Pocket integration with firefox
I recently noticed a new pocket button in nightly, and I was wondering what this is. From bugzilla, it seems there is a project to integrate pocket with firefox, but I have a few questions about it:
- why is this being done/why is it replacing the (now unavailable) firefox reading list?
- Is mozilla being compensated by pocket or anyone else for this?
- Who stores the data: mozilla, pocket, or someone else?
- is there an option to disable this?
Thanks!
Modified
All Replies (7)
philipp said
...conveniently ignoring the mail address provided!
I apologise. I read it as a link to the legal notices on mozilla.com. I have tried the phone number. You need to know an extension. Thank you for the address! I thought that was only for licensing of the software.
And I have not attached “a request”. I added information to an identical question. I refer you to my post, which made me subject to numerous ad hominem attacks.
Rasmus said
Mozilla pushed this installation as an “update”, and disabling this third party spyware is not an acceptable solution. If it cannot be uninstalled, how can I
- roll back Firefox and
- be sure no information have been forwarded to a third party?
AliceWyman said
To Rasmus: This thread belongs to user293 - see Mozilla Support rules and guidelines under Posting support requests. You need to ask a new question if you are having problems disabling Pocket using the instructions in this thread, which includes:
- setting browser.pocket.enabled to "false" in about:config
- instructions in the Disable or re-enable Pocket for Firefox article.
To Alice: Your instructions do not work. Thus user293's precious question has not been answered. If you search the internet for it, you will find a lot of people like yourself, suggesting the disable-approach, which has no effect. E.g.: http://s18.postimg.org/3skd1fsad/Clipboard01.png
To Rasmus: The instructions in the Disable or re-enable Pocket for Firefox worked for me (on Windows 7) . If they don't work for you, and if you're interested in improving the Disable or re-enable Pocket for Firefox article, you can post a discussion thread in that article's own forum: https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/disable-pocket-firefox/discuss (read the "Background for this article" thread for more information)
To Rasmus:
P.S. If setting browser.pocket.enabled to "false" in about:config didn't work for you, try it again but this time restart Firefox. Needing to restart Firefox was mentioned in a related thread:
*/questions/1065081 Who put "view pocket list" on my bookmarks and how do I dump it??
... this is likely Bug 1170990 - Pocket cannot be disabled (in existing profiles) Quote from bug comment: In any case, the recommended way to disable Pocket is to simply remove the button, which should correctly remove the other integration points. It's simplest to re-enable the pref, and then remove it per https://support.mozilla.org/kb/disable-pocket-firefox
...and if you have other questions, please start your own thread!
Modified
Hi!
This forum is for support issues only, not debate :) so let's try to keep it that way. The community who is helping here is made of users just like you and can only answer technical issues (such as "How to disable Pocket"). They won't be able to help with legal matters nor answer questions such as "Why did Mozilla do x" as they have no power over those matters.
If you want to debate over why this happened or if you have concerns over the legality of such decisions there are better channels to use:
For SUMO contributors, if you have concerns related to Pocket, latest releases, product implementations etc or if some things are unclear the best place to discuss is the SUMO Community forum: https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/forums/contributors
Legal matters or debates around decision-making, Mozilla policies etc are probably best dealt with on the Governance list: https://www.mozilla.org/en-US/about/forums/#governance (Rasmus, you might want to check that out if you want to discuss Pocket decisions)
If you want to provide feedback around a Mozilla product and let Mozilla know that you're unhappy with a product or a feature (without debating about it) you should use https://input.mozilla.org/en-US/. There are people who read that I guarantee it!
As John99 correctly pointed out, these community support forums are for support issues. Discussion of product features/decisions do not constitute support issues. I am in the process of amending the support forum guidelines to make this more clear.
Additionally, support forum posts are meant for the original poster and contributors providing support only. Users with the same or related issues should open their own threads for help with the same or related issues. Hijacking other users' support threads is problematic for a number of reasons.
I am closing this thread, as the only valid technical question by the original poster (how to disable pocket) has been answered to the best of our current ability. I will be opening a bug to report the fact that the about:config method does not completely remove the Pocket integration. I believe this is a valid bug. Thank you, Rasmus for pointing out this legitimate issue.
Lastly, I am not a lawyer. But I will say that the Pocket integration is fully open source, non-proprietary, and is an integrated part of the Firefox code base (ie. it is not "third-party software"). As such it falls under the same licensing and privacy policy as the rest of Firefox. I do not believe it could reasonably be considered spyware in any sense of the word. Note that no Pocket software is ever installed on your computer. This Pocket integration is effectively no different from our existing search provider integrations in this regard.
For legal inquiries, our legal department can be reached at [email protected].
P.s. A big thank you to cor-el, jscher2000, John99, AliceWyman, and Philipp for your contributions on this thread.
Modified
So the correct instructions to disable Pocket are these:
Right-click the Pocket button and click "Remove From Toolbar" or "Remove From Menu" to disable Pocket and move the Pocket button to the Customize palette.
That will also remove the Pocket entries in the Bookmarks menu.
This only works if browser.pocket.enabled = true (see about:config), so if you have toggled this pref to false then you need to undo this action with a double-click on the line with this pref.
See also: