Firefox Community Forum

Hi all the people,

I was just surprised to see this in an Apache HTTP log: "Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 10.0; Win64; x64) AppleWebKit/537.36 (KHTML, like Gecko) Firefox/58.0.1"

This bugs me. My first guess would be that a Webkit based Firefox could not be qualified as really Firefox. Although that, I could imagine a Firefox for iOS or MacOS based on Webkit, may be, but it says it is on Windows, which makes less sense.

I suspect this is a user agent string spoofing, but I just need to be sure (I try to get ride of far too invasive bots, while I’m afraid to disrupt browsing from legitimate web users).

With thanks and my apologizes for such a question which may looks obvious or strange to people who know for sure.

A couple days ago when I opened Firefox, I immediately started getting pop up messages saying I had viruses. If I clicked on REMOVE VIRUS, it tried to get me to sign up with McAfee. I cannot see my full screen due to all the pop up screens. My MS Defender virus protection is not identifying any viruses.

I am just burned out with Firefox and not sure why I should continue to use it instead of some fork or Chromium-based browser.

It seems like every update brings some new GenAI/LLM component that is auto-enabled and difficult to disable. I do not want GenAI/LLMs in my web browser. I have dropped nearly every other application or software that has forced it on me and included it in their product. I feel like I'm trying manage a Windows system having to follow blogs to debloat, restore privacy, and restore security. GenAI/LLMs shouldn't be in my web browser. And, they should be opt-in, not opt-out in some confusing mix of GUI and about:config madness. If GenAI/LLM is so great, then make it an extension or a fork then let those folks use it from there. Don't bake it into the web browser.

I continue to use Firefox for uBlock Origin but I guess that would be possible with a Firefox-fork. However, I am just tired of having to continuously manage my Firefox browser and battle websites that only support Chromium-based browsers. If Firefox actually seemed intent on improving security and privacy then I could find the motivation but this GenAI/LLM nonsense seems the point of no return.

On my Android phone, I've switched to a Chromium-based browser given the poor state of security and hardening for the vanilla Firefox. I keep IronFox on hand but it is just easier to surf the web with a Chromium-based browser due to many websites just working better. Why should I deal with the pain and frustration of limited Firefox support when Firefox isn't even keeping up with security hardening?

As for desktop, the Firefox browser just doesn't seem as snappy or stable as I would expect. Firefox for Linux is still not supported for Slack Huddles. How is it 2026 and Mozilla/Firefox are still not fully functional with one of the major business chat platforms? Yes, I know this primarily a Slack and AWS-Chime-SDK problem but it is also a Firefox problem because there isn't much that a user can do. I've tried to prod Slack and the AWS teams numerous times to support Firefox but they've just done nothing. I also see nothing being done by the Firefox team, too.

Another example is the EdgeSuite CDN. Nearly always they block my traffic when I use Firefox. Switch to a Chromium-based browser and EdgeSuite is much less likely to block me. This is fairly consistent for the retail and financial institutions I use.

As far as I am aware, many of the security concerns brought up by Madaidan in 2022 still hold true for Firefox today, especially for Android and Linux. If this is no longer true, then it might be good for the Firefox team to post a rebuttal or update clarifying the current state of Firefox. The average users such as myself only see the Madaidan blog post and have to take it at face value. https://madaidans-insecurities.github.io/firefox-chromium.html

Anyway, I don't see a way ahead for me and Firefox but maybe you can convince me. It just seems like Firefox and Mozilla have lost their way. They no longer seem focused on security and privacy. Instead they're forcing privacy, security, and system resource disasters onto their userbases, just like Microsoft, Google, and every one of the major tech firms. I just don't see why I should use, promote, and even support Firefox going into 2026.

I was asked to 'Allow Chatgpt.com to store data in persistent storage'. Would that add on the risk of having my data being more exposed and kept by stakeholders not of my own choice?

I attempted to put in an address of what I thought was a website today on mozilla. I soon found out that it was not available or a proper website.

Now I am getting alarming notices with heading Mozilla Firefox all via what looks like an Indian website, saying 1. Click to secure your 2. Trojan detected Fix it now. 3. Critical Error. Click here to remove them.

I have not clicked on any part apart from the x top right to remove the notifications. I can send photos of them

I have scanned with my Windows Security repeatedly and nothing.

Max

PS. The messages are obstinate to remove and it takes effort to x them.

I have an old Mac desktop computer and use firefox as my browser. I go to hotmail and click on and up comes my inbox. I click on an item but nothing opens. then I get a message up top saying firefox prevented the opening of one or more pop up windows. I have changed my password with microsoft. That has not improved things.

I keep getting notification from firefox that I need to download mcafee that I have a virus I have all ready done a mcafee removal did no have it to start with can not use fire fox as it continues to give me the messages that wont stop i have turned off notifications but that isn't the answer I have malwarebytes and windows virus protection what now.

Pop-up blocker Inable please because of some of site setting pop-up blocked. Please open pop-up option in firefox browser site setting allowed.link text

Hi,

Why private window is the same as general window browse? It should be different, yesterday was different, when I created a new account, this new private window change it to the public window, are they any bugs? Can you fix it? Thanks.

Copilot is a virus effecting facebook, market place, openoffice, Firefox

   settings 

apps installed apps turn off copilot running in background turn off copilot run at startup uninstall is also an option I'm thinking of.