favicon.
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Where's Jesus?
Dear Jesus! |
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1 edit | said by hpguru:said by La Luna:I'm assuming that Fx verifies that the site link is good, which triggers the site to want to set a cookie? Just a guess (since I reverted to FF 1.5x) but FF 2.0 is probably attempting to update the favicon for the bookmarked site. Some sites will try to serve a cookie in response to every request, even if you are just fetching a favicon. If this isn't what is happening then it may be yet another cause for concern with this new version. Anyone here using Proxo can easily confirm whether or not it is fetching a favicon. Per the info in the first link of my first post, FF is downloading the html and css looking for "Live Titles" information. A description of Live Titles appears here:
»www.mozilla.com/en-US/firefox/features.html
quote:
Live Titles
Keep an eye on that auction or the status of a delivery using the new Live Titles feature in Firefox 2. Compact enough to fit as a bookmark label, Live Titles are regularly updated summaries of the most important information on a Web page. As the information on the page gets updated, so does your Live Title.
It's something I don't really care to be forced into. I really only want my browser accessing the Internet when I deliberately click on a link; any other time (even if it was just for a favicon) is not very good in my book. |
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1 edit | As a follow-up, here is what was placed in FF cache after simply checking the properties of a bookmark to this site:
»tango-project.org/Tango_Icon_Gallery |
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| reply to hpguru
said by hpguru:Just a guess (since I reverted to FF 1.5x) but FF 2.0 is probably attempting to update the favicon for the bookmarked site. Some sites will try to serve a cookie in response to every request, even if you are just fetching a favicon. If this isn't what is happening then it may be yet another cause for concern with this new version. Anyone here using Proxo can easily confirm whether or not it is fetching a favicon. I have Firefox set to deny favicons and web site icons, so it should not be attempting to fetch them. I also have Firefox defaulting to blocking cookies, with a few exceptions. I still get an indication from my modem that a connection is being made when I check the bookmark properties.
What is the cause for concern? If you like a site enough to bookmark it, you will be accessing it anyway (in the normal manner).
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1 edit | said by Curiosity:I have Firefox set to deny favicons and web site icons, so it should not be attempting to fetch them. I also have Firefox defaulting to blocking cookies, with a few exceptions. I still get an indication from my modem that a connection is being made when I check the bookmark properties. The reason for the connection, despite the favicon / website icon block, is as I described above.
said by Curiosity:What is the cause for concern? If you like a site enough to bookmark it, you will be accessing it anyway (in the normal manner). All other reasons aside, your browser should not be making connections to any site and downloading content unless the user deliberately intends to do so (i.e., clicking a bookmark or a link). I don't believe checking the properties of a bookmark falls into the "deliberate" category ... at least it shouldn't.
Maybe I was checking the properties because I didn't know what the bookmark was, and I may have deleted it once I determined what it was. Instead of simply checking and deleting, I end up actually connecting to the website, downloading site content and perhaps downloading a cookie as well. That seems to me to be a lot of activity for simply wanting to check the properties of a bookmark. If I wanted to do all that, I would have just clicked on the bookmark to see where it took me.
Thanks. |
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