What notifications are you seeing?

Also, please update to Firefox 61.0.1

Tyler Downer said

What notifications are you seeing? Also, please update to Firefox 61.0.1

61 Is not available.

Notifications showing up are requests to allow access to location information. These are little pop up boxes that show up for a variety of websites that offer location based services. (However ideally I want to stop all such popups because they get vexing.)

It is, 61 was released many weeks ago. Please update.

Can you post a screenshot of the exact pop-up you are worried about? Thanks!

you can see the notification here.

Best regards

Hi ftss, your screenshot shows a panel asking if you want to allow a website to access your precise location. This is not a website notification, it's a Firefox feature to check whether you want a grant a site permission to do a specific thing.

If you want to block permission requests by default so that you don't have to respond to them on a case by case basis, you can do that on the Options page. I suggest only blocking Location, and maybe Notifications. I don't think you need to block camera/microphone as those are very rare and it's a hassle to make exceptions without that permissions panel dropping down.

To change Firefox's behavior from asking you if you want to grant permission to automatically denying permission, go to the Preferences page --

• Windows: "3-bar" menu button (or Tools menu) > Options
• Mac: "3-bar" menu button (or Firefox menu) > Preferences
• Linux: "3-bar" menu button (or Edit menu) > Preferences
• Any system: type or paste about:preferences into the address bar and press Enter/Return to load it

-- then click Privacy & Security in the left column.

When you scroll to the Permissions section, the first is Location. If you click the "Settings" button, you will see:

• List of sites that asked for permission to access your precise location and what you told Firefox to do (if you didn't just ignore it)
• A checkbox labeled "Block new requests asking to access your location" that you can check so Firefox doesn't bother you about site location requests

If you use the checkbox, then if there IS a site you want to be able to find your location for some reason (a site you trust and really needs it) then you'll be able to create an exception for that site.

Screenshot from another thread: https://prod-cdn.sumo.mozilla.net/uploads/images/2018-06-03-09-39-29-3cf0b6.png

ftss said

... I don't need EVER to allow websites to know my location etc because it is ALWAYS the VPN location which is in the browser and not my actual location. Hence these notifications are invariably of no use since they would just register the VPN location and not my actual location.

Actually, that is not how it works. Granting permission to access your location triggers Firefox to use either

• Android - GPS feature of your device (and/or possibly cell tower triangulation)
• Win/Mac/Linux - Nearby wi-fi hotpot network names (SSIDs)

to get lat/lon coordinates to your position. So if you are using a VPN to disguise your location, you definitely never want to grant permission for your precise location.

I feel like this question is a moving target...

ftss said

Also I notice when the location notification appears it often breaks the web page until the page has completed loading. I don't know whether this is a website bug, or a firefox bugs, but I never get this problem when a website is not trying to access my location.

Some pages do not work while waiting for permission. Either granting or denying lets their scripts run to completion.

A very small subset of pages have been reported not to work at all without location permission. Sites usually fix that after enough users complain.

Thanks!