Completely disable Data Reporting

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Yaron10
Posts: 472
Joined: July 5th, 2011, 6:32 am

Completely disable Data Reporting

Post by Yaron10 »

Hello,

I've set the following prefs:

user_pref("datareporting.healthreport.service.enabled", false);
user_pref("datareporting.healthreport.uploadEnabled", false);
user_pref("datareporting.policy.dataSubmissionEnabled", false);
user_pref("toolkit.telemetry.unified", false);

Still, Firefox 40.0.2 has created a new folder "datareporting" in my profile folder, and keeps adding new items to it.
How can I completely disable Data Reporting?

Thank you.
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therube
Posts: 21703
Joined: March 10th, 2004, 9:59 pm
Location: Maryland USA

Re: Completely disable Data Reporting

Post by therube »

I believe there was a recent thread that stated that there is differentiation between collection & sending & depending on particular settings, you may have one or the other or neither?


(Might be interested in How to stop Firefox from making automatic connections.)
Fire 750, bring back 250.
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Yaron10
Posts: 472
Joined: July 5th, 2011, 6:32 am

Re: Completely disable Data Reporting

Post by Yaron10 »

Hi therube,

Thanks for replying. I really appreciate it.
(I wasn't notified of your reply; I'm sure I checked "Notify me when a reply is posted").

A recent thread in this forum?
I don't really know what the new new folder "datareporting" contains. I just don't want it there. :)

Best regards.
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JayhawksRock
Posts: 10433
Joined: October 24th, 2010, 8:51 am

Re: Completely disable Data Reporting

Post by JayhawksRock »

To see what data is sent go to about:healthreport and click Raw Data column
More info here > https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/fi ... -on-or-off
And > http://www.howtogeek.com/tips/how-to-tu ... n-windows/
"The trouble with quotes on the internet is you never know if they are genuine" ...Abraham Lincoln
Yaron10
Posts: 472
Joined: July 5th, 2011, 6:32 am

Re: Completely disable Data Reporting

Post by Yaron10 »

Hi JayhawksRock,

Thanks for your help. I really appreciate it.

The Raw Data column is empty.
All the possible settings in Options are disabled.
The folder "datareporting" was created after installing FF 40. There's probably a new pref. --?

Best regards.
Yaron10
Posts: 472
Joined: July 5th, 2011, 6:32 am

Re: Completely disable Data Reporting

Post by Yaron10 »

User avatar
JayhawksRock
Posts: 10433
Joined: October 24th, 2010, 8:51 am

Re: Completely disable Data Reporting

Post by JayhawksRock »

The key is whether or not it contains data with your settings. The folder itself will return on every restart as all default folders do.. the same as if you removed an empty extensions folder or the chrome folder.
FWIW, I have Firefox 31 still installed and the same folder is there.... so this is not New News
"The trouble with quotes on the internet is you never know if they are genuine" ...Abraham Lincoln
Yaron10
Posts: 472
Joined: July 5th, 2011, 6:32 am

Re: Completely disable Data Reporting

Post by Yaron10 »

Thanks again JayhawksRock.

That's interesting.
I'm sure this folder did not exist in my profile prior to FF 40.

I added the prefs:

Code: Select all

user_pref("datareporting.healthreport.service.enabled", false);
user_pref("toolkit.telemetry.unified", false);
after installing FF 40.

Without them, FF started adding tens of entries like

Code: Select all

user_pref("datareporting.sessions.current.activeTicks", 6);
user_pref("datareporting.sessions.current.clean", true);
user_pref("datareporting.sessions.current.firstPaint", 1143);
user_pref("datareporting.sessions.current.main", 249);
user_pref("datareporting.sessions.current.sessionRestored", 1599);
user_pref("datareporting.sessions.current.startTime", "1439862041438");
user_pref("datareporting.sessions.current.totalTime", 28);
to my prefs.js.

Those entries are gone, but now I got the new folder.
I have no idea what's going on.

Regards.

EDIT:
The folder contains the following items:
1) session-state.json
2) state.json
3) A folder "archived" which contains another folder "2015-08" that has tens of files like:
1439862649871.c0086185-14f2-45b3-a1f5-6fbcb95f58c5.saved-session.jsonlz4.
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JayhawksRock
Posts: 10433
Joined: October 24th, 2010, 8:51 am

Re: Completely disable Data Reporting

Post by JayhawksRock »

http://www.file-extensions.org/jsonlz4-file-extension
typical bookmark backups would be 15 dated files
I'm out ..... have fun Sherlock hope you solve the crime :D
"The trouble with quotes on the internet is you never know if they are genuine" ...Abraham Lincoln
Yaron10
Posts: 472
Joined: July 5th, 2011, 6:32 am

Re: Completely disable Data Reporting

Post by Yaron10 »

Thanks Dr. Watson.
Have a good time out there. :)
Yaron10
Posts: 472
Joined: July 5th, 2011, 6:32 am

Re: Completely disable Data Reporting

Post by Yaron10 »

User avatar
JayhawksRock
Posts: 10433
Joined: October 24th, 2010, 8:51 am

Re: Completely disable Data Reporting

Post by JayhawksRock »

Good work... thanks for posting... just made changes to my personal browser. My 7 testing setups stay at defaults
"The trouble with quotes on the internet is you never know if they are genuine" ...Abraham Lincoln
Yaron10
Posts: 472
Joined: July 5th, 2011, 6:32 am

Re: Completely disable Data Reporting

Post by Yaron10 »

My pleasure.
And thanks again for your help.
Yaron10
Posts: 472
Joined: July 5th, 2011, 6:32 am

Re: Completely disable Data Reporting

Post by Yaron10 »

Hello,

Some more info (courtesy of Georg Fritzsche; many thanks):

so this should currently prevent both Telemetry & FHR from starting:

toolkit.telemetry.unified to false
toolkit.telemetry.enabled to false
datareporting.healthreport.service.enabled to false

Note that there may still be some things kicking off more or less independently (say the client id handling) and writing to datareporting/state.json. It wouldn't be used by anything though.

If you want to confirm that e.g. Telemetry is not initializing, set toolkit.telemetry.log.level to 0 and check the browser console for Telemetry output (it should say that it skips initialization because of the settings).

datareporting.healthreport.uploadEnabled is the pref that prevents upload, .submissionEnabled is a master upload-kill-switch overriding it (e.g. for enterprise deployment).


We shouldn't create any archived pings in that directory if Telemetry is fully off.
However, you can specifically turn off the archiving too with toolkit.telemetry.archive.enabled.

From Firefox 41 on, "datareporting.policy.dataSubmissionEnabled" is the master-kill-switch for any upload/reporting for FHR and Telemetry.


If you set toolkit.telemetry.archive.enabled to false, you can delete the folders "datareporting" and "saved-telemetry-pings"; - FF won't recreate them.

Best regards.
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