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Service worker permissions

  • 3 replies
  • 1 has this problem
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  • Last reply by inetknght

inetknght
inetknght

I found the page "about:debugging#workers"

Inside, I found that there were many sites which had installed "service workers". Many of the sites which had them installed were sites which I do not recall visiting and/or do not wish to permit to keep or store anything on my machine.

I removed most of them. Several of the ones which remained weren't running despite me currently using the site associated with them.

More to the point: how do I have Firefox ask for permission for a site to install a service worker? I poked around "about:config" and noticed that there's overall settings to enable/disable service workers but I don't see anything about per-site configuration. This seems like a significantly overlooked privacy issue.

I found the page "about:debugging#workers" Inside, I found that there were many sites which had installed "service workers". Many of the sites which had them installed were sites which I do not recall visiting and/or do not wish to permit to keep or store anything on my machine. I removed most of them. Several of the ones which remained weren't running despite me currently using the site associated with them. More to the point: how do I have Firefox ask for permission for a site to install a service worker? I poked around "about:config" and noticed that there's overall settings to enable/disable service workers but I don't see anything about per-site configuration. This seems like a significantly overlooked privacy issue.

Chosen solution

There is also the about:serviceworkers page that shows more detail. I'm not aware to always show a confirmation when a website want to register a worker. In most cases a worker is only active when you have a page open. For a push notification you need to grant permission.

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All Replies (3)

FredMcD
FredMcD

I found this; https://www.ghacks.net/2016/03/02/manage-service-workers-in-firefox-and-chrome/ Manage Service Workers in Firefox and Chrome - gHacks Tech News

cor-el
cor-el
  • Moderator

Chosen Solution

There is also the about:serviceworkers page that shows more detail. I'm not aware to always show a confirmation when a website want to register a worker. In most cases a worker is only active when you have a page open. For a push notification you need to grant permission.

inetknght
inetknght Question owner

The about:serviceworkers page is different indeed. It does not appear to tell me whether or not a service worker is running, while about:debugging#workers does.

The https://www.ghacks.net/2016/03/02/manage-service-workers-in-firefox-and-chrome/ page appears to be from 2016. Are you trying to tell me that service workers have been around for years and we still do not have privacy controls around them? I thought Firefox wanted to adopt privacy best practices?!