releasing a firefox "portable" version with pre-installed addons.

[berli0z]

We want to release a tool for researchers to use to collect data while doing other tasks (for example at work). The solution proposed is to modify the last version of firefox ESR (for linux/mac) and firefox portable (for windows only).

The problem is that firefox must be modified and re-compiled from source in order to use a "local" profile. It must be run with a shell script in linux/mac environments, while the windows portable edition allows to include preinstalled and tweaked extensions (such as including scripts for tampermonkey).

• Release a customized firefox version for Mac/Win/Linux
  ... We have two alpha versions. one for windows and one for ubuntu.
• An installation guide must be prepared.
• A blogpost that explains why we provide this browser and how to use it (to researchers and journalists).
• Later on, some script to personalize pre-existing firefox versions could be released instead of a binary.

IMPORTANT: if you use the one for ubuntu make sure to not start "firefox" but use the "start_firefox" shell script instead. Open the readme.nfo file for more details.

[berli0z]

First release is here: https://github.com/tracking-exposed/binaries/releases/tag/browser-alpha

will soon modify this issue in "i want to know how to setup my browser to conduct research with fbtrex"

1. DIY - full step-by-step guide
   or
2. Using our customized browser

[berli0z]

Here is a preview of the DIY guide.

How to run facebook tracking exposed on a secondary facebook profile in your desktop environment.

1. Download Firefox

If you have it already, you can skip this step.
Otherwise, just download and install it from here:
https://www.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/.
Just to make sure, run it once and close it. You don't need to setup anything.

2. Create a new dedicated profile.

Open cmd (Windows) or Terminal (MacOS) or bash (Linux) (or another command line).

• In Windows, use Winkey+R, then type cmd and press enter.
• In Mac, open ``/Applications/Utility/Terminal`.
• In Ubuntu, just look for Terminal or another shell.

Once you open the command line, type:

firefox -CreateProfile fbtrex

Firefox shouldn't open but the new profile will be created.

3. Start Firefox from command line

Do not start firefox normally, but open a command line (such as
Applications/Utilities/Terminal in OSX). Then, to start firefox type:

firefox -P fbtrex --no-remote

This will launch a separate instance of Mozilla Firefox (if you are already running it)
and will use the fbtrex profile instead of your default one.
You can check which profile you are currently using or create a new one by
typing about:profiles in your URL bar. REMEMBER! ALWAYS START FIREFOX THIS WAY to use fbtrex.

4. Install fbTREX

Install facebook.tracking.exposed for Mozilla Firefox at this link:
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/facebook-tracking-exposed/

5. Log to your secondary Facebook account

Now you can login to Facebook. Remember to save your login so every time you run Firefox with this profile you can start collecting posts.

Optional: 6. Install Tampermonkey, Autoscroller and tweak it.

After you logged on facebook for the first time, you can optionally download Tampermonkey and an Autoscroller script to automate scrolling and therefore posts collection.

1. In order to do this, first step is to install tampermonkey (using the same profile
   as for facebook.tracking.exposed). You can do it here: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/tampermonkey/
2. Afterwards, use the following link and a dialog will appear asking you to add it to tampermonkey. Accept. https://facebook.tracking.exposed/autoscroll.user.js
3. If you want to tweak the timeframes in which your customized profile will scroll, you can do it inside of tampermonkey.

Optional: 7. Make facebook your home page

If you are going to use this browser for facebook.tracking.exposed only,
you might want to set facebook.com as your home page by dragging the Facebook
tab into the 'home' icon. You can find more information here: https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/how-to-set-the-home-page

IMPORTANT! REMEMBER TO RUN FIREFOX WITH THE FOLLOWING COMMAND EVERY TIME:

firefox -P fbtrex --no-remote

Optionally, you can create a small script that runs firefox automatically. You
can download some executable versions for different operating systems here:
LINK TO REPO

[berli0z]

This is a stub for a second page to instruct on how to use it

How to use our customized Firefox browser?

Why would you want to use a customized Firefox browser?
If you want to collect data on a secondary Facebook profile while you keep on using you computer and accessing your facebook without collecting your own data, you can do it by either using our customized firefox or by setting up your own (see url/to/guide). You can also run it in the background and monitor it via some python script we will provide here: https://github.com/tracking-exposed/dashboard

Windows

1. Download the 7zip here https://github.com/tracking-exposed/binaries/releases/download/browser-alpha/firefox_fbtrex_win-v0.1-alpha.7z, then extract it.
2. Run Firefox Portable for the first time.
3. Optionally, install autoscroller using this link: https://facebook.tracking.exposed/autoscroll.user.js

Linux

1. Download the binaries here:
2. Open a terminal and navigate to the firefox-esr folder
3. Use chmod u+x start_firefox.sh to make it executable
4. You can run firefox by using ./start_firefox.sh
5. Optionally, install autoscroller using this link: https://facebook.tracking.exposed/autoscroll.user.js