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arkenfox / user.js

Firefox privacy, security and anti-tracking: a comprehensive user.js template for configuration and hardening
MIT License
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Suggestion: media.autoplay.allow-muted: false #756

Closed GIPeon closed 5 years ago

GIPeon commented 5 years ago

Am I the only one terribly annoyed by autoplay videos? Even more with muted videos? Don't shove me your damn muted video ads!! /rantoff

Anyway after some digging I found that this nice little tweak can stop even muted videos. :mute:
Do you think it's a valuable suggestion for the user media section?

media.autoplay.allow-muted: false

crssi commented 5 years ago

Never landed on such site, or filters that I use on uBO are doing a great job.

Do you care to share a sample URL?

Thank you and cheers

GIPeon commented 5 years ago

@crssi I guess any news site or whatever, I use uBO in my every day use in a sort of advanced easy mode. Also my definition of "ad" video is quite broad, basically anything that autostart without consent, so many first party videos do end in this group. :ban:

crssi commented 5 years ago

^^ I still have trouble to find any site with that behavior. Do you mind, please, to share one sample anyway.

Thank you and cheers

EDIT: Ahhh, never mind... found the https://edition.cnn.com/

GIPeon commented 5 years ago

Hei yea I guess any news website has this kind of issue, if you are interested the page that triggered my "that's enough" moment is this, it's the video of the day right below.

earthlng commented 5 years ago

Am I the only one terribly annoyed by autoplay videos?

2030 combined with 2031 should prevent (non-muted?) autoplay, doesn't it? Do you not use these 2 prefs?

It's possible that media.autoplay.allow-muted=true overrides those 2 prefs IF the audio/video is muted but I'm not sure.

I'm not opposed to adding this pref but note that it will get removed in FF69 and replaced with an additional value for 2030

Thorin-Oakenpants commented 5 years ago

My first thoughts were

but note that it will get removed in FF69

Sucks for ESR. Adding it just for v68 seems like a waste of time

So IDK what to do now? I guess the first question to answer is where do they belong?

GIPeon commented 5 years ago

@earthlng

2030 combined with 2031 should prevent (non-muted?) autoplay, doesn't it? Do you not use these 2 prefs?

Unfortunately I do use them, but this intended behavior according to Mozilla (emphasis is mine):

Block autoplaying content automatically

If you find yourself on a site that autoplays video or audio Firefox will now stop the autoplay before it can start. If you’d like to hear or see it, just click on the play button to watch it. It’s easy to do and makes noisy sites mind their manners. If you’re on Facebook, Twitter or another social media site, they tend to automatically mute video content. Block Autoplay won’t stop the video from playing and instead the video will play without sound as the sites intend them to.

So yea, if the video is set as muted the video will play anyway. Fun fact: according to this HN thread, it's because of video gifs. 😒

@Thorin-Oakenpants

So IDK what to do now? I guess the first question to answer is where do they belong?

Indeed as you stated is more a personal setting, still I think it can actually help with some privacy and fingerprinting (I guess, I'm no expert) because I think that if the video is not played, the video file is not pulled from the server (which could be on a CDN), instead a "poster" image should be displayed (ofc also this could be on a CDN). This should be the case in a pure HTML5 implementation of the <video> element, dunno if this would be the same with a JS player.

Thorin-Oakenpants commented 5 years ago

my guess would be that logically the thumbnail/placeholder and video reside on the same server since one generates the other: if different servers, then probably the same same owner: cogito ergo sum: either way you connected to the third party

earthlng commented 5 years ago

Sucks for ESR. Adding it just for v68 seems like a waste of time

If we add it now and move it to 9999 later then ESR users can still see/use it. It will also serve as a reminder for us that there will be a new value for 2030 in FF69 (unless we already want to add that info now.)

why do we even have autoplay prefs in the main section?

IMO it's okay to have some "general annoyances" prefs. Not everything has to be just about privacy/security.

I guess the first question to answer is where do they belong?

the MEDIA section is exactly where I would expect to find these prefs. I don't really like the Personal section that much because at one point we decided that everything in there is inactive by default. And the format is different too which limits the amount of information/explanations etc that we can put there.

Thorin-Oakenpants commented 5 years ago

personal section has several purposes

There is no way in hell I want to break that arrangement. Yes, it means I end up with more in my overrides: I mean who doesn't block a lot of the warnings, whats new, recommendations stuff etc? But that's an end-user choice, not ours to enforce on people.

Not everything has to be just about privacy/security.

That's what the personal section is for. See the argument above. Otherwise we have would have situations like this

So the question is: does disabling autoplay do anything for privacy, security etc?

earthlng commented 5 years ago

I can't think of anything that disabling autoplay does for privacy or security but it shits on advertisement videos and the like. Don't know if that's reason enough for you to keep it active and in the Media section.

Thorin-Oakenpants commented 5 years ago

Don't know if that's reason enough for you to keep it active

two of the (current) three are at default. The gesture one at default knows you're already on the site and is probably the better default for most users: although I only tested on YT in a nilla, and I actually don't watch any video in my main FF, period.

at worst, it's one override

they could just slot straight into personal. the only thing I don't like about that is that they're verbose and require multi-lines. Adding the mute one for one release is no problem. Had a play and it's a bit messy: below is one with some info removed

/* HTML5 AUTOPLAY */
   // user_pref("media.autoplay.allow-muted", false); // blah blah
   // user_pref("media.autoplay.default", 1); // [FF63+]
      // 0=Allowed, 1=Blocked (2=Prompt - removed in FF66)
      // [SETTING] Privacy & Security>Permissions>Block websites from automatically playing sound
   // user_pref("media.autoplay.enabled.user-gestures-needed", false); // disable if you interacted with the site [FF66+]
   // user_pref("media.block-autoplay-until-in-foreground", true); // disable audio autoplay in non-active tabs [FF51+]
Thorin-Oakenpants commented 5 years ago

@GIPeon does this have anything to do with it: https://old.reddit.com/r/firefox/comments/cfuoa2/i_cant_unmute_webms/

GIPeon commented 5 years ago

I don't know, AFAICT I'd say no. The guy here is reporting problems with videos having no sound no matter what.

Basically my point is just to have this option suggested/listed to prevent videos on page to autoplay even when set as muted by the website, since FF by default allow muted videos to autoplay .

crssi commented 5 years ago

^^ IMHO, this is for user to decide... so for user-overrides.js. I vote to stay as it is now in ghacks user.js

Cheers

earthlng commented 5 years ago 
/* 2033: disable autoplay for muted videos [FF63+] ***/
   // user_pref("media.autoplay.allow-muted", false);