Firefox & privacy?

[billyellis]

After many, many suggestions to do so, I have switched over to FF from IE. My question is this: are there privacy concerns with FF the way there have always been with IE?

Microsoft has long been known to quietly collect information on your computer and internet usage and surreptitiously report that data back without you knowing about it, as well as keeping hidden information on program usage and internet activity on the hard drive that can not be deleted. Hence the large industry of privacy software programs that purport to delete this information that is being collected and reported without your consent. (If you don't have a pop-up blocker, you know what I am talking about.)

But I have never heard anything either way about FF. When you "Clear private data" in FF, are you really clearing it from your computer? Or is tracking information being kept and saved somewhere by FF as well? Anyone know?

With Bill Gates' push for TV-via-internet so that Microsoft can track your TV-watching habits too and sell your specific profile to advertisers (as outlined in his speech last week in Europe), the whole privacy issue is foremost on my mind at the moment...

 

[tomrca]

there has been some issues brought up about FF, but i have never seen any as severe as IE. there has been many news reports on IE in the USA, some direct from the government concerning its security. i have used FF for over 2 years and its my preference of use.:wave:

 

[halo71]

Here's another suggestion! Use Opera instead of FF. But really I agree with tomrca. Anything is more secure than IE. I have used FF for the last few years with really no problems except for having to download plug-ins here and there. But I recently, in the last few months with suggestions from folks on this site, downloaded Opera and pretty much use it all the time now. Hey It cant hurt, download it and try it out is what I suggest.

 

[Rage_3K_Moiz]

Opera has a much nicer interface than Firefox and works with almost all sites. I just needed to install a Java widget to access my university e-mail but that's it. The look is very clean and overall, I feel Opera is also faster than Firefox when it comes to loading webpages.