Tracking related preferences mentioned in Tor Browser Design Document not set in Tor Browser
Summary
I apologize if this is already discussed in another place. I tried looking for some explanation of this topic, but the closest I found was tor-browser#40783 (closed) which discusses other preferences that are currently included. If this should be a comment of that issue, please let me know.
The 2019 version of the Tor Browser Design Document mentions many Firefox preference changes that were implemented to avoid tracking on the web. Though this document never left the draft stage and is not reflective of the current Tor Browser, it lays out multiple reasons for the FF preferences that it mentions, and the ways in which they attempt to prevent tracking on the web. However, in the process of performing some research on the Tor Browser I found that many of the FF preferences have changed. Though most of these changes are reasonable and either explained or explainable (such as these preferences no longer being used in FF), a few preferences that appear to be related to tracking disappeared from TB. These include setting the following browser preferences:
- javascript.options.asmjs to false (mentioned here: tor-browser#19400 (closed), tor-browser#21298 (closed), but none relating to tracking)
- browser.cache.offline.enable to false
- security.ssl.disable_session_identifiers to false
- network.http.altsvc.enabled to false
- dom.gamepad.enabled to false (mentioned here: tor-browser#13023 (closed), tor-browser#10750 (closed))
- ui.use_standins_for_native_colors to true
- webgl.min_capability_mode to true
- media.webspeech.synth.enabled to false
- dom.battery.enabled to false
- dom.enable_performance to false
- media.video_stats.enabled to false
- dom.maxHardwareConcurrency to 1
- reader.parse-on-load.enabled to false
- browser.uitour.enabled to false
- dom.sensors.enabled to false
Is this a bug, or are there reasons to believe that these no longer cause a tracking issue?
Steps to reproduce:
How one can reproduce the issue - this is very important.
- Open Tor Browser
- Go to about:config
- Accept the warning.
- Search for the above listed preferences
What is the current bug behavior?
The above preferences do not show the expected vales from the Tor Browser Design Document.
What is the expected behavior?
The above preferences should show the expected values from the Tor Browser Design Document to avoid tracking.
Environment
Ubuntu 22.10 From distribution tarball.
Relevant logs and/or screenshots
N/A