[_lqaf]

Configuring browsers to mirror each other across machines makes a big soupy mess. I understand why surveillance capitalists like the idea, makes their lives a little easier. But I really don't get why I'm supposed to want it.

I use different machines differently. The laptop I'm typing this on is my "main" browser, I have lots of bookmarks set up in a specific structure. I only use my phone browser when I have to, and it is rarely the same thing I've done before. It has a couple stale bookmarks, I don't care. I use the browser on my iPad even less. My big desktop is where I play with recreational software development, it has lots of bookmarks, but a very different set than my laptop. And my work phone/work laptop are their own things.

It just seems like making every closet door in your house open the same closet, if that where physically possible. There are reasons different things go in different buckets.

[Vinnl]

> I understand why surveillance capitalists like the idea, makes their lives a little easier.

FWIW, Firefox Sync is end-to-end encrypted, and Mozilla doesn't broker in your data.

[_cenw]

surprise revelation: some people work differently from you

[the_sleaze9]

Shoutout to the time I was looking at job listings on my cellphone, which then immediately popped up on my work computer in front of my coworkers. I didn't even know there _was_ a sync feature, it got turned on automatically after an update. Fun.

No sync please.

[marcosdumay]

Don't use your personal account on your work browser. Or, actually, on anything in your work. (And the other way around too.)

Nobody implements proper context switching and privacy from yourself. The only kind of privacy anybody even acknowledges the existence is from 3rd parties.

[nottorp]

Personal account? Account? When I switch from my desktop to my laptop and back, I sometimes get an extra Firefox icon in my dock. I once hovered over it and I think it was the sync feature.

I don't have a Firefox account and I'm not signed in into any browser on any account. Why does it try to sync things without my permission?

[marcosdumay]

> Why does it try to sync things without my permission?

It doesn't. (The interface for enabling it is even a little anxiety-causing.) It doesn't add extra icons anywhere either.

You have some additional software doing that. Do you use a fork from the Mozilla code?

[nottorp]

Nope, whatever they had me download. It's Macs so maybe they autoattached to handover or whatever Apple calls that feature. Which I like, but only for texts and phone calls.

The devices I mention are all in the same local network so maybe they discover each other.

Anyway, there's a post in this thread that explains perfectly why I (or that poster) don't need or want sync. Basically my different machines are used for different purposes so there's no reason to mix bookmarks or move browsing history around. As for credit card numbers... what is this insanity? I don't save credit card numbers anywhere.

[chuckadams]

It’s probably handoff. On chrome I get the extra icon as well, but it also has a phone mini-icon over it and a tooltip saying “from Safari”. You can disable handoff, just goo—er, duckduckgo it

[marcosdumay]

Oh, Firefox on the Mac is a wild and badly understood beast. It's worse on iOS.

I have no idea what you are supposed to expect there.

[zevon]

Sounds like the "Handoff" functionality baked into MacOS. If it is, it is not the same cloud-based sync mechanism referred to in this thread and by the person you are replying to. You can disable Handoff system-wide in System Settings --> General --> AirDrop & Handoff.