Privacy/Roadmap 2011

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	Privacy and User Control 2011 Roadmap
	Owner: Sid Stamm	Updated: 2012-04-27
	The vision behind Mozilla's 2011 privacy roadmap is focused on users, calling for increased anonymity on the web, starting with sensible privacy defaults, giving users the ability to make informed choices about disclosing their information, facilitating web transparency so users understand how their data is being collected and used, and allowing for flexibility while maintaining sensible baselines for those who are not interested in privacy.

DEPRECATED.

This page is old and crufty. For the latest, go back to Privacy/Roadmap.

Vision:

• Provide Increased Anonymity -- users who don't want to be fingerprinted should still be allowed to surf the web with reasonable expectations of pseudo-anonymity.
• Start with Sensible Defaults -- where possible, default to non disclosure of information
• Provide User-Informed Choice -- provide users contextually helpful, timely, and understandable choices when disclosing information
• Facilitate Web Transparency -- help sites and service providers be transparent with their data collection and use practices
• Allow but don't require Flexibility -- provide users flexibility to customize their defaults, but maintain sensible baselines for those less invested in privacy

Operating Principles:

Mozilla uses a set of privacy operating principles as guidelines as we do work to grow the Web. Those principles that specifically relate to privacy in Firefox are:

Transparency / No Surprises 

Only use and share information about our users for their benefit and as disclosed in our notices.

Real Choice 

Give our users actionable and informed choices by informing and educating at the point of collection and providing a choice to opt-out whenever possible.

Sensible Defaults 

Establish default settings in our products and services that balance safety and user experience as appropriate for the context of the transaction.

Limited Data 

Collect and retain the least amount of information necessary for the feature or task. Try to share anonymous aggregate data whenever possible, and then only when it benefits the web, users, or developers

Themes and Goals:

Here the concrete goals are segmented into themes. Some goals may potentially fit into multiple themes, but are only identified here under the most relevant one.

Each specific goal relates to either Firefox (product users/web sites) or the ecosystem (standards bodies, other products' users) or both. They are annotated as such.

NOTE: these goals are tentative and more may be added or some may be dropped.

Improve Private & Semi-anonymous Browsing

Pr	Feature	Stage	Release target	Product manager	Feature manager
P3	Explore randomizing non-essential HTTP request data that can be used for fingerprinting	Concept	`	Sid Stamm	`
P3	Investigate simplifying Private Browsing Mode into profile switching.	Concept	`	Sid Stamm	`
P3	Explore potentially using a journaled profile service so all modifications to a profile can be rolled back when user exits private mode	Concept	`	Sid Stamm	`

Secure Network Connections

Pr

Feature

Stage

Release target

Product manager

Feature manager

Deploy Safe and Rational Defaults

Pr	Feature	Stage	Release target	Product manager	Feature manager
P3	Explore turning off more fingerprinting entropy sources	not started	`	Sid Stamm	`

Enable Control of Tracking and Third-Party Sharing

Privacy/Roadmap/Tracking shows more detail on the third-party tracking work.

Pr	Feature	Stage	Release target	Product manager	Feature manager
P2	Make DNT signal accessible from the navigator global object	Complete	Firefox 9	Sid Stamm	`
P2	Geolocation: Disable automated discovery	Shelved	`	`	`
P3	investigate implementing ping attribute for explicit tracking for honest organizations who want to track when users consent.	Concept	`	Sid Stamm	`
P3	Explore disabling third-party cookie sending by default	Concept	`	Sid Stamm	`

Enhance User Controlled Disclosure

Pr	Feature	Stage	Release target	Product manager	Feature manager
P1	Site-based data management UI	Shipped	Firefox 6	Asa Dotzler	Sid Stamm

Enrich Add-ons

Pr	Feature	Stage	Release target	Product manager	Feature manager
P2	Migrate as many add-ons as possible to a capabilities manifest system as proposed for Jetpack	Shelved	`	Sid Stamm	`

Improve Local Privacy

Pr

Feature

Stage

Release target

Product manager

Feature manager

Improve User Authentication

Pr

Feature

Stage

Release target

Product manager

Feature manager

Research & Understand Data Sharing

Pr	Feature	Stage	Release target	Product manager	Feature manager
P3	Leverage information we have about sites' data sharing habits to publish anonymous statistics on privacy practices (Test Pilot?)	Research	`	Sid Stamm	`
P3	Use concept series to harness designers' talent in finding a good way to represent data sharing patterns to users.	Research	`	Sid Stamm	`

Uncategorized

Pr	Feature	Stage	Release target	Product manager	Feature manager
P2	Improve the geolocation UX so it's better connected to the user	Definition	`	Sid Stamm	`
P2	Improve transparency of authentication state so users know when they're sending credentials to sites (and which ones)	Draft	`	Sid Stamm	`
P2	Deploy an API for sites to trigger second-factor authentication	Draft	`	Sid Stamm	`
P2	Incorporate fingerprint-minimizing features into private browsing	Draft	`	Sid Stamm	`
P2	Make DNT documentation and pref accessible from first-run page	Draft	`	Sid Stamm	`
P2	Create unified API for sites to request additional potentially privacy-sensitive features	Draft	`	Sid Stamm	`
P3	Use privacy icons or similar to show what privacy policy add-ons have	Definition	`	Sid Stamm	`
P3	mozCipherAddressbookAPI	Planning	`	Chris Blizzard	Dietrich Ayala

Roadmap

Links to implementation plan and progress:

• Firefox/Flight Tracking
• Firefox/Features