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At our Russell Group UK university, we rely on the light sensor heavily, please could you not disable the light sensor, this will cause us severe problems

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  • Last reply by ggncl

ggncl
ggncl
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At our Russell Group UK university, we rely on the ambient light sensor heavily for research projects on visual perception, smart devices, etc, using mobile devices for quick and easy variable-location tests. We have been able to do this because Firefox on Android was the only browser to allow access to the light sensor, which is incredibly useful. Now we understand that you have privacy concerns and thus wish to disable the ambient light sensor API completely, but this will completely grind to a halt some of our methods while we redevelop alternatives. We distribute these to participants of psychophysical tests, who so far were simply able to install Firefox on Android and the web-loaded app would just work. We were under the impression that such APIs would become more widely available over time, including other platforms and operating systems, not the other way around where you would end up planning to remove an incredibly useful feature.

Please could you not disable the light sensor, surely there must be other ways, such as asking user permission for access just like you do with the cameras. Disabling the sensor API will be a gigantic step backwards, specially in the scientific community.

At our Russell Group UK university, we rely on the ambient light sensor heavily for research projects on visual perception, smart devices, etc, using mobile devices for quick and easy variable-location tests. We have been able to do this because Firefox on Android was the only browser to allow access to the light sensor, which is incredibly useful. Now we understand that you have privacy concerns and thus wish to disable the ambient light sensor API completely, but this will completely grind to a halt some of our methods while we redevelop alternatives. We distribute these to participants of psychophysical tests, who so far were simply able to install Firefox on Android and the web-loaded app would just work. We were under the impression that such APIs would become more widely available over time, including other platforms and operating systems, not the other way around where you would end up planning to remove an incredibly useful feature. Please could you not disable the light sensor, surely there must be other ways, such as asking user permission for access just like you do with the cameras. Disabling the sensor API will be a gigantic step backwards, specially in the scientific community.

Modified by ggncl

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AFAIK this will be disabled under a preference "device.sensors.ambientLight.enabled". You can reenable it by yourself. I don't know any plans of full removal in the future.

But it's good to inform devs directly about your concerns here => https://groups.google.com/forum/#!topic/mozilla.dev.platform/DcSi_wLG4fc/discussion

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All Replies (7)

TyDraniu
TyDraniu
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AFAIK this will be disabled under a preference "device.sensors.ambientLight.enabled". You can reenable it by yourself. I don't know any plans of full removal in the future.

But it's good to inform devs directly about your concerns here => https://groups.google.com/forum/#!topic/mozilla.dev.platform/DcSi_wLG4fc/discussion

ggncl
ggncl Question owner
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Thanks for the quick response. I have posted at the google groups link you provided.

I understand the availability of the setting under device.sensors.ambientLight.enabled, but these settings seem user-reachable on Firefox desktop, I cannot even find any device > sensors submenu on my Android Firefox.

Also, even if it were findable on Firefox mobile, needing to go deep into submenus is not something that will make end-usage very practical. Requesting user permission for sensor access would be the most straightforward and is what you already do for the cameras.

TyDraniu
TyDraniu
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Submenus? No, it's on the about:config page.

ggncl
ggncl Question owner
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Thanks for that. Searching about:config is easy enough.

As long as the light sensor feature is not completely removed as some sources suggest (even the google groups page is titled "Intent to remove Ambient Light and Proximity sensor APIs") we are relieved.

ggncl
ggncl Question owner
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(Brief add-on to previous: navigating about:config is not prohibitive, but nonetheless the easiest user experience would be a request for access permission, just like for the cameras. Just in case the topic comes up on your end.)

Paul
Paul
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Hello,

I am glad to hear that your problem has been resolved. If you haven't already, please select the answer that solves the problem. This will help other users with similar problems find the solution more easily.

Thank you for contacting Mozilla Support.

ggncl
ggncl Question owner
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Hello Seburo, and TyDraniu,

Thanks much for your quick and helpful responses. I will mark this thread as solved in order to indicate the relevant information has been acquired.

Our concerns will technically be at rest if/when the development team makes a final decision about whether (or not) to enable light sensors by default out-of-the-box and ask user permission for access instead, so for the moment it is still cause for worry. Accessibility to web-loaded tests will be severely limited with the about:config method - as you can imagine, most respondees will not want to have to open a page that has a long list of configuration options.

Nonetheless, the above support responses very much appreciated, so thank you again!