Is Mozilla monitoring your computer (with the browser closed) in the background?
I noticed a wierd popup when opening mozilla. It said "you're always starting mozilla when starting the pc". How and why does an internet browser have to have any information regarding when I boot my PC? What else does mozilla look at outside the browser environment?
If they claim it's needed for performance: Illogical, boot times have nothing to do with the internet browser. If referring to general performance then you can't possibly track and tailor every new piece of hardware that enters the market. Instead you make your browser with prerequisites that you yourself control (eg. install vcredist for this browser to work or something like that).
Why then is Mozilla monitoring my computer when the browser isn't even open or running?
All Replies (4)
marmend93, is this a Windows / OS notification or a Firefox notification?
If it is a Firefox pop-up, then if you go to Tools menu / Settings and search for: "Open Firefox automatically when your computer starts up" is it checked?
If it is, then the pop-up might be referring to this setting?
As mentioned, you can check in Firefox Settings to see if this is a Firefox feature:
- Click the menu button
and select Settings.
- In the General panel, locate the Open Firefox automatically when your computer starts up option.
See Open Firefox automatically when you start your computer for more information.
TechHorse said
marmend93, is this a Windows / OS notification or a Firefox notification? If it is a Firefox pop-up, then if you go to Tools menu / Settings and search for: "Open Firefox automatically when your computer starts up" is it checked? If it is, then the pop-up might be referring to this setting?
No this is a notification I got when opening mozilla (just after booting). And no the setting is not enabled and it's not the issue. The issue is that the browser has information it shouldn't have.
AliceWyman said
As mentioned, you can check in Firefox Settings to see if this is a Firefox feature:See Open Firefox automatically when you start your computer for more information.
- Click the menu button
- In the General panel, locate the Open Firefox automatically when your computer starts up option.
Thank you, I'm well aware of the setting and how to check/uncheck it. That's not the issue. The issue here is that mozilla knows that I start the browser just after booting. The nature of the notification was like this: "Since you're always starting mozilla after boot, why don't you enable this setting to always do so automatically?"
The issue is that the browser knows I start it after booting. How and why does it know that?
I do not know the precise method that Firefox uses, but it would not be difficult to query the OS to find the system start-up time, and then compare this to the current time, as Firefox starts.
Firefox might query this information precisely in order to recommend the auto-start setting to users who manually launch Firefox close to OS start-up, but who may be unaware of this option?
If you go to Help menu / More Troubleshooting Information and look at the "Application Basics" section, then you can see several pieces of information that Firefox must have queried the OS to obtain. Including the OS, Disk Space Available etc.
None of this requires Firefox to be "monitoring your computer (with the browser closed) in the background". This is all just freely accessible information that can be queried at Firefox launch?
But if anyone else reading this knows more they can post it here.
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