Tag Archives: Mozilla Firefox

Posted on Author Atlantic Computer Services Categories Blog

Firefox To Follow Chrome in Backspace Keyboard Functionality Change

In July 2016, Google Chrome blocked the use of the backspace key to navigate to a previous page in their Chrome 52 release. This was because of reports that it brings about loss of data inputted into a form on a page by switching to a previous page.

The data loss often occurs when the user intends to use the backspace key to delete characters on a page, but the cursor is not in the text input area.

This makes the browser interpret the action as back navigation and brings about loss of all the filled data. Firefox also uses the backspace key shortcut for back navigation. This was initially done to follow Internet Explorer’s behavior.

In 2014, Firefox also considered disabling the backspace key as a navigation element due to a bug report they received about its loss of data drawback. They took their time to deliberate on if they should remove the ability of the backspace key to navigate to the previous page.

According to Firefox in 2014, the “Backspace” keyboard shortcut had 40 million clicks, which made it the most used shortcut compared to “Find in page”. That had 16 million clicks and “Page reload” had 15 million clicks. This is a cause of concern that users may be suffering from usability issues and data loss issues from hitting this keyboard shortcut by mistake.

Part of their reasons for keeping the backspace keyboard functionality was for muscle memory for users that are moving to Firefox from another browser or using Firefox with another browser. Unfortunately, this does not apply anymore as Chrome has gotten rid of this shortcut and only implements Alt + Left Arrow to navigate to the previous page on the same tab.

Also, Edge has now been used in place of Internet Explorer as a default Windows browser which has an Alt + Left Arrow shortcut for back navigation. In the coming release of Mozilla Firefox (Firefox 86) which is already in the nightly version, the backspace key functionality has been changed. This is a strong indication that Firefox 86 which will be launching February 23, 2021, will follow chrome in backspace keyboard functionality change.

What will be the new shortcut for back navigation in Firefox 86?

As already implemented in the nightly version, the new shortcut to go back to the previous page in the new release of Firefox will be ALT + LEFT ARROW key.

How to re-enable the backspace key shortcut:

In case you’re a fan of the backspace key shortcut for navigating to the previous page on the same tab, then you can re-enable the shortcut in the new release by Setting the browser.backspace_action to 0 in the about:config settings panel.

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Posted on Author Atlantic Computer Services Categories Blog

Flash Player Will No Longer Work On Firefox In January

File this away under the least surprising announcement ever.

Actually, it’s not so much an announcement as a reminder that on January 26, 2021, when Mozilla releases Firefox 85, the option to re-enable Adobe’s Flash Player will be gone, effectively eliminating Flash on the browser. Firefox is the latest in a string of browsers to have made the same move.

In fact, as of early 2021, you’ll be hard-pressed to find any browser that will still support Flash. It’s been a long time coming, and although it’s bound to cause some consternation, it’s a good move.

When the internet was in its infancy, Flash was a seminal application and incredibly important to the development of the early web. Just about every decent website in existence made heavy use of Flash to enhance the capabilities of their sites.

Unfortunately, as the web matured, it became increasingly apparent that Flash had more than its share of problems. For a time, new critical security flaws were being discovered in the code faster than Adobe could patch them, and it put broad swaths of the internet at risk.

Time and technology advanced and Flash was, in addition to being increasingly less secure, an increasingly less robust web development option as competing products could do more, and do it more securely, to boot.

All of that slowly led us to a point where the major browsers began developing a roadmap to gradually phase out Flash support, and now, that day is arriving.

Some browsers have already ended support, and Mozilla will follow suit early next year. If you’re still relying on Flash to power your company’s website, it’s well past time to find some other solution, and there are plenty of great alternatives out there. Technology is simply leaving your business behind. Don’t let that happen.

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Posted on Author Atlantic Computer Services Categories Blog

Enhanced Tracking Protection Rolling Out To Firefox Users

Cookies have been part of the internet experience since the early days of the web’s history. Advertisers commonly use them to track users. Many users don’t appreciate being tracked, and have made this known to the companies that make the most popular browsers in use today.

These companies have responded to the wishes of their users in various ways.

Rcently, Mozilla quietly added a new feature to the Enhanced Tracking Protection (ETP) portion of their Firefox browser; an internal collection of tools and other components that the browser uses to block the more invasive tracking techniques used on the web.

When Brave, Chrome, Firefox and other browsers first began offering privacy protections, online advertisers developed a new technique called ‘redirect tracking’ in response to the new tools and specifically in an effort to circumvent them. Essentially, the technique involves dropping cookies from its ad slot and as the user navigated across the web and away from the advertisement, the advertiser could see what sites the user visited.

Essentially, tracking has become a kind of arms race, and Mozilla just upped the ante. Beginning with Firefox 79, the browser will clear all first-party cookies every 24 hours for all known advertisers as a way to prevent just this sort of tracking. Users will essentially have a new identity every single day. In some cases, however, cookie clearing will be limited to once every 45 days.

A spokesperson for Mozilla had this to say about the difference between the two cases:

“Sometimes trackers do more than just track; trackers may also offer services you engage with, such as a search engine or social network. If Firefox cleared cookies for these services, we’d end up logging you out of your email or social network every day. “

On balance, this seems like a sensible, well-reasoned approach. Kudos to the folks at Mozilla for taking user privacy seriously.

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Posted on Author Atlantic Computer Services Categories Blog

Firefox Browser Error Is Giving Android Users Problems

Do you own an Android device? Is Firefox your browser of choice?

If you answered yes to both of those questions, be advised that there’s a serious flaw in the Firefox app for Android that may prompt you to uninstall it until the company issues a patch to correct it sometime in October.

Here’s a quick overview of the problem:

If an Android user streams video from a website loaded in Firefox, rather than a native app, the smartphone’s camera will remain active even after the user has moved the browser into the background, and even if the phone’s screen is locked.

Many smartphone users balk at the notion of streaming video from a third-party app for privacy reasons, because these apps often insist on intrusive permissions that essentially give them complete access to the smartphone’s data.

The mobile browser then, is seen as a generally safer, superior choice. It’s not nearly as intrusive and it keeps data collection to an absolute minimum. Or at least that’s the way it’s supposed to work. Sadly, in this instance, the Firefox app causes more problems than it solves.

“As is the case with dedicated conferencing apps, we provide a system notification that lets people know when a website within Firefox is accessing the camera or microphone, but recognize that we can do better, especially since this gets hidden when the screen is locked.”

“This bug [fix] aims to address this by defaulting to audio-only when the screen is locked. [The fix] is scheduled for release at the platform-level this October, and for consumers shortly after.”

“Meanwhile, our next-generation browser for Android, now available for testing as Firefox Nightly, already has a prominent notification for when sites access this hardware as well.”

If you stream video with any frequency at all, in light of the above, you may want to steer clear of Firefox until the fix is in, this October.

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Posted on Author Atlantic Computer Services Categories Blog

Password Text Export Feature Coming To Firefox

Mozilla’s Firefox browser, like most modern browsers, has a built-in password management feature that allows you to save passwords for sites you log into on a regular basis. Since the browser stores the information, that’s one less thing you have to remember. That allows you the convenience of one click access to the sites you use frequently, unless you’ve enabled two-factor authentication (and you should, if you haven’t already!).

Recently, the folks at Mozilla have announced a change that’s coming soon. Depending on who you are, the newly announced feature can be seen as a very good, or a very bad thing.

Firefox 79, the Nightly build, allows users to export saved credentials as plain text into a CSV file.

On the surface of it, that’s very good news. That’s because if you use multiple devices and want to create a way to manage your passwords across them and across multiple platforms, having a handy text-based file is a good option that adds both value and convenience.

It is not without risk, however. Consider what could easily happen if someone compromises your machine. It would be a trivial matter for them to convert all of your stored passwords to plain text, then exfiltrate the CSV and gain access to everything you touch. That’s grim.

To at least partially counter this, the Firefox development team has built in a requirement that users must enter their Windows password before the export process completes. Apple and Android users are out of luck on this front.

On balance, this feels like a move in the wrong direction. While it’s certainly true that the new feature offers some advantages, it seems that the risks far outweigh those. If you use Firefox, this might be a reason to consider migrating to a different browser, especially if you use an OS other than Windows 10.

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