[Tip] Disable Telemetry and Data Collection in Mozilla Firefox Web Browser

We have shared exclusive tutorials in past to disable telemetry and data collection in operating systems such as Windows 7/8/8.1 and Windows 10. We have also shared tips to improve privacy in Microsoft Office suite and Opera web browser.

Today it’s turn of Mozilla Firefox web browser. The latest Firefox Quantum version comes with lots of changes and improvements such as new Photon UI, redesigned new tab page and preferences page, etc. Apart from these changes, Firefox also comes with privacy changes and improvements. Mozilla has provided few settings on Options (About:Preferences) page to select what kind of data do you want to share with Mozilla and want to send to Mozilla servers.

You can turn on/off options such as “Allow Firefox to send technical and interaction data to Mozilla“, “Allow Firefox to install and run studies” and “Allow Firefox to send crash reports to Mozilla” servers. You can change these settings using “Privacy & Security” section on Preferences page as shown in following screenshot:

Advertisement

Disable_Data_Collection_Mozilla_Firefox_Quantum.png

But even after you disable these options, Firefox still collects and sends data to servers. In this tutorial, we’ll tell you how to completely disable telemetry and data collection in Mozilla Firefox Quantum version.

If you want to improve your privacy in Firefox Quantum and want to turn off data collection and telemetry, following steps will help you.

We’ll change some preferences on Firefox’s hidden secret advanced configuration page i.e. about:config page to disable telemetry and data collection.

1. Open Mozilla Firefox and type about:config in the addressbar and press Enter. It’ll show you a warning message, click on “I accept the risk!” button.

2. Now type telemetry in Search filter box and look for following preferences in the result:

browser.newtabpage.activity-stream.feeds.telemetry
browser.newtabpage.activity-stream.telemetry
browser.ping-centre.telemetry
toolkit.telemetry.archive.enabled
toolkit.telemetry.bhrPing.enabled
toolkit.telemetry.enabled
toolkit.telemetry.firstShutdownPing.enabled
toolkit.telemetry.hybridContent.enabled
toolkit.telemetry.newProfilePing.enabled
toolkit.telemetry.reportingpolicy.firstRun
toolkit.telemetry.server
toolkit.telemetry.shutdownPingSender.enabled
toolkit.telemetry.unified
toolkit.telemetry.updatePing.enabled

Advertisement

Double-click on each above mentioned preference except “toolkit.telemetry.server” and change their values to false. Alternatively, you can right-click on the preference and select Toggle option.

Disable_Telemetry_Mozilla_Firefox_Quantum.png

Now double-click on toolkit.telemetry.server preference and empty its value i.e. remove everything from the value text box.

3. Now type experiments in Search filter box and look for following preferences in the result:

experiments.activeExperiment
experiments.enabled
experiments.supported
network.allow-experiments

Double-click on each above mentioned preference and change their values to false. Alternatively, you can right-click on the preference and select Toggle option.

Disable_Experiments_Mozilla_Firefox_Quantum.png

That’s it. Now you can browse your favorite websites in Firefox without worries.

Also Check:

Published in: Mozilla Firefox

About the author: Vishal Gupta (also known as VG) has been awarded with Microsoft MVP (Most Valuable Professional) award. He holds Masters degree in Computer Applications (MCA). He has written several tech articles for popular newspapers and magazines and has also appeared in tech shows on various TV channels.

Comments

NOTE: Older comments have been removed to reduce database overhead.

  1. Nice list, Vishal! Firefox just got a bit faster yet!!! 🙂
    Thanks for that!

    I would imagine most of these tweaks would cripple Firefox Test Pilot Experiments, although, the project looks all but abandoned; I haven’t seen a new Experiment in almost a year!
    What are your thoughts on that?

  2. Yes. The experiments preferences are related to the test pilot program. I have also not seen any experiment since 2016 yet.

  3. My quantum install has “toolkit.telemetry.enabled” as locked in the true position. Any idea how to unlock?

  4. Also one can lock those preferences with mozilla.cfg configuration file. See more @ developer.mozilla.org/en-US/Firefox/Enterprise_deployment

    Add the following lines in that configuration file, also add the other preferences:

    lockPref(“experiments.activeExperiment”, false);
    lockPref(“experiments.enabled”, false);
    lockPref(“experiments.manifest.uri”, “”);
    lockPref(“experiments.supported”, false);
    lockPref(“toolkit.telemetry.infoURL”, “”);
    lockPref(“toolkit.telemetry.cachedClientID”, “”);
    lockPref(“toolkit.telemetry.server”, “”);

    This also makes the telemetry server preference as blank.

  5. Bork bork bork delete disable bork done good riddance. I had it coming though since I’m using nightly.

Leave a Comment

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

NOTE: Your comment may not appear immediately. It'll become visible once we approve it.