Firefox 128 disable Privacy-Preserving Attribution for Advertising

Firefox 128 has a new feature called Privacy-Preserving Attribution or ppa for short
enabled by default without an option in the settings to turn it off

however it can be disabled using about:config or a user.js file in your Firefox profile



For the last few months we have been working with a team from Meta (formerly Facebook) on a new proposal that aims to enable conversion measurement – or attribution – for advertising called Interoperable Private Attribution, or IPA.

IPA aims to provide advertisers with the ability to perform attribution while providing strong privacy guarantees. IPA has two key privacy-preserving features. First, it uses Multi-Party Computation (MPC) to avoid allowing any single entity — websites, browser makers, or advertisers — to learn about user behavior. Mozilla has some experience with MPC systems as we’ve deployed Prio for privacy-preserving telemetry. Second, it is an aggregated system, which means that it produces results that cannot be linked to individual users. Together these features mean that IPA cannot be used to track or profile users.

20240802_15h08m54s_grim.png


Heres how to disable it in Firefox 128

method 1 - about:config

Open about:config in the Firefox urlbar ( or whatever you call it )

Code:
about:config

paste in the following code in the about:config search

Code:
dom.private-attribution.submission.enabled

by default it will say true,
double click true and it will toggle to false

20240802_15h10m17s_grim.png


method 2 - user.js

open about:support in the urlbar

Code:
about:support

and you will see the location of your profile directory and a button to open the directory in your file browser

20240802_15h27m16s_grim.png


create a user.js file in your firefox profile directory with the following content

Code:
user_pref("dom.private-attribution.submission.enabled", false);

restart firefox and open about:config

Code:
about:config

paste in the following code in the about:config search

Code:
dom.private-attribution.submission.enabled

and you will see its now set to false
however if you look in the firefox settings page you will notice there is no change shown in the gui

its a bit confusing because the checkbox is unchecked by default
which makes you think its not enabled

clicking in the checkbox doesnt do anything
thats why you have to use about:config or a user.js file

i would recommend using a user.js file as it keeps track of all your settings
and can be transferred to another computers firefox profile directory to apply all the same settings

much easier than pasting stuff into about:config

my user.js file

Code:
// ** Theme Related Options ****************************************************
// userchrome.css usercontent.css activate
user_pref("toolkit.legacyUserProfileCustomizations.stylesheets", true);

// beacon = false
user_pref("beacon.enabled", false);
// about config warning = false
user_pref("browser.aboutConfig.showWarning", false);
// strictcontent blocking
user_pref("browser.contentblocking.category", "strict");
// download dont open panel in toolbar
user_pref("browser.download.alwaysOpenPanel", false);
// downloads button
user_pref("browser.engagement.downloads-button.has-used", true);
// tab manager = false
user_pref("browser.tabs.tabmanager.enabled", false);
// safebrowsing = false
user_pref("browser.safebrowsing.appRepURL", "");
user_pref("browser.safebrowsing.malware.enabled", false);
// browser search
user_pref("browser.search.hiddenOneOffs", "Google,Yahoo,Bing,Amazon.com,Twitter");
// browser search suggest = false
user_pref("browser.search.suggest.enabled", true);
// search bar in toolbar
user_pref("browser.search.widget.inNavBar", true);
// browser send pings = false
user_pref("browser.send_pings", false);
// homepage blank
user_pref("browser.startup.homepage", "about:blank");
// startup page
user_pref("browser.startup.page", "3");
// startup homepage = blank
user_pref("browser.startup.homepage", "about:blank");
// tabs firefox view = false
user_pref("browser.tabs.firefox-view", false);
// tabmanager = false
user_pref("browser.tabs.tabmanager.enabled", false);
// newtab = false
user_pref("browser.newtabpage.enabled", false);
// activity stream
user_pref("browser.newtabpage.activity-stream.showSeach", false);
user_pref("browser.newtabpage.activity-stream.showSponsored", false);
user_pref("browser.newtabpage.activity-stream.showSponsoredTopSites", false);
user_pref("browser.newtabpage.activity-stream.feeds.topsites", false);
// bookmarks toolbar visibility = never
user_pref("browser.toolbars.bookmarks.visibility", "never");
// browser ui density
user_pref("browser.uidensity", "1");
// urlbar speculativeconnect = false
user_pref("browser.urlbar.speculativeConnect.enabled", false);
// urlbar bookmarks = false
user_pref("browser.urlbar.shortcuts.bookmarks", false);
// urlbar history = false
user_pref("browser.urlbar.shortcuts.history", false);
// urlbar shortcuts tabs = false
user_pref("browser.urlbar.shortcuts.tabs", false);
// urlbar show search suggestions first = false
user_pref("browser.urlbar.showSearchSuggestionsFirst", false);
// urlbar suggest bookmarks = false
user_pref("browser.urlbar.suggest.bookmark", false);
// urlbar suggest engines = false
user_pref("browser.urlbar.suggest.engines", false);
// urlbar suggest history = false
user_pref("browser.urlbar.suggest.history", false);
// urlbar suggest open page = false
user_pref("browser.urlbar.suggest.openpage", false);
// urlbar suggest searches = false
user_pref("browser.urlbar.suggest.searches", false);
// urlbar suggest topsites = false
user_pref("browser.urlbar.suggest.topsites", false);
// firefox healthreport upload = false
user_pref("datareporting.healthreport.uploadEnabled", false);
// dont let sites disable copy and paste
user_pref("dom.event.clipboardevents.enabled", false);
// https mode = true
user_pref("dom.security.https_only_mode", true);
// experiments = false
user_pref("experiments.activeExperiment", false);
user_pref("experiments.enabled", false);
user_pref("experiments.supported", false);
// remove unifiedextensions
user_pref("extensions.unifiedExtensions.enabled", false);
// pocket show on home screen = false
user_pref("extensions.pocket.enabled", false);
user_pref("extensions.pocket.showHome", false);
user_pref("extensions.pocket.onSaveRecs", false);
user_pref("services.sync.prefs.sync.browser.newtabpage.activity-stream.section.highlights.includePocket", false);
user_pref("browser.newtabpage.activity-stream.section.highlights.includePocket", false);
// creditcards autofill = false
user_pref("extensions.formautofill.creditCards.available", false);
// smoothscroll = false
user_pref("general.smoothScroll", false);
// geo = false
user_pref("geo.enabled", false);
// general
user_pref("gfx.webrender.all", true);
user_pref("layout.css.devPixelsPerPx", "1");
// media autoplay = 5
user_pref("media.autoplay.default", "5");
user_pref("media.navigator.enabled", false);
user_pref("media.video_stats.enabled", false);
// show punycode in the urlbar
user_pref("network.IDN_show_punycode", true);
// network
user_pref("network.allow-experiments", false);
user_pref("network.dns.disablePrefetch", true);
user_pref("network.http.referer.XOriginPolicy", "2");
user_pref("network.http.referer.XOriginTrimmingPolicy", "2");
user_pref("network.http.referer.trimmingPolicy", "1");
user_pref("network.prefetch-next", false);
// magnet links
user_pref("network.protocol-handler.expose.magnet", false);
// default shortcuts
user_pref("permissions.default.shortcuts", "2");
// privacy dont track = true
user_pref("privacy.donottrackheader.enabled", true);
user_pref("privacy.donottrackheader.value", "1");
user_pref("privacy.firstparty.isolate", true);
user_pref("signon.rememberSignons", false);
// disable firefox vpn ad
user_pref("browser.vpn_promo.enabled", false);
// custom google search
user_pref("browser.urlbar.update2.engineAliasRefresh", true);
// freebsd use sndio audio instead of pulse audio
user_pref("media.cubeb.backend", "oss");
// disable privacy-preserving attribution
user_pref("dom.private-attribution.submission.enabled", false);
 
Firefox 128 has a new feature called Privacy-Preserving Attribution or ppa for short
enabled by default without an option in the settings to turn it off
Is contradicted by
however if you look in the firefox settings page you will notice there is no change shown in the gui

its a bit confusing because the checkbox is unchecked by default
which makes you think its not enabled

clicking in the checkbox doesnt do anything
thats why you have to use about:config or a user.js file
The settings location is "Settings>Privacy & Security>Website Advertizing Preferences". Clicking it does toggle the state of the about:config mentioned setting which should immediately reflect the change; this could be a third (or the first) method to adjust it. If it is not changing for you then I'd guess the GUI+about:config probably breaks with a user.js forcing the setting or things have changed on a version other than firefox-128.0_1,2 that I just tested this on.

I really should get around to starting up my own user.js since the first thing I do on a Firefox install is start overriding several defaults.

I know the porters have plenty more on their plate, but I love when the porters integrate such fixes by default. Giving users a choice of every tweakable on a port's config options would be silly quick but series of such settings could be offered as an option 'privacy overrides' if there are people who both want it tweaked and untweaked instead of one default for everyone.
 
… The settings location is "Settings>Privacy & Security>Website Advertizing Preferences". Clicking it …

For me, it can not be clicked.

I'll retry with 129.0_1,2 or greater.

Code:
% pkg iinfo firefox
firefox-128.0.3,2
% uname -aKU
FreeBSD mowa219-gjp4-zbook-freebsd 15.0-CURRENT FreeBSD 15.0-CURRENT main-n271559-c1287a3bb1b7 GENERIC-NODEBUG amd64 1500023 1500023
%
 

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for me the Website Advertizing Preferences checkbox couldnt be selected

with the default in about config

Code:
dom.private-attribution.submission.enabled true

or after changing the setting to false using about:config
or after adding the setting to my user.js

saying that
both these articles show the checkbox checked


box2.png



box1.png
 
Unclickable makes the workarounds or a direct port patch even more important. I'm sure my first touch on it was also done through clicking to disable it once I learned of it.
 
… first touch on it was also done through clicking to disable …

It's already disabled (without clicking).

I found dom.origin-trials.private-attribution.state set to 0 (zero) by default. Non-default 1 did not allow me to use the GUI to participate in the experiment.

Telemetry is disabled; toolkit.telemetry.enabled can not be enabled – www/firefox is Tier-3.
 
Mine was active by default and I disabled it myself. This was on a system + profile that has been through many upgrades instead of being setup on or near v128. Kind of wondering if an addon or old profile debris (mozilla seems reluctant to cleanup after itself as things change) is related.
 
My advertising preferences was active (=checked) in the standard GUI privacy settings when they added the feature and I was able to click to disable it.
Same for me, I would guess it was a matter of regular update.

For those that update less frequently, they may directly upgrade to a version that have the gui disabled for the specific option.
 
On FreeBSD?

Is your toolkit.telemetry.enabled not locked to false in www/firefox?

> uname -mv
FreeBSD 14.1-STABLE stable/14-n268081-e729e750806d GENERIC amd64
> pkg info |grep firefox
firefox-128.0_1,2 Web browser based on the browser portion of Mozilla

about:config toolkit.telemetry.enabled is locked to false on this same setup.
 
My advertising preferences was active (=checked) in the standard GUI privacy settings …

OK, it's most likely that you worked with a version that preceded the fix for bug 1908312, where DAP submission was disabled (contrary to what you saw in the GUI).

1909735 was opened after 1908312 was closed.
 
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