Firefox Profilemaker

Welcome to the Firefox Profilemaker!

This tool will help you to create a Firefox profile with the defaults you like.

You select which features you want to enable and disable and in the end you get a download link for a zip-file with your profile template. You can for example disable some functions, which send data to Mozilla and Google, or disable several annoying Firefox functions like Mozilla Hello or the Pocket integration.

Each Setting has a short explanation and for the non obvious settings links to resources describing the feature and the possible problems with it.

Annoyances

Disable the first run tabs with advertisements for the latest firefox features.
Disable the intro to the newtab page on the first run
When Firefox is not used for a while, it displays a prompt asking if the user wants to reset the profile. (see Bug #955950).
With Firefox 37, Mozilla integrated the Heartbeat system to ask users from time to time about their experience with Firefox.
Per default, <video> tags are allowed to start automatically. Note: When disabling autoplay, you will have to click pause and play again on some video sites.

Firefox Tracking

The telemetry feature sends data about the performance and responsiveness of Firefox to Mozilla.
Disable sending Firefox health reports to Mozilla
Firefox sends data about installed addons as metadata updates, so Mozilla is able to recommend you other addons.
The phishing protection contacts google with an unique key: wrkey.
The malware scan sends an unique identifier for each downloaded file to Google.
By default Firefox preloads the new tab page (with website thumbnails) in the background before it is even opened.

Privacy

Using a popular useragent string avoids attracting attention i.e. with an Iceweasel UA. (keep blank to use the default)
Block 3rd-Party cookies or even all cookies.
Firefox tells a website, from which site you're coming (the so called referer). You can find more detailed settings in this ghacks article or install the RefControl extension for per domain settings.
Disables DOM storage, which enables so called "supercookies". Some modern sites will not fully not work (i.e. missing "save" functions).
IndexedDB is a way, websites can store structured data. This can be abused for tracking, too. Disabling may be a problem with some webapps like tweetdeck.
Firefox prefetches the next site on some links, so the site is loaded even when you never click.
Disables the WebGL function, to prevent fingerprinting with WebGL. Another issue is, that websites can (ab)use the full power of the graphics card. WebGL is part of some fingerprinting scripts used in the wild. Some interactive websites will not work, which are mostly games.
Disables the WebRTC function, which gives away your local ips. Some addons like uBlock origin provide settings to prevent WebRTC from exposing local ips without disabling WebRTC.
Firefox suggests search terms in the search field. This will send everything typed or pasted in the search field to the chosen search engine, even when you did not press enter.
When you mistype some url, Firefox starts a search even from urlbar. This feature is useful for quick searching, but may harm your privacy, when it's unintended.
When you type "something" in the urlbar and press enter, Firefox tries "something.com", if Fixup URLs is enabled.

Addon Tracking

Greasemonkey has a (currently opt-in) function to submit user stats. This explicitely disables it, in case that it will get opt-out in the future.

Website Tracking

With the do not track feature, you tell websites, that you do not want to be tracked. Most websites ignore this, so you need other privacy options as well.
The privacy.resistFingerprinting setting coming from the tor-browser hides some system properties.See Bug #1308340 for more information.
Firefox has a builtin tracking protection, which blocks a list of known tracking sites.
Firefox sends "ping" requests, when a website requests to be informed when a user clicks on a link.
The Beacon feature allows websites to send tracking data after you left the website.
Firefox allows websites to read the charge level of the battery. This may be used for fingerprinting.
Prevent websites from accessing information about webcam and microphone (possible fingerprinting).
Prevent websites from measuring video performance (possible fingerprinting). See Mozilla Bug 654550.

Security

Updates are no longer installed automatically. You will still be notified when an update is available and can install it. Avoids getting a new (maybe addon incompatible) version.
Disable searching for updates. Caution: You may not notice, when there is an (security) update available.

Addons

Blocks the JS-API for the <canvas> element to prevent Canvas-Fingerprinting.
Rewrites URLs from the google result pages to from redirect urls with tracking to direct links.
HTTPS Everywhere is a Firefox extension that enables HTTPS encryption automatically on sites that support it.
The Privacy Badger addon automatically detects trackers and blocks them. You can manually block and unblock urls as well.
Efficient blocker, which does not only block ads, but also supports Anti-Tracking and Anti-Malware Blocklists
A content blocker for advanced users, which blocks requests to thirdparty domains. Big privacy gain, but you will need to configure exception rules for many sites.
Adds a little [x] icon to urlbar and searchbar to clear the text.

Download

Download profile.zip
Download only prefs.js Open prefs.js in the browser
Download only addons.zip
When you download only the addons.zip, you need to copy the user_pref("extensions.autoDisableScopes", 14); line into your prefs.js, else firefox won't install the addons.

Installing

  • Optional: add a new profile to keep the old one
    • Run firefox -no-remote -ProfileManager
    • Create a new profile
  • Type about:support into the url bar.
  • Press the open profile folder button.
  • Quit Firefox.
  • Delete everything from the new profile (you will lose all existing data from the profile).
  • unzip the profile.zip file into the folder.
  • Start Firefox again. If you made a new profile, you can use it with firefox -no-remote -P profilename.
  • Open the addon manager and update the extensions.

Preview

prefs.js: 


                
            

        

    

    
    
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