Upload of screenshot without asking for permission or even warning me

Firefox Screenshots
#1

Hello,

I just tried page-shot and it uploaded the screenshot to its servers without asking me or even warning me that this would happen. That is absolutely NOT OKAY. When I make a screenshot, I expect it to stay on my local machine, where I have control over it and I decide with whom I share it. If you would have told me, that it page-shot would upload the screenshot, I wouldn’t have used it. Because uploading it means: It’s out of my control. Probably crossed the borders and is now in a different state. It might even be publicly available. Or become public when your servers get hacked. Or your local authorities might force you to hand it out. Without even knowing, what kind of information is on the screenshot, this is absolutely not okay. What if it is a picture of me showing that I’m gay and I live in a country where that is forbidden? What if shows that I try to leak secret government information into the public? What if your local authorities use that screenshot to blackmail me, or arrest me? In my case, the screenshot is harmless. But you didn’t know that. Without asking, without caring about what that could mean for me, you just took that picture. Not okay. Please try to do better, next time, because I usually really like mozilla. : - (

Option to prevent my screenshots from being uploaded to firefox servers.
#2

Clicking the download button will save it to your local machine without sending it to Mozilla’s servers.

#3

@clouserw I can’t see a download button before the screenshot has been uploaded. I clicked on the screenshot icon in the toolbar, save visible then I was redirected to screenshots.firefox.com. Only then I was offered the option to download. This seem a rather severe violation of privacy particularly for an organization that is "obsessed with protecting [my] privacy. "

#4

Save visible/Save Full don’t have the download button yet. That’s https://github.com/mozilla-services/screenshots/issues/2157

#5

@clouserw are you sure it doesn’t upload everything automatically?

This page says that’s exactly what happens.

When you take a shot, Firefox posts your screenshot to your online Screenshots library

Not to mention that saving the image to your filesystem involves clicking on a Download icon with a hovertext that says “Download”, and then you see an animation in your list of downloads.

There are so multiple issues here. There’s poor information, and no control.

  • The FAQ page doesn’t provide any helpful information about what is uploaded
  • There should be a setting, by default everything is only kept local. If you choose to share a specific image, only then is it uploaded to the library. If a user wants everything uploaded by default (for backup or cross-device sync) then that should be an opt-in thing

This seems like a great idea, but for me these privacy issues are a dealbreaker.

#6

Clicking download doesn’t send the image to Mozilla. Can you give me wording that you’d like to see in the FAQ?

#7

On this page, under “Save and Share”, it should say something like:

When you take a shot and click on the Cloud Share button, Firefox posts your screenshot to your online Screenshots library and copies the link to your clipboard. We automatically store shared screenshots for two weeks, but you can delete shots at any time or change the expiration date to keep them in your library for longer. If you don’t click on the share button, your image doesn’t leave your computer.

Of course, only put that if it’s true.

And the “privacy notice” link at the bottom of that page should take the user to a page which actually tells the user something useful, which is specific to Firefox screenshots. Privacy notices have one purpose, and the current one fails to fulfill that. It should tell me what happens to my data. i.e. when are my photos uploaded to the cloud? And when are they not?

Similarly, there should be a question on the FAQ page which says something like:

Q: Which images are uploaded to the cloud?

A: By default, images do not leave your machine. Images are uploaded only if you click ‘share’ to generate a URL. You can choose to sync all screenshots with the cloud by going into settings and clicking on

The “download” button should have it’s hovertext changed from “download” to “save to filesystem”. Maybe also change the download icon to a hard disk shaped save icon?

Functionally, I’d like “My Shots” to show me all the shots that I’ve saved locally, even if I didn’t upload them to the cloud.

#8

Thanks for your suggestions. I’ve filed an issue at https://github.com/mozilla-services/screenshots/issues/3499