PRIVACY: The Big Lie
You will tell me why Mozilla Firefox, a browser that claim to protect our privacy, is PERMANENTLY connected to Amazon servers.
Even If I try to block the connections with a Firewall, it's useless, because the next time I start it, it still connects to Amazon using diffferent IP address, even if the starting page is totally blank.
It is not about keeping firefox up-to-date, because when I manually start the search for an update, Firefox establish a new connection: Mozilla REALLY want my browser to SEND datas to Amazon, which is one of the worst company when we talk about collecting personnal informations, just like Google, which Firefox also use, but it's less dramatic since I can decide to not use that feature.
So, like I wrote, I try to block Amazon IP addresses: The result is that I can't access extensions store, but that's still not the use of these servers, since even If It's blocked, Amazon still appears in Established connections, and it's not about Search: Indeed, Amazon appears in a list of engines we can use ( if we want it ), but it's un-checked, and I use a different search engine, so what's left now, since there's apparently no reason at all for these connections to happen.
Here's my theory: Mozilla need money to survive, so it sell informations about its users to Amazon, and that's why it's so important to keep these connections alive.
The fact that we're forced to connect to Amazon servers shows that it's not necessary and that whatever the reason you ive me (update, protection...), it's probably (obviously) not the truth.
Waiting for a real answer !
I
Isisombululo esikhethiwe
You could try globally disabling push notifications (background/service worker communications) and see whether that makes any difference. I haven't tested this in recent years, so I don't know whether this is still a master preference:
(1) In a new tab, type or paste about:config in the address bar and press Enter/Return. Click the button accepting the risk.
More info on about:config: Configuration Editor for Firefox. The moderators would like us to remind you that changes made through this back door aren't fully supported and aren't guaranteed to continue working in the future.
(2) In the search box in the page, type or paste push and pause while the list is filtered
Firefox should list numerous preferences starting with dom.push
(3) Double-click the dom.push.enabled preference to switch the value from true to false
Funda le mpendulo ngokuhambisana nalesi sihloko 👍 1All Replies (20)
Hi
A large part of the internet runs on Amazon Web Services servers. This is what you are likely to see connections to their servers.
This does not mean or suggest that user data is being sold to Amazon. I recommend that you have a read of the Firefox privacy notice at https://www.mozilla.org/en-US/privacy/firefox/
Thanks for the answer, but that's still not an explanation: My point is that, when I start Firefox, and there's nothing running, no webpage, no update, no addon, nothing, it's not suposed to connect anywhere, especially not to Amazon servers.
So, if it connects, there's a reason, but since there's no reason, Mozilla must answer.
A privacy policy, it's cute on paper, but that doesn't mean we should trust everything we see on the internet ;)
Okulungisiwe ngu SmilieX
Where are you seeing these Amazon websites? What are the website addresses?
As mentioned above, it is very possible that this is nothing untoward and is completely normal.
I track connections with Windows PowerShell, netstats -aon command, netstats -bof also works.
Okulungisiwe ngu SmilieX
I guess they're our servers in amazon cloud.
Okulungisiwe ngu TyDraniu
See also "AWS-EC2: Amazon Web Services Elastic Compute Cloud" and"GCS:Google Cloud Storage".
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amazon_Web_Services
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google_Cloud_Storage
Thanks. Even if I know what cloud services are, I'll have a look on these links and see if it fix the problem..
Okulungisiwe ngu SmilieX
After trying every single options that are shown on this website:
https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/how-stop-firefox-making-automatic-connections
I can confirm that none of them worked, and that connections to Amazon servers still happens everytime Firefox starts without the possibility to block it, since even if I block the IP Address, it uses a new one on the next start.
So now I'd like to know what's the use of this connection.
Example: ec2-35-162-35-244.us-west-2.compute.amazonaws.com:https
Thank you !
Okulungisiwe ngu SmilieX
That is the address of an Amazon server that a service that you have used online is on - it might even be this very support forum.
Yes, I understand that this is an Amazon server, that's why I posted this question. What I don't understand is WHY Firefox connects to this server, again and again, even if there's NO ACTIVE WEBSITE, NO ACTIVE EXTENSION, nothing running on Firefox at all.
If you can confirm that Firefox has no link with this specific kind of server, that might be helpful.
If you can confirm that this is not Mozilla, could it be something bad like connections a malware could establish ?
When you run Firefox yourself, do you see this connection, or one similar ?
Windows PowerShell:
netstat -bof
If not, it will start to make sense.
Okulungisiwe ngu SmilieX
I understand that this forum and support platform runs on an Amazon server, likewise it is also possible that the telemetry from Firefox is also on that platform. This support article will help if you wish to turn this off https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/telemetry-clientid
The only way to be 100% sure you are not going to connect to an AWS server is to essentially cut yourself off from the web. AWS is widely used by a large part of the web legitimately and without problem.
Telemetry is one of the first thing I disabled when I installed, so it's not about that. Also, it can't be the forum, since these connections happens as soon as I start the browser, on a blank page, and last til I close the browser. When I open it again, it uses a different address, always amazon.
I tried to disable every things mentionned in the link I posted in previous answer, with the about:config tool, and nothing worked.
In case this has nothing to do with Mozilla features, is it possible for someone, like a hacker, to edit the list of connections that happens in the browser ?
Okulungisiwe ngu SmilieX
Do you have Firefox Sync enabled?
No, it's not. No sync, no telemetry, no extension: I set launch page to https: so it launch on blank page but no matter what page I choose to start with, it still connects.
Do you see any connections happening on your computer when you start firefox that could be linked with this ? If it's just me, then I'm at the wrong place...
If I wanted to recreate what you are seeing, what would be the steps I would need to follow?
Launch page = https:// ( no website ) it will launch on We cannot find this page, or something like that. Tracking protection almost maxed out on custom: Cookies = block tiers, in every windows Do not track checked. Certificate validation not checked. H264 disabled, no other extention No password saving, Location, cameras, microphone, everything disabled. Pop-up blocker on Disabled telemetry and dangerous websites protection disabled too. Search: Duckduckgo, no suggestions., all the others search engines unchecked. uncheck everything in Home Page settings Update for addons are disabled No typing correction No DRM No suggestions at all
I noticed that manually searching for update, for the browser, create a new connection, so it's not about updates.
Okulungisiwe ngu SmilieX
Then, I track connections happening on my computer with Windows PowerShell launched as Admin: The command I use is netstat -bof, and right now it show me two connections of this kind, but I assume that one of them is the forum.
The other one is the unknown.
There's also googleusercontent and cloudfront, but I know this one are because I'm running this forum.
Okulungisiwe ngu SmilieX
It could be: - A known feature - An unknown feature, - Malware related, but scans do not detect anything.
The probabilities for this to be linked to a known feature are actually getting low, but not impossible yet.
Okulungisiwe ngu SmilieX
One of the big difficulties with determining the reason for a connection is that the original request -- with the relevant host name and URL -- is generally not shown in the connection list, only the canonical host name of the AWS server.
Are you able to use an HTTP proxy to track connections from Firefox? I used to use Fiddler (now called Fiddler Classic) but I've forgotten the details on how to get the information you need, and with all the new products, I don't know what would work best for this.