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by kibwen 2969 days ago
Pocket doesn't collect any browsing history. From the linked docs:

> If the “Recommended by Pocket” feature is enabled, Pocket will send a list of the best stories on the web to Firefox every day. With each story, Pocket also sends a list of related websites that, when visited, signal likely interest in the story. Your Firefox browser compares your browsing history with the list of related websites to sort and filter through each day’s stories and recommend the ones that are most likely to interest you.

> Important Note: Neither Mozilla nor Pocket receives a copy of your browser history. The entire process of sorting and filtering which stories you should see happens locally in your copy of Firefox.

The feature isn't "EU-excepted", it's "US-only", probably because they only have recommendations for US audiences.

2 comments

It's quite a nice approach. It's practically optimizing the list of related websites to increase click through rates.
The problem I have with “Recommended by Pocket”, is that it only recommend left-wing discourse. Great for creating a filter bubble…
Wanted to make counter-argument, opened new tab, found you are right. Google Chrome mobile on the other hand gives me both sides.
I have no idea if they have a bias on what they send to Firefox, but their approach (send stories with a list of other sites that signal you might be interested) is obviously going to facilitate a filter bubble. Is your usual filter bubble right wing? If it is that suggests a bias on their part, otherwise maybe they're just amplifying your left wing browser history?