Join the AMA (Ask Me Anything) with the Firefox leadership team to celebrate Firefox 20th anniversary and discuss Firefox’s future on Mozilla Connect. Mark your calendar on Thursday, November 14, 18:00 - 20:00 UTC!

This site will have limited functionality while we undergo maintenance to improve your experience. If an article doesn't solve your issue and you want to ask a question, we have our support community waiting to help you at @FirefoxSupport on Twitter and/r/firefox on Reddit.

Search Support

Avoid support scams. We will never ask you to call or text a phone number or share personal information. Please report suspicious activity using the “Report Abuse” option.

Learn More

where is the MAN page for about:config preference setting line items?

more options

I see settings that are suspicious but I don't want to change them until I understand the function of the item. For example:

geo.wifi.uri https://www.googleapis.com/geolocation/v1/geolocate?key=%GOOGLE_API_KEY%

Seems to have been hijacked by a google tracking thing ???

And if I disable this, will I break anything or just prevent websites from being sent geo location info? ::: geo.enabled true

I see settings that are suspicious but I don't want to change them until I understand the function of the item. For example: geo.wifi.uri https://www.googleapis.com/geolocation/v1/geolocate?key=%GOOGLE_API_KEY% Seems to have been hijacked by a google tracking thing ??? And if I disable this, will I break anything or just prevent websites from being sent geo location info? ::: geo.enabled true

All Replies (6)

more options
more options

hi, google hasn't "hijacked" this setting, it's the default in the firefox version you are using - geolocation is a strictly opt-in feature, you will see a popup whenever a websites wants to determine your exact location - you can accept or deny any such request. more details at https://www.mozilla.org/firefox/geolocation/

more options

those other preferences contain the download links for firefox on mobile platforms, which are displayed in the options > sync panel.

more options

It would be helpful if "user set" distinguished between a Preferences setting and a manual change made within about:config.

more options

philipp said

those other preferences contain the download links for firefox on mobile platforms, which are displayed in the options > sync panel.

Anything that says "campaign" sounds like advertising & tracking.

more options

The https://www.googleapis.com/geolocation/v1/geolocate?key=%GOOGLE_API_KEY% entry serves no one's interests other than Google and their associated piece of shit data hoarders.

Just set it to: https://127.0.0.1

While you're at it, you can stab these in the face with a soldering iron too:

  • beacon.enabled = false
  • geo.enabled = false
  • geo.wifi.xhr.timeout = 1
  • geo.wifi.logging.enabled = false (it's hidden from us so you'll need to create the entry in order to disable it. Nice, thanks Mozilla.)
  • browser.search.geoip.url = (empty, erase everything and leave it blank)
  • browser.search.geoip.timeout = 1
  • geo.security.allowinsecure = false

There're more location items but this is a start if you're just wanting to be left the fuck alone on your own machine.

You should know that this is in no way keeping you from being tracked or anything else. This is just some of only the "geo-location" settings. Tracking, data logging, metrics and all the other things that those Marketing asshats get wet over require a multitude of config changes in addition to uBlock Origin, uMatrix, NoScript or something similar.

Modified by proxy.socks