The Snippets Service and the code that it embeds onto about:home collect data about user interaction with snippets in order to help us determine the effectiveness of certain types of snippets and measure whether a specific snippet is successful. This document outlines the types of data we collect and how it is handled.
Retrieving Snippets¶The Overview document describes how Firefox retrieves snippets. The actual URL that Firefox uses for fetching snippets can be found under the about:config preference browser.aboutHomeSnippets.updateUrl and defaults to:
https://snippets.cdn.mozilla.net/%STARTPAGE_VERSION%/%NAME%/%VERSION%/%APPBUILDID%/%BUILD_TARGET%/%LOCALE%/%CHANNEL%/%OS_VERSION%/%DISTRIBUTION%/%DISTRIBUTION_VERSION%/
The names surrounded by % symbols are special values that Firefox replaces with information about the user’s browser.
STARTPAGE_VERSION
A hard-coded number within Firefox specifying which version of about:home is retrieving snippets. We sometimes increase this when about:home changes in a way that may break certain snippets.
Example: 1
NAME
The name of the product being used.
Example: Firefox
VERSION
The Firefox version number currently being used.
Example: 29.0.1
APPBUILDID
A string uniquely identifying the build of Firefox in use, usually in the form of the date the build occurred with a number appended.
Example: 2007083015
BUILD_TARGET
A string describing the platform and configuration used when building Firefox.
Example: Darwin_x86-gcc3
LOCALE
The locale that the current Firefox was built for. We use this for showing snippets in different languages only to users who can read that language.
Example: en-US
CHANNEL
The release channel for the current Firefox. This is typically one of release, beta, aurora, or nightly.
Example: aurora
OS_VERSION
A string describing the operating system that this Firefox was built for.
Example: Darwin%208.10.1
DISTRIBUTION
A string used to describe custom distributions of Firefox, such as when providing custom builds with partners. This is set to default for most instances of Firefox.
Example: default
DISTRIBUTION_VERSION
Version of the customized distribution. This is also default for most instances of Firefox.
Example: default
By default, the about:newtab and about:home pages in Firefox (the pages you see when you open a new tab and when you start the browser), will send data back to Mozilla servers about snippets. The intent is to collect data in order to improve the user’s experience while using Firefox. At any time, it is easy to turn off this data collection by opting out of Firefox telemetry.
Data is sent to our servers in the form of discreet HTTPS ‘pings’ or messages whenever you see or interact with snippets on about:home or about:newtab. We try to minimize the amount and frequency of pings by batching them together.
At Mozilla, we take your privacy very seriously. The new tab page will never send any data that could personally identify you. We do not transmit what you are browsing, searches you perform or any private settings. Activity Stream does not set or send cookies, and uses Transport Layer Security to securely transmit data to Mozilla servers.
Data collected about snippets is retained on Mozilla secured servers for a period of 30 days before being rolled up into an anonymous aggregated format. After this period the raw data is deleted permanently. Mozilla never shares data with any third party.
The following is an overview of the different kinds of data we collect about snippets:
Unique name referring to the snippet that was being viewed when the request was sent.
The locale of the current Firefox instance (the same locale value described in the snippet URL from the previous section).
The country code corresponding to the country the user is currently located in. This value may be empty in cases where we can’t retrieve the user’s country.
A string identifying the type of ping as either an impression or user event.
A string describing the type of event being measured, such as a snippet impression or a link click.
A string identifying that the ping as coming from the footer area of the new tab page.
The following is a list of the types of events that we collect data for as described in the previous section:
Impressions¶An impression is whenever a user is shown a specific snippet.
Snippet Clicks¶Whenever a link or button in a snippet is clicked, we trigger an event that includes what was clicked on. This includes links and buttons that may trigger an action besides opening up a new page, such as opening up browser menus, submitting a form, or going to the next scene in the snippet.
Snippet Blocks¶We trigger an event when a snippet is hidden from view by clicking the small “x” button in the corner of all snippets, as well as the “Dismiss” button on certain snippets with multiple-stage views.
Metrics for Firefox 63 and earlier¶Snippet code, which is executed on about:home, sends HTTP requests to a server located at https://snippets-stats.moz.works and/or https://snippets-stats.mozilla.org whenever an event occurs that we would like to measure. These requests are sampled at a rate of 1%, meaning that only 1% of the time an event occurs will a request be made.
Requests sent to snippets-stats.mozilla.org contain the following data (sent as URL parameters in the query string) in addition to the normal data available from an HTTP request:
Unique name referring to the snippet that was being viewed when the request was sent.
The locale of the current Firefox instance (the same locale value described in the snippet URL from the previous section).
The country code corresponding to the country the user is currently located in. This is determined via the user’s IP address and is cached locally within Firefox for 30 days. This value may be empty in cases where we can’t retrieve the user’s country.
A string describing the type of event being measured, such as a snippet impression or a link click.
A string describing the snippet campaign this snippet is related to. We use this to help group metrics across multiple snippets related to a single campaign. This value may be empty.
The following is a list of the types of events that we collect data for as described in the previous section:
Impressions¶An impression is whenever a user is shown a specific snippet.
Snippet Clicks¶Whenever a link in a snippet is clicked, we trigger an event that notes which particular link was clicked. This includes links that may trigger an action besides opening up a new page, such as links that trigger browser menus.
Video Plays, Pauses, Replays¶Some snippets allow users to view videos. Some of these snippets trigger events when the video is played or paused, when the end of the video is reached, or when the user replays the video after it finishes.
Default Browser¶Some snippets trigger an event that tracks whether Firefox is the default browser on the user’s system. These snippets also trigger an event when the user makes Firefox their default browser by either clicking a link in the snippet or by setting the default outside of the browser.
Browser UI Events¶Some snippets trigger events when the user clicks specific buttons in the Firefox user interface (as opposed to the in-page snippet). Examples of the elements that can be tracked this way include:
The “Email”, “Copy Link”, and “Start Conversation” buttons within the Firefox Hello dialog.
Note
On May 15th 2019 the data proxying to GA has been disabled for all versions of Firefox and the proxy server has been shut down.
The snippets statistics server may proxy data to Google Analytics, with stripped IP information and with a randomly generated UID unique to every request. Google Analytics is never loaded within about:home. Some Mozilla websites use Google Analytics to collect data about user behavior so that we can improve our sites.
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