allowing users to opt out of search autocomplete on first startup?

[doug....@gmail.com]

Just now Firefox silently enables search autocomplete by default in fresh installs.

Search autocomplete echoes whatever the user types in the top bar to the search provider (Google by default), and so effectively shares user browsing history with them. That's an obvious privacy concern.

It can be disabled by users, but that requires both knowledge (i.e. that it exists, what the risds are and that it might be worth disabling) and an active step (changing from the default preferences).

I'd like to propose that on first start up Firefox displays an initial window that gives users the option to opt out of search autocomplete before proceeding. There's already precedent for this approach to obtaining user consent to potentially intrusive features in other privacy conscious browsers.

And while we're at it, why not give users the option to opt out of telemetry at the same startup window (several browsers already do this, including Chrome).

What level of support is there for this proposal? If you're in favour could you post a brief thumbs up (or the like) in reply to this post, that way we can all get a sense of the support (or otherwise - thumbs down are allowed too) for this. Thanks.