In real estate, the age old mantra is “location, location, location,” meaning that location drives value. That’s true even when it comes to data collection in the online world, too — your location history is valuable, authentic information. In all likelihood, you’re leaving a breadcrumb trail of location data every day, but there are a few things you can do to clean that up and keep more of your goings-on to yourself. 

What is location history?

When your location is tracked and stored over time, it becomes a body of data called your location history. This is rich personal data that shows when you have been at specific locations, and can include things like frequency and duration of visits and stops along the way. Connecting all of that location history, companies can create a detailed picture and make inferences about who you are, where you live and work, your interests, habits, activities, and even some very private things you might not want to share at all.

How is location data used?

For some apps, location helps them function better, like navigating with a GPS or following a map. Location history can also be useful for retracing your steps to past places, like finding your way back to that tiny shop in Florence where you picked up beautiful stationery two years ago.

On the other hand, marketing companies use location data for marketing and advertising purposes. They can also use location to conduct “geomarketing,” which is targeting you with promotions based on where you are. Near a certain restaurant while you’re out doing errands at midday? You might see an ad for it on your phone just as you’re thinking about lunch.

Location can also be used to grant or deny access to certain content. In some parts of the world, content on the internet is “geo-blocked” or geographically-restricted based on your IP address, which is kind of like a mailing address, associated with your online activity. Geo-blocking can happen due to things like copyright restrictions, limited licensing rights or even government control. 

Who can view your location data?

Any app that you grant permission to see your location has access to it. Unless you carefully read each data policy or privacy policy, you won’t know how your location data — or any personal data — collected by your apps is used. 

Websites can also detect your general location through your IP address or by asking directly what your location is, and some sites will take it a step further by requesting more specifics like your zip code to show you different site content or search results based on your locale.

How to disable location request prompts

Tired of websites asking for your location? Here’s how to disable those requests:

Firefox: Type “about:preferences#privacy” in the URL bar. Go to Permissions > Location > Settings. Select “Block new requests asking to access your location”. Get more details about location sharing in Firefox.

Safari: Go to Settings > Websites > Location. Select “When visiting other websites: Deny.”

Chrome: Go to Settings > Privacy and security > Site Settings. Then click on Location and select “Don’t allow sites to see your location”

Edge: Go to Settings and more > Settings > Site permissions > Location. Select “Ask before accessing”

Limit, protect and delete your location data

Most devices have the option to turn location tracking off for the entire device or for select apps. Here’s how to view and change your location privacy settings:

• Mac: Go to your Security & Privacy settings > Location Services.
• Windows: Visit Settings > Privacy > Location.
• iPhone and iPads: How to disable location tracking and select which apps have access to your location
• Android: How to disable location on Android devices and how to select which apps have access to your location.
• Google account: How to manage your Google Location History.

How to delete your Google Location History
Ready to delete your Google Location History in one fell swoop? There’s a button for that.

It’s also a good idea to review all of the apps on your devices. Check to see if you’re sharing your location with some that don’t need it all or even all the time. Some of them might be set up just to get your location, and give you little benefit in return while sharing it with a network of third parties. Consider deleting apps that you don’t use or whose service you could just as easily get through a mobile browser where you might have better location protection.

Blur your device’s location for next-level privacy

Learn more about Mozilla VPN

The post Location history: How your location is tracked and how you can limit sharing it appeared first on The Mozilla Blog.

Spyware has been in the news recently with stories like the Apple security vulnerability that allowed devices to be infected without the owner knowing it, and a former editor of The New York Observer being charged with a felony for unlawfully spying on his spouse with spyware. Spyware is a sub-category of malware that’s aimed at surveilling the behavior of human target(s) using a given device where the spyware is running. This surveillance could include but is not limited to logging keystrokes, capturing what websites you are visiting, looking at your locally stored files/passwords, and capturing audio or video within proximity to the device.

How does spyware work?

Spyware, much like any other malware, doesn’t just appear on a device. It often needs to first be installed or initiated. Depending on what type of device, this could manifest in a variety of ways, but here are a few specific examples:

• You could visit a website with your web browser and a pop-up prompts you to install a browser extension or addon.
• You could visit a website and be asked to download and install some software you weren’t there to get.
• You could visit a website that prompts you to access your camera or audio devices, even though the website doesn’t legitimately have that need.
• You could leave your laptop unlocked and unattended in a public place, and someone could install spyware on your computer.
• You could share a computer or your password with someone, and they secretly install the spyware on your computer.
• You could be prompted to install a new and unknown app on your phone.
• You install pirated software on your computer, but this software additionally contains spyware functionality.

With all the above examples, the bottom line is that there could be software running with a surveillance intent on your device. Once installed, it’s often difficult for a lay person to have 100% confidence that their device can be trusted again, but for many the hard part is first detecting that surveillance software is running on your device.

How to detect spyware on your computer and phone

As mentioned above, spyware, like any malware, can be elusive and hard to spot, especially for a layperson. However, there are some ways by which you might be able to detect spyware on your computer or phone that aren’t overly complicated to check for.

Cameras

On many types of video camera devices, you get a visual indication that the video camera is recording. These are often a hardware controlled light of some kind that indicates the device is active. If you are not actively using your camera and these camera indicator lights are on, this could be a signal that you have software on your device that is actively recording you, and it could be some form of spyware. 

Here’s an example of what camera indicator lights look like on some Apple devices, but active camera indicators come in all kinds of colors and formats, so be sure to understand how your device works. A good way to test is to turn on your camera and find out exactly where these indicator lights are on your devices.

Additionally, you could make use of a webcam cover. These are small mechanical devices that allow users to manually open and shut cameras only when in use. These are generally a very cheap and low-tech way to protect snooping via cameras.

Applications

One pretty basic means to detect malicious spyware on systems is simply reviewing installed applications, and only keeping applications you actively use installed.

On Apple devices, you can review your applications folder and the app store to see what applications are installed. If you notice something is installed that you don’t recognize, you can attempt to uninstall it. For Windows computers, you’ll want to check the Apps folder in your Settings. 

Web extensions

Many browsers, like Firefox or Chrome, have extensive web extension ecosystems that allow users to customize their browsing experience. However, it’s not uncommon for malware authors to utilize web extensions as a medium to conduct surveillance activities of a user’s browsing activity.

On Firefox, you can visit about:addons and view all your installed web extensions. On Chrome, you can visit chrome://extensions and view all your installed web extensions. You are basically looking for any web extensions that you didn’t actively install on your own. If you don’t recognize a given extension, you can attempt to uninstall it or disable it.

Add features to Firefox to make browsing faster, safer or just plain fun.

Get quality extensions, recommended by Firefox.

How do you remove spyware from your device?

If you recall an odd link, attachment, download or website you interacted with around the time you started noticing issues, that could be a great place to start when trying to clean your system. There are various free online tools you can leverage to help get a signal on what caused the issues you are experiencing. VirusTotal, UrlVoid and HybridAnalysis are just a few examples. These tools can help you determine when the compromise of your system occurred. How they can do this varies, but the general idea is that you give it the file or url you are suspicious of, and it will return a report to you showing what various computer security companies know about the file or url. A point of infection combined with your browser’s search history would give you a starting point of various accounts you will need to double check for signs of fraudulent or malicious activity after you have cleaned your system. This isn’t entirely necessary in order to clean your system, but it helps jumpstart your recovery from a compromise.

There are a couple of paths that can be followed in order to make sure any spyware is entirely removed from your system and give you peace of mind:

Install an antivirus (AV) software from a well-known company and run scans on your system

• If you have a Windows device, Windows Defender comes pre-installed, and you should double-check that you have it turned on.
• If you currently have an AV software installed, make sure it’s turned on and that it’s up to date. Should it fail to identify and remove the spyware from your system, then it’s on to one of the following options.

Run a fresh install of your system’s operating system

• While it might be tempting to backup files you have on your system, be careful and remember that your device was compromised and the file causing the issue could end up back on your system and again compromising it.
• The best way to do this would be to wipe the hard drive of your system entirely, and then reinstall from an external device.

How can you protect yourself from getting spyware?

There are a lot of ways to help keep your devices safe from spyware, and in the end it can all be boiled down to employing a little healthy skepticism and practicing good basic digital hygiene. These tips will help you stay on the right track:

Be wary. Don’t click on links, open/download attachments from unknown senders. This applies to both messaging apps as well as emails. 

Stay updated. Take the time to install updates/patches. This helps make sure your devices and apps are protected against known issues.

Check legitimacy. If you aren’t sure if a website or email is giving legitimate information, take the time to use your favorite search engine to find the legitimate website. This helps avoid issues with typos potentially leading you to a bad website

Use strong passwords. Ensure all your devices have solid passwords that are not shared. It’s easier to break into a house that isn’t locked.

Delete extras. Remove applications you don’t use anymore. This reduces the total attack surface you are exposing, and has the added bonus of saving space for things you care about.

Use security settings. Enable built in browser security features. By default, Firefox is on the lookout for malware and will alert you to Deceptive Content and Dangerous Software.

The post Did you hear about Apple’s security vulnerability? Here’s how to find and remove spyware. appeared first on The Mozilla Blog.

If recent surveys and polls ring true, over 46% of the global workforce is considering leaving their employer this year. Despite COVID-19 causing initial turnover due to the related economic downturn, the current phenomenon coined “The Great Resignation” is attributed to the many job seekers choosing to leave their current employment voluntarily. Mass vaccinations and mask mandates have allowed offices to re-open just as job seekers are reassessing work-life balance, making bold moves to take control of where they choose to live and work. 

The “New Normal”

Millions of workers have adjusted to remote-flexible work arrangements, finding success and a greater sense of work-life balance. The question is whether or not employers will permanently allow this benefit post-pandemic.

Jerry Lee, COO/Founder of the career development consultancy, Wonsulting, sees changes coming to the workplace power dynamic.

“In the future of work, employers will have to be much more employee-first beyond monetary compensation,” he said. “There is a shift of negotiating power moving from the employers to the employees, which calls for company benefits and work-life balance to improve.” 

Abbie Duckham, Talent Operations Program Manager at Mozilla, believes the days of companies choosing people are long over. 

“From a hiring lens, it’s no longer about companies choosing people, it’s about people choosing companies,” Duckham said. “People are choosing to work at companies that, yes, value productivity and revenue – but more-so companies that value mental health and understand that every single person on their staff has a different home life or work-life balance.”

Drop the mic and cue the job switch

So, how can recent job switchers or job seekers better prepare for their next big move? The following tips and advice from career and talent sourcing experts can help anyone perform their best while adapting to our current pandemic reality.

Take a vacation *seriously*

“When starting a new role many are keen to jump into work right away; however, it’s always important to take a mental break between your different roles before you start another onboarding process,” advises Jonathan Javier, CEO/Founder at Wonsulting. “One way to do this is to plan your vacations ahead of your switch: that trip to Hawaii you always wanted? Plan it right after you end your job. That time you wanted to spend with your significant other? Enjoy that time off.” 

It also never hurts to negotiate a start date that does not prioritize your mental preparedness and well-being.

Out with the old and in with that new-new

When Duckham started at Mozilla, she made it her mission to absorb every bit of the manifesto to better understand Mozilla’s culture. “From there I looked into what we actually do as a company. Setting up a Firefox account was pretty crucial since we are all about dog-fooding here (or as we call it, foxfooding), and then downloading Firefox Nightly, the latest beta-snapshot of the browser as our developers are actively working on it.”

Duckham also implores job-switchers to rebrand themselves. 

“You have a chance to take everything you wanted your last company to know about you and restart,” she said. “Take everything you had imposter syndrome about and flip the switch.”

Network early

“When you join a new company, it’s important to identify the subject matter experts for different functions of your company so you know who you can reach out to if you have any questions or need insights,” Javier said.

Javier also recommends networking with people who have also switched jobs. 

“You can search for and find people who switched from non-tech roles to an in-tech role by simply searching for ‘Past Company’ at a non-tech company and then putting ‘Current Company’ at a tech company on LinkedIn,” he said.

Brain-breaks 

Duckham went as far as giving her digital workspace a refreshing overhaul when she started at Mozilla. 

“I cleaned off my desktop, made folders for storing files, and essentially crafted a blank working space to start fresh from my previous company – effectively tabula rasa-ing my digital workspace did the same for my mental state as I prepared to absorb tons of new processes and practices.”

In that same vein, when you need a bit of a brain-break throughout the work day and that break leads you to social media, Duckham advises downloading Facebook Container, a browser extension that makes it harder for Facebook to track you on the web outside of Facebook.

“Speaking of brain-breaks, if socials aren’t your thing and you’d rather catch up on written curated content from around the web, Pocket is an excellent way to let your mind wander and breathe during the work day so you’re able return to work a little more refreshed,” Duckham added.

Making remote friends and drawing boundary lines

56% of Mozilla employees signed in to work from remote locations all over the world, even before the pandemic. Working asynchronously across so many time zones can be unusual for new teammates. Duckham’s biggest tip for new Mozillians? 

“Be open and a little vulnerable. Do you need to take your kid to school every day, does your dog require a mid-day walk? Chances are your schedule is just as unique as the person in the Zoom window next to you. Be open about the personal time you need to take throughout the day and then build your work schedule around it.” 

But what about building comradery and remote-friendships? 

“In a traditional work environment, you might run into your colleagues in the break room and have a quick chat. As roles continue to become more remote or hybrid-first, it is important to create opportunities for you to mingle with your colleagues,” Jerry Lee of Wonsulting said. “These small interactions are what builds long-lasting friendships, which in turn allows you to feel more comfortable and productive at work.”

How to leverage pay, flexibility and other benefits even if you aren’t job searching

“The best leverage you can find in this job market – is clearly defining what is important for you and making sure you have that option in your role,” Lee said. 

He’s not wrong. Make sure to consider your current growth opportunities, autonomy, location, work-life flexibility and compensation, of course. For example, if you are looking for a flexible-remote arrangement, Lee suggests clearly articulating what it is you want to your manager using the following talk-track as a guide:

Hey Manager!

I’m looking for ways to better incorporate my work into my personal life, and I’ve realized one important factor for me is location flexibility. I’m looking to move around a bit in the next few years but would love to continue the work I have here.

What can we do to make this happen?

Once you make your request, you’ll need to work with your manager to ensure your productivity and impact improves or at least remains the same.

Finally, it’s always helpful to remind yourself that every ‘big’ career move is the result of several smaller moves. If you’re looking to make a switch or simply reaccessing your current work-life balance, Javier recommends practicing vision boarding. “I do this by drawing my current state and what I want my future state to look like,” said Javier. “Even if your drawings are not subpar, you’ll be able to visualize what you want to accomplish in the future and make it into reality.”

As the Great Resignation continues, it is important to keep in mind that getting a new job is just the start of the journey. There are important steps that you can do, and Firefox and Pocket can help, to make sure that you feel ready for your next career adventure.

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About our experts

Jonathan Javier is the CEO/Founder of Wonsulting, whose mission is to “turn underdogs into winners”. He’s also worked in Operations at Snap, Google, and Cisco coming from a non-target school/non-traditional background. He works on many initiatives, providing advice and words of wisdom on LinkedIn and through speaking engagements. In total, he has led 210+ workshops in 9 different countries including the Mena ICT Forum in Jordan, Resume/Personal Branding at Cisco, LinkedIn Strategy & Operations Offsite, Great Place To Work, Talks at Google, TEDx, and more. He’s been featured on Forbes, Fox News, Business Insider, The Times, LinkedIn News, Yahoo! News, Jobscan, and Brainz Magazine as a top job search expert and amassed 1M+ followers on LinkedIn, Instagram, TikTok as well as 30+ million impressions monthly on his content.

Jerry Lee is the COO/Founder of Wonsulting and an ex-Senior Strategy & Operations Manager at Google & used to lead Product Strategy at Lucid. He is from Torrance, California and graduated summa cum laude from Babson College. After graduating, Jerry was hired as the youngest analyst in his organization by being promoted multiple times in 2 years to his current position. After he left Google, he was the youngest person to lead a strategy team at Lucid. Jerry partners with universities & organizations (220+ to date) to help others land into their dream careers. He has 250K+ followers across LinkedIn, TikTok & Instagram and has reached 40M+ professionals. In addition, his work is featured on Forbes, Newsweek, Business Insider, Yahoo! News, LinkedIn & elected as the 2020 LinkedIn Top Voice for Tech. 

Abbie Duckham is the current Talent Operations Program Manager at Mozilla. She has been with the company since 2016, working out of the San Francisco Office, and now her home office in Oakland.

The post The Great Resignation: New gig? Here are 7 tips to ensure success appeared first on The Mozilla Blog.

Your online privacy remains our top priority, and we know that one of the first things to secure your privacy when you go online is to get on a Virtual Private Network (VPN), an encrypted connection that serves as a tunnel between your computer and VPN server. Today, we’re launching the latest release of our Mozilla VPN, our fast and easy-to-use VPN service, with two new advanced privacy features that offer additional layers of privacy. This includes your choice of Domain Name System (DNS) servers whether it’s the default we’ve provided, our suggested ad blocking, tracker blocking or ad plus tracker blocking DNS server, or an alternative one, plus the multi-hop feature which allows you to add two different servers to give you twice the amount of encryption. Today’s Mozilla VPN release is available on Windows, Mac, Linux and Android platforms (it will soon be available on iOS later this week).

Here are today’s Mozilla VPN Features:

Uplevel your privacy with Mozilla VPN’s Custom DNS server feature

Traditionally when you go online your traffic is routed through your Internet Service Provider’s (ISP) DNS servers who may be keeping records of your online activities. DNS, which stands for Domain Name System, is like a phone book for domains, which are the websites that you visit. One of the advantages to using a VPN is shielding your online activity from your ISP by using your trusted VPN service provider’s DNS servers. There are a variety of DNS servers, from ones that offer additional features like tracker blocking, ad blocking or a combination of both tracker and ad blocking, or local DNS servers that have those benefits along with speed. 

Now, with today’s Custom DNS server, we put you in control of choosing your DNS server that fits your needs. You can find this feature in your Network Settings under Advanced DNS Settings. From there, you can choose from the default DNS server, enter your local DNS server, or choose from the recommended list of DNS servers available to you. 

Double up your VPN service with Mozilla’s VPN Multi-hop feature

We’re introducing our Multi-hop feature which is also known as doubling up your VPN because instead of using one VPN server you can use two VPN servers. Here’s how it works, first your online activity is routed through one VPN server. Then, by selecting the Multi-Hop feature, your online activity will get routed a second time through an extra VPN server which is known as your exit server. Essentially, you will have two VPN servers which are known as the entry VPN server and exit VPN server. This new powerful privacy feature appeals to those who think twice about their privacy, like political activists, journalists writing sensitive topics, or anyone who’s using a public wi-fi and wants that added peace of mind by doubling-up their VPN servers.

To turn on this new feature, go to your Location, then choose Multi-hop. From there, you can choose your entry server location and your exit server location. The exit server location will be your main VPN server. We will also list your two recent Multi-hop connections so you can reuse them in the future. 

How we innovate and build features for you with Mozilla VPN

Developed by Mozilla, a mission-driven company with a 20-year track record of fighting for online privacy and a healthier internet, we are committed to innovate and bring new features to the Mozilla VPN. Mozilla periodically works with third-party organizations to complement our internal security programs and help improve the overall security of our products. Mozilla recently published an independent security audit of its Mozilla VPN from Cure53, an unbiased cybersecurity firm based in Berlin with more than 15 years of running software testing and code auditing. Here is a link to the blog post and the security audit for more details. 

We know that it’s more important than ever for you to be safe, and for you to know that what you do online is your own business. By subscribing to Mozilla VPN, users support both Mozilla’s product development and our mission to build a better web for all. Check out the Mozilla VPN and subscribe today from our website.

For more on Mozilla VPN:

Mozilla VPN Completes Independent Security Audit by Cure53

Celebrating Mozilla VPN: How we’re keeping your data safe for you

Latest Mozilla VPN features keep your data safe

Mozilla Puts Its Trusted Stamp on VPN

The post Mozilla VPN adds advanced privacy features: Custom DNS servers and Multi-hop appeared first on The Mozilla Blog.

Today, people have to work too hard to find what they want online, sifting through and steering clear of content, clutter and click-bait not worthy of their time. Over time, navigation on the internet has become increasingly centralized and optimized for clicks and scrolling, not for getting people to where they want to go or what they are looking for quickly. 

We’d like to help change this, and we think Firefox is a good place to start.

Today we’re announcing our first step towards doing that with a new feature called Firefox Suggest.

Firefox Suggest is a new discovery feature that is built directly into the browser. Firefox Suggest acts as a trustworthy guide to the better web, surfacing relevant information and sites to help people accomplish their goals. Check it out here:

Relevant, reliable answers: 

Firefox already helps people search their browsing history and tabs and use their preferred search engine directly from Firefox’s Awesome Bar. 

Firefox Suggest will enhance this by including other sources of information such as Wikipedia, Pocket articles, reviews and credible content from sponsored, vetted partners and trusted organizations. 

For instance, suppose someone types “Costa Rica” into the Awesome Bar, they might see a result from Wikipedia:

Firefox Suggest also contains sponsored suggestions from vetted partners. For instance, if someone types in “vans”, we might show a sponsored result for Vans shoes on eBay:

We are also developing contextual suggestions. These aim to enhance and speed up your searching experience. To deliver contextual suggestions, Firefox will need to send Mozilla new data, specifically, what you type into the search bar, city-level location data to know what’s nearby and relevant, as well as whether you click on a suggestion and which suggestion you click on.

In your control:

As always, we believe people should be in control of their web experience, so Firefox Suggest will be a customizable feature. 

We’ll begin offering contextual suggestions to a percentage of people in the U.S. as an opt-in experience. 

Find out more about the ways you can customize this experience here.

Unmatched privacy: 

We believe online ads can work without advertisers needing to know everything about you. So when people choose to enable smarter suggestions, we will collect only the data that we need to operate, update and improve the functionality of Firefox Suggest and the overall user experience based on our Lean Data and Data Privacy Principles. We will also continue to be transparent about our data and data collection practices as we develop this new feature.

A better web. 

The internet has so much to offer, and we want to help people get the best out of it faster and easier than ever before.

Firefox is the choice for people who want to experience the web as a purpose driven and independent company envisions it. We create software for people that provides real privacy, transparency and valuable help with navigating today’s internet. This is another step in our journey to build a better internet.

The post Get where you’re going faster, with Firefox Suggest appeared first on The Mozilla Blog.

At Mozilla, we believe part of making the internet we want is celebrating the best of the internet, and that can be as simple as sharing a tweet that made us pause in our feed. Twitter isn’t perfect, but there are individual tweets that come pretty close.

Each week in Top Shelf, we will be sharing the tweets that made us laugh, think, Pocket them for later, text our friends, and want to continue the internet revolution each week.

Here’s what made it to the Top Shelf for the week of September 6, 2021, in no particular order.

{Nostalgia has entered the chat}

This week saw people online reacting to pop-culture references that are making a comeback. As one person put it: “It’s the 90s again, baby!”

And while 1990 was NOT, in fact, 10 years ago, it looks like our childhood is back in full force!

And now, for the Top Shelf Best of — :

Best “Response to Big Tech” Tweet

Best “Right in the Feels” Tweet

The post Matrix 4, Blue’s Clues, #StarTrekDay and More — Everything That’s Old is New Again in This Week’s Top Shelf appeared first on The Mozilla Blog.

The post Feel good when you get online with Firefox appeared first on The Mozilla Blog.

March 2020 brought to the world a scenario we only imagined possible in dystopian novels. Once bustling cities and towns were desolate. In contrast, the highways and byways of the internet were completely congested with people grasping for human connection, and internet friends became more important than ever. 

Since then, there have been countless discussions about how people have fared with keeping in touch with others during the COVID-19 pandemic — like how families have endured while being separated by continents without the option to travel, and how once solid friendships have waxed and waned without brunches and cocktail hours. 

However, the internet has served more like a proverbial town square than ever before, with many having found themselves using online spaces to create and cultivate internet friends more over the last year and a half than ever before. As the country starts hesitantly opening, the looming question overall is, what will these online relationships look like when COVID-19 is no more? 

 For Will F. Coakley, a deputy constable from Austin, Texas, the highs of her online friend groups she made on Zoom and Marco Polo have already dissipated. 

“My COVID circle is no more,” she said. “I’m 38, so people my age often have spouses and children.” 

Coakley found online platforms to be a refreshing reprieve from her demanding profession that served at the frontlines of the pandemic. Just as she was getting accustomed to ‘the new normal,’ her routines once again changed, with many online friends falling out of touch as cities and towns began to experiment with opening. 

Coakley has not met anyone from her COVID circle in person, and any further communication is uncertain, boding even worse than the potential dissolutions of real-life friendships reported on throughout the year. 

“In a perfect world, we would hope that things opening up would mean that you could start to meet up with your online friends in person. However, many people will experience a transition in their social circle as they start allocating more of their emotional resources to in-person interactions.” said Kyler Shumway, PsyD, a clinical psychologist and author of The Friendship Formula: How to Say Goodbye to Loneliness and Discover Deeper Connection. “You may spend less time with your online people and more time with coworkers, friends, and family that are in your immediate area.” 

Looking back, many social apps themselves similarly spiked during the time of the lockdown and are now seeing use fall. The invite-only, social networking app Clubhouse launched in March 2020. It quickly gained popularity amid the height of the pandemic, having amassed 600,000 registered users by December 2020 and 8.1 million downloads by mid- February 2021.

The original fervor over Clubhouse has waned as fewer people are cooped up indoors. While many people still use the platform for various professional purposes or niche hobbies, its day-to-day usership has dropped significantly. 

Olivia B. Othman, 38, a Project Assistant in Wuppertal, Germany developed friendships online during the pandemic through Clubhouse as well as through a local app called Spontacts. She has been able to meet people in person as her area has begun to open and said she found the experience to be liberating.

While Othman already had experience with developing close personal relationships online, the pandemic prompted a unique perspective for her, encouraging her to invest in new devices for better communication.

Overall, she has fared well with sustaining her online friendships. 

“I have dropped some [people] but also found good people among them,” Othman said.

Othman wasn’t alone in turning to apps for friendship and human connection. Facebook and Instagram were among the most downloaded apps in 2020, according to the Business of Apps.  Facebook had 2.85 billion monthly active users as of the first quarter of 2021, compared to 2.60 billion during the first quarter of 2020. While Instagram went from 1 billion monthly active users in the first quarter of 2020 to 1.07 billion monthly active users as of the first quarter of 2021. And Twitter grew from 186 million users to 199 million users since the pandemic started, according to Twitter’s first quarter earnings report..

Apps such as TikTok and YouTube were popular outlets for creating online friendship in 2020; however, their potential for replicating the emotional fulfillment that comes from interpersonal relationships is limited, as Shumway said, “the unmet need remains unmet.”  

“Many online spaces offer synthetic connections. Instead of spending time with a friend playing a game online or going out to grab coffee, a person might be tempted to watch one of their favorite Youtubers or scroll through TikTok for hours on end,” Shumway said. “These kinds of resources provide a felt sense of relationship – you feel like you’re part of something. But then when you turn off your screen, those feelings of loneliness will come right back.”

“Relationships that may have formed over the past year through online interactions, my sense is that those will continue to last even as people start to reconnect in person. Online friendships have their limits, but they are friendships nonetheless,” Shumway said. 

Zach Fox, 29, a software engineer has maintained long-distance friendships thanks in large part to online gaming, an important social connection that carried on from before the pandemic. 

“We would text chat with each other most of the time, and use voice chat when playing video games together,” he said.

While he is excited about seeing friends and family again as restrictions lift, Fox feels his online friendships just as strong. 

“I feel closer to some of my online friends than I do to some of my ‘offline’ friends,” he said. “With several exceptions, such as my relationship with my fiancée, I tend to favor online friendships because I have the opportunity to be present with and spend quality time with my online friends more often than I can spend time with IRL friends.”

Ultimately, many are finding less anxiousness and more excitement in the prospect of returning to the real world, even if some interaction may be awkward. Both Coakley and Othman stated they favored in-person meetings to online interactions, despite having enjoyed the times they had with many online friends.

“As you make these choices, make sure to communicate openly and honestly. Rather than letting a friendship slowly decay through ghosting, consider being real and explaining to them what is happening for you. You might share that you are spending more time with people in person and that you have less energy for online time with them,” Shumway said.  

As things change Coakley has found other connections to keep herself grounded. Her mental health team comprises a counselor she has sessions with online but has only met in person once. She admitted to being more enthusiastic about her counselor who she meets with in person regularly. 

“I hate having a screen between them and me. It’s more intimate and a shared experience in person,” she said.

Despite not keeping up with her pandemic friends, Coakley does have other online friends that she knew before the pandemic with whom she has close connections. 

“At the very least, my [online] connections with [folks and with] Black women have developed into actual friendships, and we have plans on meeting in person,” she said. “We’ve become an integral part of each other’s lives. Like family, almost.”

The post Did Internet Friends Fill The Gaps Left By Social Distance? appeared first on The Mozilla Blog.

At Mozilla, we believe part of making the internet we want is celebrating the best of the internet, and that can be as simple as sharing a tweet that made us pause in our feed. Twitter isn’t perfect, but there are individual tweets that come pretty close.

Each week in Top Shelf, we will be sharing the tweets that made us laugh, think, Pocket them for later, text our friends, and want to continue the internet revolution each week.

Here’s what made it to the Top Shelf for the week of August 30, 2021, in no particular order.

The Pocket Joy List Project

The stories, podcasts, poems and songs we always come back to

The post Doomscrolling, ads in texting, Theranos NOT Thanos, and more are the tweets on this week’s #TopShelf appeared first on The Mozilla Blog.

Today, Mozilla published an independent security audit of its Mozilla VPN, which provides encryption and device-level protection of your connection and information when you are on the Web, from Cure53, an unbiased cybersecurity firm based in Berlin with more than 15 years of running software testing and code auditing. Mozilla periodically works with third-party organizations to complement our internal security programs and help improve the overall security of our products. During the independent audit, there were two medium and one high severity issues that were discovered. We have addressed these in this blog post and published the security audit report.

Since our launch last year, Mozilla VPN, our fast and easy-to-use Virtual Private Network service, has expanded to seven countries including Austria, Belgium, France, Germany, Italy, Spain and Switzerland adding to a total of 13 countries where Mozilla VPN is available. We also expanded our VPN service offerings and it’s now available on Windows, Mac, Linux, Android and iOS platforms. Lastly, our list of languages that we support continues to grow, and to date we support 28 languages. 

Developed by Mozilla, a mission-driven company with a 20-year track record of fighting for online privacy and a healthier internet, we are committed to innovate and bring new features to the Mozilla VPN through feedback from our community. This year, the team has been working on additional security and customization features which will soon be available to our users. 

We know that it’s more important than ever for you to feel safe, and for you to know that what you do online is your own business. Check out the Mozilla VPN and subscribe today from our website.

For more on Mozilla VPN:

Celebrating Mozilla VPN: How we’re keeping your data safe for you

Latest Mozilla VPN features keep your data safe

Mozilla Puts Its Trusted Stamp on VPN

The post Mozilla VPN Completes Independent Security Audit by Cure53 appeared first on The Mozilla Blog.

The internet has ingrained itself into every aspect of our lives, but there’s one aspect of the digital world that I bet you take for granted. Did you ever notice that many links, specifically hyperlinks, are blue? When a co-worker casually asked me why links are blue, I was stumped. As a user experience designer who has created websites since 2001, I’ve always made my links blue. I have advocated for the specific shade of blue, and for the consistent application of blue, yes, but I’ve never stopped and wondered, why are links blue? It was just a fact of life. Grass is green and hyperlinks are blue. Culturally, we associate links with the color blue so much that in 2016, when Google changed its links to black, it created quite a disruption. 

But now, I find myself all consumed by the question, WHY are links blue? WHO decided to make them blue? WHEN was this decision made, and HOW has this decision made such a lasting impact? 

I turned to my co-workers to help me research, and we started to find the answer. Mosaic, an early browser released by Marc Andreessen and Eric Bina on January 23, 1993, had blue hyperlinks. To truly understand the origin and evolution of hyperlinks though, I took a journey through technology history and interfaces to explore how links were handled before color monitors, and how interfaces and hyperlinks rapidly evolved once color became an option.

The ancestors of the blue hyperlink

By looking at these pre-color hyperlink solutions, we can see how hyperlinks evolved over time and how these early innovations impact usability on the web today.

1964 – Project Xanadu

Project Xanadu connected two pages of information for the first time in history. Links were visual lines between pages.

1983 – HyperTIES system

This system introduces color, as it used cyan hyperlinks on a black background. HyperTies was used as an “electric journal.” This may be an ancestor of our blue hyperlink we know and love today, but I do not believe that this is the first instance of the blue hyperlink since this color is cyan, and not dark blue.

1985 – Windows 1.0

Windows 1.0 brought a full color graphic interface. The links and buttons are still black, similar to Apple’s interface at the time. What I do find interesting, however, is that this is the first instance of our dark blue used in a layout. The dark blue is heavily used in the headings and on borders around modals.

Another interesting thing about Windows 1.0 that still appears in modern websites is the underlined hyperlink. This is the first example of an underline being used to indicate a hyperlink that I have been able to find.

To make Windows 1.0 even more interesting, we see the introduction of a hover state. The hallmarks of modern interaction design were alive and well in 1985.

1987 – HyperCard

Released by Apple for the Macintosh, this program used hyperlinks between pages and apps. While aesthetically beautiful, this version did not use color in its hyperlinks.

1987 – WorldWideWeb (WWW)

WWW was the first browser created by Tim Berners-Lee while working at CERN. It started out as black and white, with underlines under hyperlinks, which are still used today on modern websites, and are a great solution for colorblindness.

The hunt for who made it blue

We’ve now been able to narrow down the time frame for the blue hyperlink’s origin. WWW, the first browser, was created in 1987 and was black and white. We know that Mosaic was released on January 23, 1993 and was credited as being the first browser with blue hyperlinks. So far, we have been unable to find blue being used for hyperlinks in any interface before 1987, but as color monitors become more available and interfaces start to support color, things change quickly. The next few years will see massive innovation and experimentation in color and hyperlink management.

1990 – Windows 3.0 

Windows 3 included support for 16 colors, however the text links were still black links on a white background, which turned to white text on a black background when selected.

1991 – Gopher Protocol

Gopher Protocol was created at the University of Minnesota for searching and retrieving documents.  Its original design featured green text on a black background.

1991 – HyperCard (Color)

Apple brought color to its HyperCards, but notably, the text links were still black and not blue. However, some UI elements did have blue accents when interacted upon which is incredibly important as it shows the slow shift of blue being used as an interaction color.

October 5, 1991 – Linux Kernel

Linux used white text on a black background.

1992 – ViolaWWW

In the ViolaWWW browser, the text links are underlined, and the background color is gray, like we would see is Mosaic’s initial release. However, the text links are black.

April 6, 1992 – Windows 3.1

Microsoft has been using dark blue for interfaces since 1985, but starting in 1990 they also began using it for interaction. Here Microsoft uses the “hyperlink blue” for active states when a user clicks on different drives, folders and icons. This is incredibly important because it shows the slow evolution of this blue from being a layout color to being an interactive color, preceding the time when blue would have been added to Mosaic by almost exactly a year.

January 16, 1992 – June 21, 1992 – Linux Kernel

In 1992, Linux Kernel gained support for color in their console.

Who did it first?

January, 1993 – Mosaic

The first beta version of Mosaic was created for the X Window System for the University of Illinois. The original interface was black and white and did not have blue hyperlinks, but had black hyperlinks with a bordered outline. According to the X System user guide, the hyperlinks were underlined or highlighted.

April 12, 1993 – Mosaic Version 0.13

In the changelog for Mosaic for version 0.13, there is one bullet that is of great importance to us:

Changed default anchor representations: blue and single solid underline for unvisited, dark purple and single dashed underline for visited.

Release Notes

In the immortal words of Jeff Goldblum’s Ian Malcom character in Jurassic Park, “Well, there it is.” 

April 21, 1993 – Mosaic Version 1

Mosaic Launched for the X Window System. I was unable to find screenshots of what the interface looked like for this release, but according to the release notes, the visited color was changed to be a “Better visited anchor color for non-SGI’s”.

June 8, 1993 – Cello Beta

Cello was created at Cornell Law School so that lawyers could access their legal website from Windows computers. My team mate, Molly, was able to download the 0.1 beta for me, and we were shocked by what we found:

There it was! Our hyperlink style, except it wasn’t a hyperlink, it was the heading. Our “link blue” had never shown up in user interfaces before 1993, and suddenly it appears in two instances within two short months of each other in two separate browsers at two different universities being built at the same time.

September, 1993  – Mosaic Ports

By September, a port of Mosaic was released to the Macintosh 7.1 operating system. I was able to locate a screenshot of this version which included a blue hyperlink which is the first visual evidence of the color blue being used to denote a hyperlink.

What came after the blue link?

June 1993 – Unix GUI – Common Desktop Environment

Common Desktop Environment is a GUI for the UNIX operating system, the same operating system used to build Mosaic. This interface featured black text with an underline for hyperlinks.

1994 – Cello Version 1

Cello is out of beta, but now features a yellow background, and has kept it’s link-blue underlined headers and still has black hyperlinks with a border.

October 13, 1994 – Netscape Navigator

Created by Marc Andreessen and James H. Clark, Netscape used the same visual language of Mosaic: blue hyperlinks and a gray background.

July 1995 – Internet Explorer 1.0

In 1995, Microsoft produced Internet Explorer, and no surprise, it also featured blue hyperlinks and a gray background. Internet Explorer was packaged with Windows 95, which was the first time that a browser came with an operating system. Around this time, the browser wars began, but the look and feel of hyperlinks had been firmly established.

November 9, 2004 – Firefox 1.0

Mozilla Firefox was released, and also featured blue hyperlinks, which are in use to this day. These images are from Netscape 1.22 and Firefox Nightly today.

So why blue hyperlinks?

What happened in 1993 to suddenly make hyperlinks blue? No one knows, but I have some theories.

I often hear that blue was chosen as the hyperlink color for color contrast. Well, even though the W3C wasn’t created until 1994, and so the standards for which we judge web accessibility weren’t yet defined, if we look at the contrast between black as a text color, and blue as a link color, there is a contrast ratio of 2.3:1, which would not pass as enough color contrast between the blue hyperlink and the black text. 

Instead, I like to imagine that Cello and Mosaic were both inspired by the same trends happening in user interface design at the time. My theory is that Windows 3.1 had just come out a few months before the beginning of both projects, and this interface was the first to use blue prominently as a selection color, paving the way for blue to be used as a hyperlink color. 

Additionally, we know that Mosaic was inspired by ViolaWWW, and kept the same gray background and black text that they used for their interface. Reviewing Mosaic’s release notes, we see in release 0.7 black text with underlines appearing as the preferred way of conveying hyperlinks, and we can infer that was still the case until something happened around mid April right before when blue hyperlinks made their appearance in release 0.13. In fact, conveying links as black text with underlines had been the standard since 1985 with Microsoft 1, which some once claimed Microsoft had stolen from Apple’s Lisa’s look and feel.

I think the real reason why we have blue hyperlinks is simply because color monitors were becoming more popular around this time. Mosaic as a product also became popular, and blue hyperlinks went along for the ride. Mosaic came out during an important time where support for color monitors was shifting; the standard was for hyperlinks to use black text with some sort of underline, hover state or border. Mosaic chose to use blue, and they chose to port their browser for multiple operating systems. This helped Mosaic become the standard browser for internet use, and helped solidify its user interface as the default language for interacting with the web.

When Netscape and Internet Explorer were created, the blue hyperlink was already synonymous with the web and interaction. The blue link was now browser-agnostic and well on its way to becoming a symbol of what it means to use the internet.

Rhapsody in #0000FF  

It has been almost 30 years since Mosaic put the now ubiquitous blue in its release notes, but it is no longer the early 1990s. While it is quite fun to discover the secrets of how browsers are made, here in the present, we have accepted it as gospel truth that links can and should only be blue because these early pioneers said it should be so. 

When the hyperlink was created, limited colors were available. Today we have almost every color option, so what should be the default color and state of links on the internet? When given every opportunity to deviate from tradition, do we do so for the sake of progress, or should we keep the blue because it’s an established visual pattern?

If you are to change the link color, here are my lists of requirements for the perfect color when choosing a link color:

• Optimal text accessibility with the background color and surrounding text. Your design decisions shouldn’t be the reason a user can’t access content on a page.
• Interactive states should always be styled in your stylesheets. Examples include: touch, visited, hover, active and focus. 
• Links and buttons should be large enough to tap or click. You can’t be sure how people are interacting with your content on devices by using styluses, fingers, mice or trackpads. It’s your job to make sure your links are easy to navigate and have enough space around them.

In closing, should all links be blue? Maybe so, or maybe not. There has been a long path of visual elements used to denote hyperlinks, and the color blue is just one of many elements that have come to represent a hyperlink. Links are about connecting information together. Always make sure that a hyperlink stands out from the rest of the surrounding content. Sometimes that means you need an underline, or a background color, or maybe just maybe, you need the color blue.

Major thanks and credit to my colleagues Asa Dotzler, Molly Howell, M.J. Kelly, Michael Hoye, and Damiano DeMonte for help with research and inspiration for this article.

The post Why are hyperlinks blue? appeared first on The Mozilla Blog.

With Listen, you can have your articles in Pocket read out loud. This is perfect for those times when you’re doing chores around the house or driving during your commute, when your eyes and hands are busy.

Step 1: Open your Pocket list in your mobile device and choose an article.

Step 2: Tap the headset icon to launch text-to-voice.

Step 3: Tap the Play button to start listening.

Step 4: Use the controls to adjust the experience — voice speed, play/pause button, skip to next article and archive.

Enjoy!

The post How to enable text-to-speech in Pocket appeared first on The Mozilla Blog.

Pocket has long been the go-to place to discover, save, and spend time with the most thought-provoking and entertaining content from around the web.

Now, Pocket – a Mozilla product – has teamed up with Slate’s world-class podcast hosts to provide deep dives into the episodes their listeners can’t stop thinking about. Through curated Pocket Collections, podcast and Pocket fans will have their very own ‘back-stage pass’ to explore the stories behind their favorite Slate podcast episodes—straight from the hosts’ notes. 

“Mozilla’s Pocket is a perfect place for listeners and readers to discover and enjoy Slate’s incredible narrative storytelling across its pages and podcasts,” said Katie Rayford, Director of Media Relations at Slate. “We’re excited to connect our audience with additional featured content, including never-before-told stories from our hosts, from some of our newer podcasts, as well as our better-known series and episodes they’re most excited for.”

Hosts of popular Slates podcasts, including One Year, Decoder Ring, and Thrilling Tales of Modern Capitalism, will curate unique lists of recommended articles, videos, and podcasts that informed and inspired different episodes. The Slate-Pocket Collections will be published on getpocket.com/slate on a rolling basis, starting with One Day in 1977: Elvis, the Pledge, and Extraterrestrials. Josh Levin, the host of Slate’s ‘One Year’ podcast, has curated a list of fascinating reads about three wildly different events that happened on a single day in August 1977 and their greater social and cultural impact on America. These reads provide One Year listeners with an in-depth look into some of the stories Levin researched, studied, and was ultimately inspired by as he was creating the episode. 

“Pocket is dedicated to helping people discover and connect with great content across the web, and to go deeper on topics that interest them,” said Carolyn O’Hara, Director of Editorial at Pocket. “We are huge fans of Slate, and we are delighted to partner with them on these curated Collections so podcast fans can get behind-the-scenes reading lists from their favorite hosts.”

Can’t get enough of the Behind The Podcasts collections? Pocket will let you save your favorite articles from the Slate collections—as well as anything else you find online, such as videos, recipes, and shopping pages—to your personal Pocket, so you can enjoy them on your own time. Pocket will even read the stories you’ve saved aloud to you, just like another podcast.

Discover the best of the web by downloading the latest Pocket for Android on Google Play and App Store.

The post Stories Behind the Podcasts: Pocket’s New Partnership With Slate appeared first on The Mozilla Blog.

This past graduation season, Mozilla’s Pocket teamed up with Her Campus for The Future Connection, a writing contest for college students to reflect on what it’s like to come of age in a “hyper-online and always-connected world.” While this isn’t a new concept for them — this generation, including our essay contest winner, Esther Omole, were born into a digital society — the postponement and outright cancelation of in-person graduations and prom-nights because of COVID-19, made the last truly “offline” rites of passage to adulthood into virtual events. 

As both a mom and a leader in tech, I think about the impact of growing up with technology a lot — especially during the last 19 months. What would social distancing as a result of COVID-19 look like without the internet? Earlier this year, when I helped my mom learn to video-call so that she, too, could attend the virtual festivities of graduation season, I was so thankful for the connection of the internet. But I still wonder, have the oddly connective-yet-destructive powers of the internet created a larger void for the younger generations that never lived in a world free of shiny screens?

That same complicated feeling of ‘loss’ around the increasing dependence of being online for everything I’ve felt this year, was mirrored time and time again in the essays from young people I read. Here are my main takeaways from this experience:

They are the IoT Generation

The more conversations I have had with folks at the start of their career, the more nostalgic it makes me feel that the way I think about the ‘Internet of Things’ is outdated: Digital life and the opportunities and challenges it represents are not something young people are actively exploring. Being online is equivalent to breathing oxygen for them and has been a constant since day-one. 

It’s a different perspective and even as a CMO who frequently speaks on the ‘Internet of Things,’ that humility to move forward and steward our mission on to a new and increasingly brilliant generation is something that I need to continually remind myself of. Yes, my generation did some great shit, but it’s important for me to take a step back and recognize that even after so much change, the internet remains this incredibly innovative space. 

Speaking In Meme

Many of us feel uncomfortable or even ‘naked’ without our mobile device in hand. While society tells us that this sensation is unhealthy, one of the most provocative essays I read exuded absolute pride in the uncanny attachment their generation has with consumer technology. 

My kids are 14 and 11. They were delivered right into the internet. It completely dominates their culture, and even if they’re not online all the time, so much of how they interact with each other and how their generation relates to each other is found in the ‘Internet of Things’. They literally speak in memes – a language that’s sometimes hard for me to understand. It’s hard to blame them when the most up-to-date news information is online, the majority of today’s entertainment is consumed via Twitter threads and sub-Reddits, and even the food we eat is influenced by TikTok recipes and Instagram-foodies. So instead of questioning the morality of today’s hyper-online culture, the better question to ask is how society can expect this generation to navigate life without carrying their phones around like a second-limb? It’s the reality they were born into.

“God, it’s brutal out here!”

In the wise words of pop-princess, Olivia Rodrigo– the internet can be a pretty harsh place. The constant cycle of performance and consumption over and again on a small, bright screen filled with hundreds of others doing the exact same thing can be pretty numbing. At the same time, the internet is a gift, connecting us intimately with friends, distant family members, and even neighborly strangers that we never would have known of otherwise. This turbulent duality is a consequence of living in an always-connected world. 

There is a community of other like-minded people for everyone on the internet. This internet culture of support and constructive criticism in micro-communities has helped young people redefine what success and happiness means to them, effectively breaking the molds and cultural norms that were passed on to them from hometowns, families, and traditions. However, even though our favorite people are a text, DM or Slack away – you’re never truly alone online — it’s still possible to feel lonely and isolated. 

Speaking with Esther, who confirmed this sentiment, advised the next generation growing up in the digital age to “reclaim the way that they consume things on the Internet, knowing that the internet does mirror and perpetuate a lot of harmful images and issues that we see in society.” She also advises these next digital natives to “use their time on the Internet in a way that’s also uplifting. I’ve been seeing a lot of anti-anxiety infographics on Instagram that are really comforting.”

These takeaways certainly aren’t new and my interpretation of these essays isn’t going to shatter the world. But, maybe as you read through the winning contest essay, appropriately titled, ‘Reflection: Embracing My Undulating Image’, you’ll be caught in a wave of nostalgia. You might see yourself in these young people and remember what it was like to teeter on the cusp of adulthood. Technology has changed what growing up looks like, but it hasn’t made and can’t make the process of finding yourself online easier.

Save and discover the best articles, stories and videos on the web

Get Pocket

The post Here’s what I learned from reading dozens of essays about the internet appeared first on The Mozilla Blog.

This past May, Pocket and HerCampus teamed up to announce an essay contest asking college students to reflect on what it’s like to come of age in a hyper-online world for a $5,000 cash prize and the opportunity to be published and promoted on Pocket. There were over 800 entries, and we are excited to announce the winner of our contest — Esther Omole — and share her essay.

Angle your head between two mirrors and watch yourself watching yourself for a while. I never understood what my 7-year-old self loved about it. Sandwiched between two floor-length mirrors, I would pretend that the little Black girls dancing behind me in an accordion-like formation were my back up, my chorus. Now I feel suffocated by the memory of cascading versions of myself, recessing further than my eyes could trace. In a hyper-online world, this feeling is mirrored in the way I see my image read, projected, and thrust back to me by unflinching algorithms and ever-reflective screens.

As a result of the pandemic, I went into my final year of college waging a fervent war against my own loneliness. Like most, I clung to my devices as a way of digging my feet (or, in this case, the ever active thumb) into a world that was increasingly out of physical reach. I dragged my eyes down timelines, devoted daily scrolls to TikTok, and stared longingly at my explore page until it blurred into an addictive, multicolored collage. A host of unknown companies were learning me everyday via the internet, which had become my lounge, workplace, and school.

Through my increasing (admittedly, delicious) entanglement with the web, I got content that was more sharply tailored to me. As I grew lonelier, I offered up more time. I scrutinized my profiles, comparing myself to people who shared my interests, my age, and even likeness live out successes and failures that I hadn’t. I saw Black women like me harassed, dehumanized, and belittled on social media daily. I felt over-rendered by images of what I had told the algorithm I wanted, things that were like me but not quite me.

The result was a feeling of suffocation not unlike being wedged between the mirrors. I was consumed by my profiles, followers, and peers–like I was being guided along the current of my online life, watching unfamiliar mirror images of me bounce from platform to platform. Black women are subject to this kind of dissonance independent of the internet—we are often portrayed as universally hyper-sexual, hyper-masculine, angry, and resilient to pain in popular media. This is exacerbated by the hyper-connected online world, which often promotes these skewed archetypes of our own bodies and projects them back at us.

Confronted with these images at all angles, I searched for ways to reclaim the myriad pathways technology was offering me. I listened to other Black women share stories about loneliness online, found networks like Therapy for Black girls, and set up telehealth appointments all on the same screen. The globalized online world became a gateway to explore my individual complexity, the identity that was unique to me. I could be like my 7 years old self, strengthened by my own undulating reflections and multitudes. Instead of being made an unmade, scrutinized and hidden, I was doing the creating, watching myself grow in the selfie cam of my online world with pride. And I loved it.

Esther Abisola Omole is a Nigerian American visual artist, poet, and musician from Broward County, Florida. She is a recent graduate at Stanford University, where she studied Architecture and African and African American Studies. She is especially enamored with Black feminists poetics, Black creation and space making.

The post Reflection: Embracing My Undulating Image appeared first on The Mozilla Blog.

At Mozilla, we believe part of making the internet we want is celebrating the best of the internet, and that can be as simple as sharing a tweet that made us pause in our feed. Twitter isn’t perfect, but there are individual tweets that come pretty close.

Each week in Top Shelf, we will be sharing the tweets that made us laugh, think, Pocket them for later, text our friends, and want to continue the internet revolution each week.

Here’s what made it to the Top Shelf for the week of August 16, 2021, in no particular order.

Save and discover the best articles, stories and videos on the web

Get Pocket

The post Cybersecurity, Facebook data, OnlyFans update and more are on this week’s Top Shelf appeared first on The Mozilla Blog.

At Mozilla, we believe part of making the internet we want is celebrating the best of the internet, and that can be as simple as sharing a tweet that made us pause in our feed. Twitter isn’t perfect, but there are individual tweets that come pretty close.

Each week in Top Shelf, we will be sharing the tweets that made us laugh, think, Pocket them for later, text our friends, and want to continue the internet revolution each week.

Here’s what made it to the Top Shelf for the week of August 9, 2021, in no particular order.

The post Fall Plans vs. the Delta Variant, Deciphering Gen Z’s use of emojis, Sarah Paulson as Linda Tripp, and more are on this week’s Top Shelf appeared first on The Mozilla Blog.

Every summer I say I’m going to go watch the meteor showers, but life always seems to get in the way. This year, however, I scored a last minute midweek campsite on the Washington coast so I can take in the Perseid meteor shower away from city lights. While the Perseids are ongoing from mid-July to the end of August, they are expected to peak on the night of August 11 all around the world. This year’s Perseid event is predicted to be extra special due to the waxing crescent moon, which is to say, the moon will be a mere sliver in the sky. Less moonlight means the sky is darker, which means meteor showers appear brighter. 

Interested in learning more? Here are some internet resources for newbie astronomers out there:

• Getting away from human-made light is essential to a great stargazing experience. This light pollution map can help you find a nearby spot with maximum darkness. Plus, there’s a layer for cloud coverage and aurora forecasts. 

• The Perseid meteor shower may be one of the largest, but they’re not the only ones. Check out these  detailed tips for meteor shower viewing all year around from EarthSky.

• The American Meteor Society has just about everything you’ve ever wanted to know about meteors in the U.S., including a volunteer reporting system for fireballs, which are extra large, extra bright meteors.

• If you take a photos, or it didn’t happen approach, these tips for photographing meteor showers from NASA are just what you need. 

• The New York Times has a free space-related events calendar you subscribe to for staying updated about major events like meteor showers, rocket launches, scientific missions and more.

• Want to know what’s happening in your night sky on any given day? This interactive sky chart from Sky & Telescope magazine lets you add your location and it gives you a personalized sky chart. Plus, they have tons of great tips for getting started as a backyard astronomer.

Our mysterious, magnificent Moon

Get to know our nearest celestial neighbor a little bit better with this lunar reading list

Firefox themes for daytime stargazing

If you work at a computer all day, a fun thing about Firefox is that you can style your browser with a colorful theme. Keep the Perseid inspiration going all day at the keyboard with a free space-themed skin for Firefox. Browser themes are easy to install and change any time you’re in the mood.

The post Perseid meteor shower on your mind? Check out these online resources for newbie astronomers plus 6 Firefox themes for daytime stargazing. appeared first on The Mozilla Blog.

The post An update from Firefox appeared first on The Mozilla Blog.

Recently the Surgeon General of the United States weighed in on the spread of disinformation on major platforms and its effects on people and society. He echoed the calls of researchers, activists and organizations, like Mozilla, for the major platforms to release more data, and to provide access to researchers in order to analyze the spread and impact of misinformation. 

Yet Facebook has again taken steps to shut down this exact kind of research on its platform, a troubling pattern we have witnessed from Facebook including sidelining their own Crowdtangle and killing a suite of tools from Propublica and Mozilla in 2019. 

Most recently, Facebook has terminated the accounts of New York University researchers that built Ad Observer, an extension dedicated to bringing greater transparency to political advertising that was critical for researchers and journalists during the presidential election. 

Facebook claims the accounts were shut down due to privacy problems with the Ad Observer.  In our view, those claims simply do not hold water. We know this, because before encouraging users to contribute data to the Ad Observer, which we’ve done repeatedly, we reviewed the code ourselves. And in this blog post, we want to explain why we believe people can contribute to this important research without sacrificing their privacy.  

Anytime you give your data to another party, whether Facebook or Mozilla or researchers at New York University, it is important that you know whether that party is trustworthy, what data will be collected, and what will be done with that data. Those are critical things to consider before you potentially grant access to your data. And those are also key factors for Mozilla when we consider recommending an extension. 

Before Mozilla decided to recommend Ad Observer, we reviewed it twice, conducting both a code review and examining the consent flow to ensure users will understand exactly what they are installing. In both cases the team responsible for this add-on responded quickly to our feedback, made changes to their code, and demonstrated a commitment to the privacy of their users. We also conducted an in-depth design review of Ad Observer, the results of which can be found here. 

We decided to recommend Ad Observer because our reviews assured us that it respects user privacy and supports transparency. It collects ads, targeting parameters and metadata associated with the ads. It does not collect personal posts or information about your friends. And it does not compile a user profile on its servers. The extension also allows you to see what data has been collected by visiting the “My Archive” tab. It gives you the choice to opt in to sharing additional demographic information to aid research into how specific groups are being targeted, but even that is off by default.

You don’t have to take our word for it. Ad Observer is open source, so anybody can see the code and  confirm it is designed properly and doing what it purports to do.

Of course, companies like Facebook need to be proactive about third-parties that might be collecting data on their platform and putting their users at risk. Figuring out what third-parties to allow under what circumstances is certainly not an easy task. But in this case, the application of its policy is counterproductive. This is why Mozilla makes exceptions for good-faith security research in our own products and why we have been supportive of calls for Facebook to create safe harbors for public-interest research. 

The truth is that major platforms continue to be a safe haven for disinformation and extremism — wreaking havoc on people, our elections and society. We actually launched Mozilla Rally to take back control of research from unresponsive platforms like Facebook. Telling the truth about misinformation needs consent, clarity and community, and businesses built on people’s data shouldn’t be scared of telling us what that data is used for. We’ve also pushed the industry through the EU’s Code of Practice on Disinformation,  encouraged the European Commission to mandate disclosure of all advertisements on major platforms and encouraged users to contribute their data to Ad Observer. We need tools like Ad Observer to help us shine a light on the darkest corners of the web. And rather than standing in the way of efforts to hold platforms accountable, we all need to work together to support and improve these tools.

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