Disable connection to push.services.mozilla.com

[doug....@gmail.com]

By default, Firefox opens a websocket to push.services.mozilla.com. It then seems to keep this open forever even though I have no push notifications registered, nor ever have done.

Is there a way to permanently stop this connection to push.services.mozilla.com?

Of course I've done some googling but its turned up nothing - ticking to box in preferences saying to block new notifications doesn't work, clearing the list of web pages doesn't work (its empty anyway).

Thanks.

[Andy Burns]

Is it on port 443 or some other?

I have firefox set to block all notification requests, do you use
firefox sync? I don't use sync, and even with over 600 tabs open, only
show three TCP connections to the internet, none of which seem to be to
a push server

C:\Users\Andy>netstat -a | find "ESTABLISHED" | find /v "127.0.0.1"

TCP 192.168.1.127:8241 ec2-34-214-149-136:https ESTABLISHED
TCP 192.168.1.127:8245 40.67.254.36:https ESTABLISHED
TCP 192.168.1.127:8945 dub08s01-in-f14:https ESTABLISHED

C:\Users\Andy>nslookup push.services.mozilla.com

Name: autopush.prod.mozaws.net
Address: 52.41.33.64
Aliases: push.services.mozilla.com

[R.Wieser]

Doug,

> Is there a way to permanently stop this connection to
> push.services.mozilla.com?

If you run Windows you could try to add that domain (and a few just like it)
to the "hosts" file (with an 127.0.0.1 IP).

Regards,
Rudy Wieser

[doug....@gmail.com]

Thanks, of course I can use a firewall to block the connection (and do). But surely there is a setting within the Firefox preferences someplace to disable it at source ?

[Nobody]

Just wondering, in <about:config>, there are several 'dom.push'
settings... one being <dom.push.enabled> and as default (for me) is
'true'.

[R.Wieser]

Dough,

> But surely there is a setting within the Firefox preferences someplace to
> disable it at source ?

You would think so.

The problem is that multiple, not always obviously named settings could be,
and sometimes are, involved (as in multiple locks on a single door - miss
one and the door is still locked), making it /very/ hard to stop the
phoning-home by just trying stuff*. IOW, you need to /exactly/ know what to
change where in about:config, or be rather lucky.

* that you found on the web - which more often than not does not mention the
applicable version(s) at all.

And thats supposing that the setting is actually in there ...

The biggest problem is is that Mozilla itself doesn't seem to want to
provide the info needed to tame all those phoning-home connections. :-(

I myself have v52.5.0 which I can't get to stop trying to access
locations.services.mozilla.com and tiles.services.mozilla.com on every boot,
and aus5.mozilla.org once in a while. Even though I've blocked it
otherwise, its still a thorn in my side.

Regards,
Rudy Wieser

[doug....@gmail.com]

On Tuesday, 18 February 2020 23:59:43 UTC, doug...@gmail.com wrote:

Thanks. Changing dom.push.connection.enabled to false seems to do the trick.

[doug....@gmail.com]

On Tuesday, 18 February 2020 23:59:43 UTC, doug...@gmail.com wrote:

@Rudy: there do seem to be plenty of connections made alright. as part of a small project (I work at a university) we've been using a proxy to look at the content of some of them to try to evaluate the privacy implications. mostly the content seems fairly benign (just checks for updates and the like that send no identifying info), but the push services connection sets a uaid unique user identifier that is shared with backend servers and so is more troubling. anyway, in case its of interest i'll post a link to a report with more details once its been written up properly.

[Andy Burns]

doug....@gmail.com wrote:

> there do seem to be plenty of connections made alright

Wonder why I see none? I don't have the push setting nobbled in
about:config.

[R.Wieser]

Andy,

> Wonder why I see none?

I wonder why you are wondering, and are unable to come up with a possible
reason for it ...

Regards,
Rudy Wieser

[Andy Burns]

R.Wieser wrote:

> Andy Burns wrote:
>
>> Wonder why I see none?
>
> I wonder why you are wondering, and are unable to come up with a possible
> reason for it ...

Well, I would have assumed it's because I always refuse push
notifications, but the O/P said they do that too, yet they see the
connection.

[R.Wieser]

Andy,

> but the O/P said they do that too, yet they see the connection.

Now I'm wondering about your wondering why you do not get them and he does,
as well as wondering why you are just repeating the provided info (without
adding anything) ...

Regards,
Rudy Wieser

[Andrei Z.]

I set dom.push.enabled to false.
This is by default currently in Thunderbird and in Tor Browser (Firefox
68.5.0esr).

In Tor Browser dom.push.connection.enabled is set to true,
dom.push.serverURL and dom.push.userAgentID are empty.

[n...@mail.invalid]

<doug....@gmail.com> wrote:

> @Rudy: there do seem to be plenty of connections made alright. as
> part of a small project (I work at a university) we've been using a
> proxy to look at the content of some of them to try to evaluate the
> privacy implications. mostly the content seems fairly benign (just
> checks for updates and the like that send no identifying info), but
> the push services connection sets a uaid unique user identifier
> that is shared with backend servers and so is more troubling.
> anyway, in case its of interest i'll post a link to a report with
> more details once its been written up properly.

JFTR: it's of interest.
A complete list of settings, which suppress any connections, which I
don't initiate myself, too.