Firefox uses Google geo API by default | Hacker News Reader

Firefox uses Google geo API by default

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38 pointsricardo8111 comments

Well, apparently only if the user turned off location services in the operating system because he doesn’t want to be tracked. So not by default, even worse.

A bit of extra context from looking at blame:

* It seems Google Location Services has been the default location provider since a long long time ago (probably since before the Mozilla service existed).

* It seems like Firefox uses system APIs (and only then falls back to GLS): https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1512161

* It seems at one point the plan was to switch to MLS completely, but was reverted before hitting release: https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1216662

* And it seems currently Firefox is using MLS on Early Beta / Nightly, and comparing results to GLS: https://searchfox.org/mozilla-central/rev/d6d8ea296d3560615f... / https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1637402

Maybe only official builds are allowed to use MLS. Let's wait on someone more knowledgeable to chime in.

I don’t understand, so Mozilla actually has their own API for this, but uses Google’s? How does that make any sense?

Maybe in some regions they don't think the quality of their data is good enough?

There are many possible explanations that can be reasonable depending on what you value the most.

Mozilla have certainly lost some respect from me over this one!

Mozilla is no better than Facebook anymore. Different side of same coin.

They're not even interested in moving the web forward instead crying at Google for increasing the capabilities of the web browser instead improving Firefox. Users like chrome. I like chrome. There's no reason to use Firefox except for the ideological one. It's the inferior browser. People expect more from the web, but they (Mozilla) dont want to meet the modern expectations of what a browser should be.

Firefox is a dead horse now.

>There's no reason to use Firefox except for the ideological one.

That’s a pretty emphatic statement. I use Firefox’s Tab containers extensively and haven’t found a good analog in chromium based browsers. Can you recommend an extension or addon that provides this functionality?

The API for this should come up in next few months. Besides cookies/storage/other state mediums can be compartmentalized even now atleast theoretically with an extension.

The colored tab border isn't possible yet in chromium, and there's hope that the API will come up for this.

I have a major reason for using Firefox: Containers. They might be a niche feature but they are beyond essential for me. I'll be using Firefox until someone rips it out of my cold, dead hands.

Yes, I'm switching to Google Chrome. That will show them how much I care about privacy!

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