re-tested waterfox, waterfox now has two versions, did classic, updated and downsized the article
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<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd">
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<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" lang="en" xml:lang="en">
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<head>
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<meta
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http-equiv="Content-type"
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content="application/xhtml+xml;charset=utf-8"
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/>
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<meta http-equiv="Content-type" content="application/xhtml+xml;charset=utf-8"/>
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<title>[Program/Service Name Here] — Spyware Watchdog</title>
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<link rel="stylesheet" href="../style.css" />
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</head>
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<body>
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<div class="case">
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<div class="nav"><a href="index.html">← Catalog</a></div>
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@ -29,7 +25,7 @@
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>.
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</p>
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</div>
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<hr />
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<hr/>
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<div class="footer">
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<div class="futher">
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<h4>Further Reading:</h4>
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@ -39,7 +35,7 @@
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<a href="">[archive.is]</a>
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</ol>
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</div>
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<hr />
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<hr/>
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<div class="sources">
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<h4>Sources:</h4>
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<ol>
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</li>
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</ol>
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<hr />
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<b>This article was created on mm/dd/yyyy</b><br />
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<hr/>
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<b>This article was created on mm/dd/yyyy</b><br/>
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<b>This article was last edited on mm/dd/yyyy</b>
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<!--Dont change-->
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<p>
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<a href="../articles/vivaldi.html">Vivaldi</a><br></br>
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<a href="../articles/explorer.html">Internet Explorer</a><br></br>
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<a href="../articles/dissenter.html">Dissenter</a><br></br>
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<a href="../articles/waterfox.html">Waterfox</a><br></br>
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<a href="../articles/waterfox_classic.html">Waterfox Classic</a><br></br>
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<a href="../articles/brave.html">Brave</a><br></br>
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<a href="../articles/palemoon.html">Pale Moon</a>
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<a href="../guides/palemoon.html">[Mitigation Guide]</a><br></br>
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@ -1,149 +0,0 @@
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<!--Old Style-->
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<!DOCTYPE HTML>
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<html lang=”en-us”>
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<head>
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<link rel="stylesheet" href="../style.css">
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<meta charset="UTF-8">
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<title>Waterfox — Spyware Watchdog</title>
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</head>
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<body>
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<img src="../images/waterfox_logo.png" alt="Waterfox Logo">
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<h1>Waterfox</h1>
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<p>
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Waterfox is a web browser that is a fork of <a href="../articles/firefox.html">Firefox</a>.
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</p>
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<h2>Spyware Level: <font color=orange>High</font></h2>
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<p>
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Waterfox is a fork of Firefox that claims to be more private and secure
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than Firefox. However, Waterfox contains telemetry and shares
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information about you with Mozilla, and has other spyware features.
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</p>
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<h3>Waterfox connects to spyware services when it is first run</h3>
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<p>
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If you start up Waterfox for the first time, it will make <b><font color="red">109 requests</font></b><sup><a href="#5">[5]</a></sup> to several spyware platforms, most notably
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Google Analytics, and Mozilla online services like its Geolocation service, and several other Mozilla services, as
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well as Waterfox's own update service. You can look at a list of these requests
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<a href="../images/wfox.png">here</a> or on a mirror <a href="https://digdeeper.neocities.org/images/wfox.png">here</a>.
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</p>
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<h3>Waterfox has a communication problem</h3>
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<p>
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There has been some controversy over Waterfox's privacy policy<sup><a href="#1">[1]</a></sup>.
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At the time of writing, it claims that Waterfox sends "Webpage data
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to Google's SafeBrowsing service," meaning that at one point, both Google
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and Waterfox were spying on all of your internet activity. However,
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according to this reddit thread<sup><a href="#2">[2]</a></sup>,
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this is no longer true: therefore, Waterfox's privacy policy does not
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necessarily reflect what information the browser currently collects.
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The lack of detail and clarity in the privacy policy is also very
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concerning. For example, in the abovementioned section titled "Webpage
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data to Google's SafeBrowsing service," there are links to a Firefox
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Knowledge Base article and Google's privacy policy, neither of which
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actually explain what data is sent by Waterfox to Google. If this were
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still accurate, it would have some serious privacy implications (and
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would certainly bump up the spyware rating of this program). An
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inaccurate and outdated privacy policy — i.e. one that does not
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correctly explain what information is being shared — is
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a <font color="red"><b>serious red flag</b></font> for any privacy-conscious user.
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</p>
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<h3>Waterfox "phones home" with information about your computer whenever you start it up</h3>
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<p>
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According to its privacy policy<sup><a href="#1">[1]</a></sup>, Waterfox collects the following information by default:
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</p>
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<ul>
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<li>Waterfox version</li>
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<li>Operating system</li>
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<li>Language settings</li>
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<li>Installed Waterfox Add-ons</li>
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</ul>
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<p>
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Waterfox shares this information with Mozilla and will collect this information every time you launch Waterfox.
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</p>
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<h3>Waterfox offers spyware search engines to its users and uses Bing as its default search engine</h3>
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<p>
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By default Waterfox is using the spyware search engine <a href="../articles/bing.html">Bing</a>.
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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,
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which also logs your internet searches, and Ecosia, which also logs your internet searches (but it gives them to Bing). Luckily there are some more private search engines offered,
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like StartPage and DuckDuckGo. What is concerning is the attitude that the developer of Waterfox has towards these spyware search engines:
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</p>
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<p>
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<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="#3">[3]</a></sup>
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</p>
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<p>
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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.
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</p>
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<h3>Waterfox sends all website notifications through Mozilla's servers</h3>
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<p>
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If you enable notifications on a website, all of those messages will
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be sent through Mozilla's servers. According to Waterfox's privacy policy<sup><a href="#1">[1]</a></sup>,
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Mozilla cannot see the content of said messages. However, Mozilla will
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receive the following information:
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</p>
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<ul>
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<li>Number of Waterfox subscriptions and unsubscriptions to website notifications</li>
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<li>Number of messages sent</li>
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<li>Timestamps</li>
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<li>Senders (which may include specific website providers)</li>
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</ul>
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<p>
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So, Mozilla can see who is sending notifications, when these notifications
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are being sent, how many notifications are sent, and how many websites you
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have enabled notifications on. Waterfox collects all of the above, and
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additionally sees your IP address for each notification sent.
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</p>
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<h3>Waterfox is integrated into the "Firefox Accounts" spyware platform</h3>
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<p>
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The "Firefox Accounts" platform allows you to sync a lot of sensitive
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information, such as your internet history, across all of your devices.
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This is, of course, all being stored on Mozilla's servers.<sup><a href="#4">[4]</a></sup>
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This feature
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is opt-in spyware, but it should still be mentioned.
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If you don't want your internet history to be uploaded to Mozilla servers,
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don't use this feature.
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</p>
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<h3>Waterfox is self updating software</h3>
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<p>
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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
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where the user can understand what they are giving up when they download the update.
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</p>
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<hr>
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<center>
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<h2>Sources</h2>
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<p>
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<a name="1">1.</a>
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<a href="https://www.waterfoxproject.org/en-US/privacy/waterfox/">Improve security for users everywhere</a>
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<a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20180411175752/https://www.waterfoxproject.org/en-US/privacy/waterfox/">[web.archive.org]</a>
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<a href="https://archive.li/ONrR3">[archive.li]</a><br>
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<a name="2">2.</a>
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<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>
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<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>
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<a href="https://archive.li/omeK3">[archive.li]</a><br>
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<a name="3">3.</a>
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<a href="http://www.reddit.com/r/waterfox/comments/7m1pkq/waterfox_and_ecosia_privacy_concerns/">Waterfox and Ecosia — Privacy Concerns</a>
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<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>
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<a href="https://archive.is/smDw6">[archive.is]</a><br>
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<a name="4">4.</a>
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<a href="https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/access-mozilla-services-firefox-accounts">Access Mozilla Services with Firefox Account</a>
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<a href="https://archive.li/oDcmj">[archive.li]</a><br>
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<a name="5">5.</a>
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<a href="https://digdeeper.neocities.org/ghost/browsers.html">How to choose a browser for everyday use?</a>
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<a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20180607023304/https://digdeeper.neocities.org/browsers.html">[web.archive.org]</a>
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<a href="http://archive.is/HVj9I">[archive.is]</a><br>
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</p>
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<hr>
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<p><b>
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This article was last edited on 6/2/2018
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</b></p>
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<p>
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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.
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</p>
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<a href="https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/legalcode"><img class="icon" src="../images/cc0.png" alt="CC0 License"></a>
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<p><a href="../articles/index.html">Back to catalog</a></p>
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</center>
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</body>
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</html>
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<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd">
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<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" lang="en" xml:lang="en">
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<head>
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<meta http-equiv="Content-type" content="application/xhtml+xml;charset=utf-8"/>
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<title>Waterfox Classic — Spyware Watchdog</title>
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<link rel="stylesheet" href="../style.css" />
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</head>
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<body>
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<div class="case">
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<div class="nav"><a href="index.html">← Catalog</a></div>
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<div class="main">
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<img src="../images/waterfox_logo.png" alt="Waterfox Logo">
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<h1>Waterfox Classic</h1>
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<p>Version tested was 2020.10.</p>
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<p>
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Waterfox is a web browser that is a fork of <a href="../articles/firefox.html">Firefox</a>.
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</p>
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<h2>Spyware Level: <font color=orange>High</font></h2>
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<p>
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Waterfox is a fork of Firefox that claims to be more private and secure
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than Firefox. However, Waterfox contains telemetry and shares
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information about you with Mozilla, and has other spyware features.
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</p>
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<h3>Waterfox connects to spyware services when it is first run</h3>
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<p>
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If you start up Waterfox for the first time, it will make <b><font color="red">55 requests</font></b><sup><a href="#s4">[4]</a></sup> to several spyware platforms, notably
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Matomo, and Mozilla online services like its Geolocation service, and several other Mozilla services, as
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well as Waterfox's own update service. You can look at a list of these requests
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<a href="../images/waterfox_classic_spyware.png">here</a>.
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</p>
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<h3>Waterfox offers spyware search engines to its users and uses Bing as its default search engine</h3>
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<p>
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By default Waterfox is using the spyware search engine <a href="../articles/bing.html">Bing</a>.
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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,
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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:
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</p>
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<p>
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<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>
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</p>
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<p>
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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.
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</p>
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<h3>Waterfox is integrated into the "Firefox Accounts" spyware platform</h3>
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<p>
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The "Firefox Accounts" platform allows you to sync a lot of sensitive
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information, such as your internet history, across all of your devices.
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This is, of course, all being stored on Mozilla's servers.<sup><a href="#s3">[3]</a></sup>
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This feature
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is opt-in spyware, but it should still be mentioned.
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If you don't want your internet history to be uploaded to Mozilla servers,
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don't use this feature.
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</p>
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<h3>Waterfox is self updating software</h3>
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<p>
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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
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where the user can understand what they are giving up when they download the update.
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</p>
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<hr/>
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<center>
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<p>
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<div class="footer">
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<div class="futher">
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<h4>Further Reading:</h4>
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<ol>
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<a href="https://www.waterfox.net/privacy">https://www.waterfox.net/privacy</a>
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<a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20201228044209/https://www.waterfox.net/privacy">[web.archive.org]</a>
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</ol>
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<ol>
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<a href="https://www.waterfox.net/legal/">https://www.waterfox.net/legal</a>
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<a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20201228044236/https://www.waterfox.net/legal">[web.archive.org]</a>
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</ol>
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</div>
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<hr/>
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<div class="sources">
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<h4>Sources:</h4>
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<ol>
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<li id="s1">
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<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>
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<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>
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<a href="https://archive.li/omeK3">[archive.li]</a><br>
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</li>
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<li id="s2">
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<a href="http://old.reddit.com/r/waterfox/comments/7m1pkq/waterfox_and_ecosia_privacy_concerns/">Waterfox and Ecosia — Privacy Concerns</a>
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<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>
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<a href="https://archive.is/smDw6">[archive.is]</a><br>
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</li>
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<li id="s3">
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<a href="https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/access-mozilla-services-firefox-accounts">Access Mozilla Services with Firefox Account</a>
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<a href="https://archive.li/oDcmj">[archive.li]</a><br>
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</li>
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<li id="s4">
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<a href="../images/waterfox_classic_spyware.png">All the requests made (mitmproxy)</a>
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</li>
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</ol>
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</div>
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<hr>
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<p><b>
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||||
<b>This article was created prior to 6/2/2018</b><br/>
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This article was last edited on 12/27/2020
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</b></p>
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||||
<p>
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||||
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.
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||||
</p>
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||||
<a href="https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/legalcode"><img class="icon" src="../images/cc0.png" alt="CC0 License"></a>
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||||
<p><a href="../articles/index.html">Back to catalog</a></p>
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||||
</center>
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||||
</div>
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||||
</div>
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||||
</body>
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</html>
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