SpywareWatchdog/articles/waterfox_classic.html

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				<h1>Waterfox Classic</h1>
				<p>Version tested was 2020.10.</p>
				<p>
				Waterfox is a web browser that is a fork of <a href="../articles/firefox.html">Firefox</a>.
				Note: This article has a few issues. See <a href="https://codeberg.org/shadow/SpywareWatchdog/issues/117">this</a> for more details.
				</p>
				<h2>Spyware Level: <span class="yellow>">Medium</span></h2>
				<p>
				Waterfox is a fork of Firefox that claims to be more private and secure
				than Firefox. However, Waterfox contains telemetry and shares
				information about you with Mozilla, and has other spyware features.
				</p>
				<h3>Waterfox connects to spyware services when it is first run</h3>
				<p>
				If you start up Waterfox for the first time, it will make <b><span class="red">55 requests</span></b><sup><a href="#s4">[4]</a></sup> to several spyware platforms, notably
				Matomo, and Mozilla online services like its Geolocation service, and several other Mozilla services, as
				well as Waterfox's own update service. You can look at a list of these requests
				<a href="../images/waterfox_classic_spyware.png">here</a>.
				</p>
				<h3>Waterfox is integrated into the "Firefox Accounts" spyware platform</h3>
				<p>
				The "Firefox Accounts" platform allows you to sync a lot of sensitive
				information, such as your internet history, across all of your devices.
				This is, of course, all being stored on Mozilla's servers.<sup><a href="#s3">[3]</a></sup>
				This feature
				is opt-in spyware, but it should still be mentioned.
				If you don't want your internet history to be uploaded to Mozilla servers,
				don't use this feature.
				</p>
				<h3>Waterfox is self updating software</h3>
				<p>
				Self updates are a spyware feature since they are usually ways for the developer of a program to put spyware into their software without presenting it in a prominent way
				where the user can understand what they are giving up when they download the update.
				</p>
				<p>Other known spywares, like Chromium, make use of this method</p>
				<h3>Not spyware related, but worth noting</h3>
				<h3>Anti-privacy search engine by default</h3>
				<p>
				By default Waterfox uses the search engine <a href="../articles/bing.html">Bing</a>.
				Why would a privacy-based Web Browser offer this search engine by default? The other offered search engines are not much better- we have the option of searching with Google,
				which also logs your internet searches, and Ecosia, which also logs your internet searches (but it gives them to Bing). The developers attitude towards these search engines is concerning:
				</p>
				<p>
				<i>"Bing is actually quite good for privacy as well (let's not forget Mozilla even suggested them as a more privacy focused search back in 2009)."</i><sup><a href="#s2">[2]</a></sup>
				</p>
				<p>
				It's very clear that while the browser advertises itself as very privacy focused, the actual words and actions of the developers aren't consistent with this claim.
				</p>
				<hr/>
				</div>
			    <div class="footer">
					<div class="futher">
					  <h4>Further Reading:</h4>
					  <ol>
						<li><a href="https://www.waterfox.net/privacy">https://www.waterfox.net/privacy</a>
						<a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20201228044209/https://www.waterfox.net/privacy">[web.archive.org]</a></li>
						<li><a href="https://www.waterfox.net/legal/">https://www.waterfox.net/legal</a>
						<a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20201228044236/https://www.waterfox.net/legal">[web.archive.org]</a></li>
					  </ol>
					</div>
					<hr/>
					<div class="sources">
					  <h4>Sources:</h4>
					  <ol>
							<li id="s1">
								<a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/waterfox/comments/880z4b/what_happened_to_waterfoxs_devotion_to_user/">What happened to Waterfox's devotion to user privacy?</a>
								<a href="http://removeddit.com/r/waterfox/comments/880z4b/what_happened_to_waterfoxs_devotion_to_user/">[removeddit.com]</a>
								<a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20180329154241/https://www.reddit.com/r/waterfox/comments/880z4b/what_happened_to_waterfoxs_devotion_to_user/">[web.archive.org]</a>
								<a href="https://archive.li/omeK3">[archive.li]</a><br/>
							</li>
							<li id="s2">
								<a href="http://old.reddit.com/r/waterfox/comments/7m1pkq/waterfox_and_ecosia_privacy_concerns/">Waterfox and Ecosia — Privacy Concerns</a>
								<a href="http://removeddit.com/r/waterfox/comments/7m1pkq/waterfox_and_ecosia_privacy_concerns/">[removeddit.com]</a>
								<a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20180201210222/https://www.reddit.com/r/waterfox/comments/7m1pkq/waterfox_and_ecosia_privacy_concerns/">[web.archive.org]</a>
								<a href="https://archive.is/smDw6">[archive.is]</a><br/>
							</li>
							<li id="s3">
								<a href="https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/access-mozilla-services-firefox-accounts">Access Mozilla Services with Firefox Account</a>
								<a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20150322103834/https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/access-mozilla-services-firefox-accounts">[web.archive.org]</a>
								<a href="https://archive.li/oDcmj">[archive.li]</a><br/>
							</li>
							<li id="s4">
								<a href="../images/waterfox_classic_spyware.png">All the requests made (mitmproxy)</a>
							</li>
					  </ol>
				  </div>
				<hr/>
				<p><b>
        		<b>This article was created prior to 6/2/2018</b><br/>
				This article was last edited on 2/20/2022
				</b></p>
				<p>
				If you want to edit this article, or contribute your own article(s), visit us at the git repo on <a href="https://codeberg.org/shadow/SpywareWatchdog">Codeberg</a>. All contributions must be licensed under the CC0 license to be accepted.
				</p>
				<a href="../LICENSE.txt"><img class="icon" src="../images/cc0.png" alt="CC0 License"/></a>
				<p><a href="../articles/index.html">Back to catalog</a></p>
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Changed the rating of Waterfox from High -> Medium. See #117 for more information. 2022-02-21 02:22:15 +02:00			`<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>`
			`<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.1//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml11/DTD/xhtml11.dtd">`
			`<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" xsi:schemaLocation="http://www.w3.org/MarkUp/SCHEMA/xhtml11.xsd" xml:lang="en">`
re-tested waterfox, waterfox now has two versions, did classic, updated and downsized the article 2020-12-28 09:03:34 +02:00			`<head>`
			`<meta http-equiv="Content-type" content="application/xhtml+xml;charset=utf-8"/>`
Changed the rating of Waterfox from High -> Medium. See #117 for more information. 2022-02-21 02:22:15 +02:00			`<meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width,initial-scale=1"/>`
			`<title>Waterfox Classic - Spyware Watchdog</title>`
			`<link href="../style.css" rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" media="all"/>`
re-tested waterfox, waterfox now has two versions, did classic, updated and downsized the article 2020-12-28 09:03:34 +02:00			`</head>`
			`<body>`
			`<div class="case">`
Changed the rating of Waterfox from High -> Medium. See #117 for more information. 2022-02-21 02:22:15 +02:00			`<div class="nav">`
			`<a href="index.html">← Catalog</a>`
			`</div>`
re-tested waterfox, waterfox now has two versions, did classic, updated and downsized the article 2020-12-28 09:03:34 +02:00			`<div class="main">`
validation! 2020-12-28 09:31:41 +02:00			`<img src="../images/waterfox_logo.png" alt="Waterfox Logo"/>`
re-tested waterfox, waterfox now has two versions, did classic, updated and downsized the article 2020-12-28 09:03:34 +02:00			`<h1>Waterfox Classic</h1>`
			`<p>Version tested was 2020.10.</p>`
			`<p>`
			`Waterfox is a web browser that is a fork of <a href="../articles/firefox.html">Firefox</a>.`
Changed the rating of Waterfox from High -> Medium. See #117 for more information. 2022-02-21 02:22:15 +02:00			`Note: This article has a few issues. See <a href="https://codeberg.org/shadow/SpywareWatchdog/issues/117">this</a> for more details.`
re-tested waterfox, waterfox now has two versions, did classic, updated and downsized the article 2020-12-28 09:03:34 +02:00			`</p>`
Changed the rating of Waterfox from High -> Medium. See #117 for more information. 2022-02-21 02:22:15 +02:00			`<h2>Spyware Level: <span class="yellow>">Medium</span></h2>`
re-tested waterfox, waterfox now has two versions, did classic, updated and downsized the article 2020-12-28 09:03:34 +02:00			`<p>`
			`Waterfox is a fork of Firefox that claims to be more private and secure`
			`than Firefox. However, Waterfox contains telemetry and shares`
			`information about you with Mozilla, and has other spyware features.`
			`</p>`
			`<h3>Waterfox connects to spyware services when it is first run</h3>`
			`<p>`
validation! 2020-12-28 09:31:41 +02:00			`If you start up Waterfox for the first time, it will make <b><span class="red">55 requests</span></b><sup><a href="#s4">[4]</a></sup> to several spyware platforms, notably`
re-tested waterfox, waterfox now has two versions, did classic, updated and downsized the article 2020-12-28 09:03:34 +02:00			`Matomo, and Mozilla online services like its Geolocation service, and several other Mozilla services, as`
			`well as Waterfox's own update service. You can look at a list of these requests`
			`<a href="../images/waterfox_classic_spyware.png">here</a>.`
			`</p>`
			`<h3>Waterfox is integrated into the "Firefox Accounts" spyware platform</h3>`
			`<p>`
			`The "Firefox Accounts" platform allows you to sync a lot of sensitive`
			`information, such as your internet history, across all of your devices.`
			`This is, of course, all being stored on Mozilla's servers.<sup><a href="#s3">[3]</a></sup>`
			`This feature`
			`is opt-in spyware, but it should still be mentioned.`
			`If you don't want your internet history to be uploaded to Mozilla servers,`
			`don't use this feature.`
			`</p>`
			`<h3>Waterfox is self updating software</h3>`
			`<p>`
			`Self updates are a spyware feature since they are usually ways for the developer of a program to put spyware into their software without presenting it in a prominent way`
			`where the user can understand what they are giving up when they download the update.`
			`</p>`
Update 'articles/waterfox_classic.html' 2021-08-18 06:10:53 +03:00			`<p>Other known spywares, like Chromium, make use of this method</p>`
Changed the rating of Waterfox from High -> Medium. See #117 for more information. 2022-02-21 02:22:15 +02:00			`<h3>Not spyware related, but worth noting</h3>`
			`<h3>Anti-privacy search engine by default</h3>`
			`<p>`
			`By default Waterfox uses the search engine <a href="../articles/bing.html">Bing</a>.`
			`Why would a privacy-based Web Browser offer this search engine by default? The other offered search engines are not much better- we have the option of searching with Google,`
			`which also logs your internet searches, and Ecosia, which also logs your internet searches (but it gives them to Bing). The developers attitude towards these search engines is concerning:`
			`</p>`
			`<p>`
			`<i>"Bing is actually quite good for privacy as well (let's not forget Mozilla even suggested them as a more privacy focused search back in 2009)."</i><sup><a href="#s2">[2]</a></sup>`
			`</p>`
			`<p>`
			`It's very clear that while the browser advertises itself as very privacy focused, the actual words and actions of the developers aren't consistent with this claim.`
			`</p>`
re-tested waterfox, waterfox now has two versions, did classic, updated and downsized the article 2020-12-28 09:03:34 +02:00			`<hr/>`
validation! 2020-12-28 09:31:41 +02:00			`</div>`
re-tested waterfox, waterfox now has two versions, did classic, updated and downsized the article 2020-12-28 09:03:34 +02:00			`<div class="footer">`
			`<div class="futher">`
			`<h4>Further Reading:</h4>`
			`<ol>`
validation! 2020-12-28 09:31:41 +02:00			`<li><a href="https://www.waterfox.net/privacy">https://www.waterfox.net/privacy</a>`
			`<a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20201228044209/https://www.waterfox.net/privacy">[web.archive.org]</a></li>`
			`<li><a href="https://www.waterfox.net/legal/">https://www.waterfox.net/legal</a>`
			`<a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20201228044236/https://www.waterfox.net/legal">[web.archive.org]</a></li>`
re-tested waterfox, waterfox now has two versions, did classic, updated and downsized the article 2020-12-28 09:03:34 +02:00			`</ol>`
			`</div>`
			`<hr/>`
			`<div class="sources">`
			`<h4>Sources:</h4>`
			`<ol>`
			`<li id="s1">`
			`<a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/waterfox/comments/880z4b/what_happened_to_waterfoxs_devotion_to_user/">What happened to Waterfox's devotion to user privacy?</a>`
Update 'articles/waterfox_classic.html' 2021-08-18 06:10:53 +03:00			`<a href="http://removeddit.com/r/waterfox/comments/880z4b/what_happened_to_waterfoxs_devotion_to_user/">[removeddit.com]</a>`
re-tested waterfox, waterfox now has two versions, did classic, updated and downsized the article 2020-12-28 09:03:34 +02:00			`<a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20180329154241/https://www.reddit.com/r/waterfox/comments/880z4b/what_happened_to_waterfoxs_devotion_to_user/">[web.archive.org]</a>`
validation! 2020-12-28 09:31:41 +02:00			`<a href="https://archive.li/omeK3">[archive.li]</a><br/>`
re-tested waterfox, waterfox now has two versions, did classic, updated and downsized the article 2020-12-28 09:03:34 +02:00			`</li>`
			`<li id="s2">`
			`<a href="http://old.reddit.com/r/waterfox/comments/7m1pkq/waterfox_and_ecosia_privacy_concerns/">Waterfox and Ecosia — Privacy Concerns</a>`
Update 'articles/waterfox_classic.html' 2021-08-18 06:10:53 +03:00			`<a href="http://removeddit.com/r/waterfox/comments/7m1pkq/waterfox_and_ecosia_privacy_concerns/">[removeddit.com]</a>`
re-tested waterfox, waterfox now has two versions, did classic, updated and downsized the article 2020-12-28 09:03:34 +02:00			`<a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20180201210222/https://www.reddit.com/r/waterfox/comments/7m1pkq/waterfox_and_ecosia_privacy_concerns/">[web.archive.org]</a>`
validation! 2020-12-28 09:31:41 +02:00			`<a href="https://archive.is/smDw6">[archive.is]</a><br/>`
re-tested waterfox, waterfox now has two versions, did classic, updated and downsized the article 2020-12-28 09:03:34 +02:00			`</li>`
			`<li id="s3">`
			`<a href="https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/access-mozilla-services-firefox-accounts">Access Mozilla Services with Firefox Account</a>`
Update 'articles/waterfox_classic.html' 2021-08-18 06:10:53 +03:00			`<a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20150322103834/https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/access-mozilla-services-firefox-accounts">[web.archive.org]</a>`
validation! 2020-12-28 09:31:41 +02:00			`<a href="https://archive.li/oDcmj">[archive.li]</a><br/>`
re-tested waterfox, waterfox now has two versions, did classic, updated and downsized the article 2020-12-28 09:03:34 +02:00			`</li>`
			`<li id="s4">`
			`<a href="../images/waterfox_classic_spyware.png">All the requests made (mitmproxy)</a>`
			`</li>`
			`</ol>`
validation! 2020-12-28 09:31:41 +02:00			`</div>`
			`<hr/>`
re-tested waterfox, waterfox now has two versions, did classic, updated and downsized the article 2020-12-28 09:03:34 +02:00			`<p><b>`
			`<b>This article was created prior to 6/2/2018</b><br/>`
Changed the rating of Waterfox from High -> Medium. See #117 for more information. 2022-02-21 02:22:15 +02:00			`This article was last edited on 2/20/2022`
re-tested waterfox, waterfox now has two versions, did classic, updated and downsized the article 2020-12-28 09:03:34 +02:00			`</b></p>`
			`<p>`
			`If you want to edit this article, or contribute your own article(s), visit us at the git repo on <a href="https://codeberg.org/shadow/SpywareWatchdog">Codeberg</a>. All contributions must be licensed under the CC0 license to be accepted.`
			`</p>`
renamed license 2021-01-02 07:54:37 +02:00			`<a href="../LICENSE.txt"><img class="icon" src="../images/cc0.png" alt="CC0 License"/></a>`
re-tested waterfox, waterfox now has two versions, did classic, updated and downsized the article 2020-12-28 09:03:34 +02:00			`<p><a href="../articles/index.html">Back to catalog</a></p>`
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