[tbb-bugs] #31575 [Applications/Tor Browser]: Firefox is phoning home during start-up in Tor Browser based on ESR 68

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#31575: Firefox is phoning home during start-up in Tor Browser based on ESR 68
-------------------------------------------------+-------------------------
 Reporter:  gk                                   |          Owner:  tbb-
                                                 |  team
     Type:  defect                               |         Status:
                                                 |  needs_review
 Priority:  Medium                               |      Milestone:
Component:  Applications/Tor Browser             |        Version:
 Severity:  Normal                               |     Resolution:
 Keywords:  ff68-esr, tbb-9.0-must-alpha,        |  Actual Points:
  TorBrowserTeam201909R                          |
Parent ID:                                       |         Points:  1
 Reviewer:                                       |        Sponsor:
-------------------------------------------------+-------------------------
Changes (by acat):

 * keywords:  ff68-esr, tbb-9.0-must-alpha, TorBrowserTeam201909 =>
     ff68-esr, tbb-9.0-must-alpha, TorBrowserTeam201909R
 * status:  new => needs_review


Comment:

 Patch for review in https://github.com/acatarineu/tor-
 browser/commits/31575 (two commits).

 I investigated a bit where these requests where coming from, and all are
 from the newtab ActivityStream. The first ones (containing cfr-fxa) are
 done in [https://searchfox.org/mozilla-
 esr68/rev/5c4a430c9101024114854f47926fdfacc5502294/browser/components/newtab/lib/ASRouter.jsm#238
 ASRouter.jsm], which calls [https://searchfox.org/mozilla-
 esr68/rev/5c4a430c9101024114854f47926fdfacc5502294/services/settings/RemoteSettingsClient.jsm#254
 RemoteSettingsClient.jsm] and that does a bunch of fetches to sync. The
 snippets ones are coming from [https://searchfox.org/mozilla-
 esr68/rev/5c4a430c9101024114854f47926fdfacc5502294/browser/components/newtab/lib/ASRouter.jsm#170
 ASRouter.jsm].

 There are a bunch of `browser.newtabpage.activity-stream.*` prefs that
 probably we could use to disable these, but I opted for the simple
 solution of just not loading the `AboutNewTab.jsm` at all. That means it's
 not possible anymore to change the newtab page, so I also removed that
 option from the UI in the patch.

--
Ticket URL: <https://trac.torproject.org/projects/tor/ticket/31575#comment:3>
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