Re: Turning off extra Fedora-related traffic on Firefox?
Don Marti <[email protected]> Thu, 30 Jul 2026 07:38:31 -0700
| Newsgroups | gmane.linux.redhat.fedora.general |
|---|---|
| Message-ID | <[email protected]> |
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On 7/29/26 21:04, Tim via users wrote:
> On Wed, 2026-07-29 at 19:24 -0700, Don Marti wrote:
>> I'm working on some privacy research, and logging what DNS lookups get
>> made when a browser visits a site.
>>
>> Right now, I have the following list for Firefox on Fedora. The one site
>> I'm visiting is blog.zgp.org which has no 3rd-party resources on it. All
>> the rest of the DNS lookups are the browser and/or Fedora.
> Are you absolutely sure there's no external references? There's a
> javascript referenced at the bottom of the page that's too convoluted
> for me to consider looking through.
The big JS on that page is Pagefind for search - https://pagefind.app/
Similar results for the page - https://zgp.org/blank.html which has no
JS at all. I'll use that page for future testing.
> Though when I loaded that site, there was only the site domain name
> lookups logged by my DNS server.
Do you have `network.trr.mode` set to 5 (never use DoH)?
> Some time later, things in other tabs got noticed (quite why it
> repeatedly looks up my LAN domain name from a static page baffles me,
> once should be enough), and a couple that could be Firefox all by
> itself:
>
> push.services.mozilla.com
> firefox.settings.services.mozilla.com
>
> I don't use Firefox's login to their services option (that pocket
> stuff, networked bookmarks and profiles, etc), but it probably still
> pokes around. Mine does have the auto-updating check feature, since
> it's not the distro-supplied package.
>
> Hopefully for your test you only had a single browser window and no
> tabs.
Yes, this is with a freshly created profile directory every time.
>> (I also want to get some of the extra Firefox stuff turned off. It turns
>> out that setting "browser.newtab.preload" to false is turning off a
>> bunch of extra DNS lookups but there still seem to be some extras here.)
> Turning off a bunch of preview and preload features certainly helps,
> and telemetry, healthreports, crash reports, location finding, AI
> features, tab activity monitoring features, etc.
>
> I know in days of old, but not sure any more, that addresses in the
> bookmarks used get poked about for updates. That was before the days
> of RSS feeds, if I remember correctly. But you could try loading
> profile with no menu and toolbar bookmarks.
>
> You could look up "de-crapping Firefox" for other hints.
>
> It can take some effort to turn it back into just a browser, rather
> than an advertising tool.
>
Yes, there's no one big preference that controls all the ad features,
like there is for the "AI" features.
https://blog.zgp.org/how-to-remove-ads-from-firefox/
Is there any way to indicate to the Fedora-packaged Firefox not to do
all the Fedora-related lookups? Those aren't covered in the regular
Firefox docs.
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<p>On 7/29/26 21:04, Tim via users wrote:</p>
<blockquote type="cite"
cite="mid:[email protected]">
<pre wrap="" class="moz-quote-pre">On Wed, 2026-07-29 at 19:24 -0700, Don Marti wrote:
</pre>
<blockquote type="cite">
<pre wrap="" class="moz-quote-pre">I'm working on some privacy research, and logging what DNS lookups get
made when a browser visits a site.
Right now, I have the following list for Firefox on Fedora. The one site
I'm visiting is blog.zgp.org which has no 3rd-party resources on it. All
the rest of the DNS lookups are the browser and/or Fedora.
</pre>
</blockquote>
<pre wrap="" class="moz-quote-pre">
Are you absolutely sure there's no external references? There's a
javascript referenced at the bottom of the page that's too convoluted
for me to consider looking through.</pre>
</blockquote>
<p>The big JS on that page is Pagefind for search -
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="https://pagefind.app/">https://pagefind.app/</a></p>
<p>Similar results for the page - <a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="https://zgp.org/blank.html">https://zgp.org/blank.html</a> which
has no JS at all. I'll use that page for future testing.</p>
<p><span style="white-space: pre-wrap">
</span><span style="white-space: pre-wrap">
</span></p>
<blockquote type="cite"
cite="mid:[email protected]">
<pre wrap="" class="moz-quote-pre">Though when I loaded that site, there was only the site domain name
lookups logged by my DNS server.</pre>
</blockquote>
<p>Do you have `network.trr.mode` set to 5 (never use DoH)?</p>
<blockquote type="cite"
cite="mid:[email protected]">
<pre wrap="" class="moz-quote-pre">Some time later, things in other tabs got noticed (quite why it
repeatedly looks up my LAN domain name from a static page baffles me,
once should be enough), and a couple that could be Firefox all by
itself:
push.services.mozilla.com
firefox.settings.services.mozilla.com
I don't use Firefox's login to their services option (that pocket
stuff, networked bookmarks and profiles, etc), but it probably still
pokes around. Mine does have the auto-updating check feature, since
it's not the distro-supplied package.
Hopefully for your test you only had a single browser window and no
tabs.</pre>
</blockquote>
<p>Yes, this is with a freshly created profile directory every time.</p>
<blockquote type="cite"
cite="mid:[email protected]">
<blockquote type="cite">
<pre wrap="" class="moz-quote-pre">(I also want to get some of the extra Firefox stuff turned off. It turns
out that setting "browser.newtab.preload" to false is turning off a
bunch of extra DNS lookups but there still seem to be some extras here.)
</pre>
</blockquote>
<pre wrap="" class="moz-quote-pre">
Turning off a bunch of preview and preload features certainly helps,
and telemetry, healthreports, crash reports, location finding, AI
features, tab activity monitoring features, etc.
I know in days of old, but not sure any more, that addresses in the
bookmarks used get poked about for updates. That was before the days
of RSS feeds, if I remember correctly. But you could try loading
profile with no menu and toolbar bookmarks.
You could look up "de-crapping Firefox" for other hints.
It can take some effort to turn it back into just a browser, rather
than an advertising tool.
</pre>
</blockquote>
<p>Yes, there's no one big preference that controls all the ad
features, like there is for the "AI" features.
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="https://blog.zgp.org/how-to-remove-ads-from-firefox/">https://blog.zgp.org/how-to-remove-ads-from-firefox/</a></p>
<p>Is there any way to indicate to the Fedora-packaged Firefox not
to do all the Fedora-related lookups? Those aren't covered in the
regular Firefox docs.</p>
<p><br>
</p>
<p><br>
</p>
<p><br>
</p>
<p><br>
</p>
<p><br>
</p>
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