Favicons in bookmarks - How to get rid of them? (Firefox 3)

[earther]

^ Good news, but odd choice of thread to post in.

Just thought I'd note that removing favicons in places.sqlite removes the History favicons, and now that Firefox stores favicon data for History, Places.sqlite can become quite large

I posted here because when the "Make Firefox 3 Beta NOT update favicons..." in FF Builds was locked it was suggested to continue discussion in this thread.

places.sqlite is a huge albatross IMO.

[macthefork]

Do I understand this correctly? That Favicons can be used to track web activity? And Mozilla is complicit in this?

As for PHORM (and shortly Nebuad) there is now an add-on available: check out http://www.dephormation.org.uk/

The Dephormation Add On ensures that your decision to permanently opt out of Phorm profiling cannot be undone in Firefox.
Optionally, the Add On can also alert you to sites using Phorm/ Webwise/ OIX profile based advertising.

[Diorser]

Just hiding the favicons with userchrome, and removing them is totally different, especially on bookmarks file size.

exemple:
bookmarks.html with favicons => 4.9MB
bookmarks.html without favicons => 800kB

For linux users, there is a command to remove all favicons for bookmarks.html (Fx 2).

Code: Select all

sed -i 's/ICON="[^"]*"/ICON=""/g' bookmarks.html

[Frank Lion]

For linux users, there is a command to remove all favicons for bookmarks.html (Fx 2).

Code: Select all

sed -i 's/ICON="[^"]*"/ICON=""/g' bookmarks.html

Although it's not immediately obvious, this thread is about Firefox 3. Favicon removal has never been a problem prior to FF3, as users could either use the Favicon Picker extension to remove or a command such as you quoted.

However, when this thread began, the Favicon Picker extension did not work with FF3, hence the suggestions of manually editing the Bookmarks/History sqlite, but a new version of it is now available for FF3. So...problem now solved.

[Diorser]

A linux user will always prefer a simple command line to do something, than adding extensions.
I will investigate Fx3 the day I switch to Fx 3. (if I do).

[Frank Lion]

A linux user will always prefer a simple command line to do something, than adding extensions.

As a user of both Kubuntu and Kanotix, I sorta already knew that. However, 90+% of Firefox users are using a M$ Windows OS, which is why I mentioned the alternative..

[macthefork]

Do I understand this correctly? That Favicons can be used to track web activity?

I cannot follow this entire thread, a lot of it is too technical for me, so can you please just tell me if Favicons can be used to track browsing?
cheers

"The only thing necessary for the triumph of ignorance, is for good men to not answer questions."
"And I DID NOT PM you for support... I kept it on the board, so someone... anyone, hopefully, can answer it

[Frank Lion]

Do I understand this correctly? That Favicons can be used to track web activity?

I cannot follow this entire thread, a lot of it is too technical for me, so can you please just tell me if Favicons can be used to track browsing?

I'm certainly no expert on this cookie type stuff, I just have mine set to accept until I end the browser session.

The clearest answer on this thread, would seem to be from Bluefang here - viewtopic.php?p=3395953#p3395953

If this side is a matter of concern to you, then the new Favicon Picker extension would seem to be a good solution for you and to simply delete them.

[Diorser]

In order to avoid an extra extension, and manual deletion operations which can be quite boring, a simple script can erase all favicons when launching Firefox, or once a week for instance, or at system start, by using the sed and cron commands for linux users.

Sure a similar solution might exist for windows, but I am not a windows shell expert.

[steviex]

That is for Firefox 2, where it is in a HTML file. THIS thread is about FIREFOX 3 where the Favicons are in places.sqlite you would need to use a sqlite database tool to do the task...

This is Scarletrunner20's initial Question...

I have no favicons anywhere...bookmarks or any place else in Fx 1.5 and 2 and I don't want any in Fx3. How do I get rid of them in bookmarks?

[Diorser]

The subject is : "Favicons in bookmarks - How to get rid of them?"

Not sure everybody switched to Fx3.

And especially usefull to clean Fx bookmarks before migrating to Fx3.

[steviex]

In that case I will add Firefox 3 to the topic to clarify the issue.

[Diorser]

In that case I will add Firefox 3 to the topic to clarify the issue.

No you should not !
Because especially usefull to clean Fx2 bookmarks before migrating to Fx3.

[steviex]

As it is Scarletrunner's topic, the question that Scarletrunner posed in the first post.... is the one that is relevant for this topic.

Re read the rules about taking threads off topic. Scarlettrunner had no problem with Firefox 2 and 1.5 .... The question was asked about Firefox 3, and Scarletrunner is a WINDOWS user.