Firefox 62 with clear local sync data prompt on disconnect
Mozilla plans to roll out an improvement to the Firefox browser's Sync functionality; Firefox users will receive a prompt when they disconnect the browser profile from Firefox Sync that provides them with options to delete local sync data.
Firefox Sync is the built-in data synchronization feature of the Firefox web browser. Firefox users may use it to sync some browsing data such as passwords, bookmarks, or the browsing history to access the data on all instances of Firefox connected to the same sync account.
When you disconnect Firefox Sync on a device, nothing happens remotely or locally immediately. Firefox won't delete any local data that may have been synced with the device and remote data is not touched either.
While you can delete local data manually and remote Firefox data as well, it is up to you to do so.
The process changes with the release of Firefox 62 which Mozilla plans to release on September 5, 2018 to the Stable channel.
Starting with Firefox 62, Firefox will display a prompt to users when an existing Firefox Sync connection is disabled on the device.
Firefox displays a prompt to the user offering to remove data associated with Sync.
Do you also want to remove browser data on this computer? Your Firefox Sync data will remain in your account, regardless.
The dialog displays two options:
- Remove Firefox Sync Data -- this removes bookmarks, passwords, the browsing history and other data that is supported by Firefox Sync.
- Remove Other Private Data -- this removes data such as cookies, the web cache, or offline website data.
You can check one, both, or none of the options. If you don't want any data to be removed hit the "just disconnect" button without checking any of the boxes displayed to you.
Note that remote data is not touched by the new feature. If you want to remove remote data, you need to do so on your Firefox Account page.
Why is Mozilla making the change?
Mozilla revealed on the official bug listing on Bugzilla@Mozilla that "many users believe that their data will delete from the browser" when they disconnect Firefox Sync.
The new prompt gives users the option to remove the data should they want to do so. Firefox users who want to delete remote data only can't do that easily, however. Probably the easiest option to remove synced data on Mozilla servers is to delete the entire Firefox account.
You can disable Sync entirely in Firefox as well, or configure two-factor authentication for that extra bit of security. (via Sören)
Now You: Do you use sync functionality that browsers support?
about:config
webextensions.storage.sync.enabled
false
Problem solved.
“Mozilla revealed on the official bug listing on Bugzilla@Mozilla that “many users believe that their data will delete from the browser” when they disconnect Firefox Sync.”
Well, what about the many users that believe their data will delete from the PC when they uninstall the browser ?
Anyone remember when Firefox would ask you if you wanted to uninstall just the browser or the browser AND the data ?
Sync is a great feature. I use it to sync everything, so all my PCs are the same. I always did wonder what happens to the data when you uninstall/disconnect FF/sync. I would always delete the entire profile folder from my PC when moving to a new PC just to be sure, but this is a great way to clean it all up.
I don’t use Firefox sync functionality, never have. Luckily Firefox 60+ offers to disable it totally throughout it’s new Policy Templates (https://github.com/mozilla/policy-templates) :
“policies”: {“DisableFirefoxAccounts”: true}
which I did, as well as a few other settings which are not accessible via Firefox’s Autoconfig settings (https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/customizing-firefox-using-autoconfig)
—
Otherwise I’d certainly appreciate this new Firefox 62+ ‘clear local sync data prompt on disconnect’ announced feature.
Doesn’t Chrome do this already?
I don’t know, Google’s Support page does not mention it: https://support.google.com/chrome/answer/185277?co=GENIE.Platform%3DDesktop&hl=en
I welcome the direction of Firefox.
Currently, I use Quantum (which implements Beta, Developer-Edition) and Vivaldi (Stable channel, 64-bit) together, but SeaMonkey, Brave and Iridium are also implemented as other sub. Because you are using iPad, you need a synchronization function.
However, since the synchronization function of the device has uncertainty about risk such as unexpected data loss and privacy leakage, I can not trust it.
Therefore, I use “cloud storage service” SpiderOak “and” Box “.