Legality of Firefox Containers
Posted: Fri Feb 21, 2020 9:57 am
The Firefox browser (semi-)officially includes the ability to be logged it with multiple accounts on one site:
https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/co ... containers
Although it is a built-in browser feature, with an API exposed to extensions, actually using containers requires either installing an extension to use them (the extension exposes the browser API through an UI to the user) or changing some settings¹. The Mozilla team provides such an official extension, and there are other unofficial ones.
In the case of NS, this means a user can use multiple nations, each in a separate tab, within the same browser window.
Functionally, using containers for different nations is the same as using a separate browser or separate Chrome profile for each nation, except it is on a per-tab basis instead of per-window. A similar effect could probably also be achieved on Chrome by using a script caching cookies and submitting different ones for different tabs (which is essentially what Firefox does).
Under current site and script/tool rules, this does not seem to be illegal. However, after a discussion with two other players, it seems like a legal grey area — they've pointed out that the simultaneity rule on restricted actions could potentially apply to both cases (multiple browsers and containers). I'd appreciate some clarification.
I searched the forum for previous topics, but only this one seems of relevance:
https://forum.nationstates.net/viewtopic.php?p=35272894&sid=c3426b77bf93a5bd4abda5e749c4dde6#p35272894, specifically the distinction between a script itself interacting with the server vs other “UI” tools.
Effectively, this is a question on whether the simultaneity rule applies to anything other than scripts and the requests they generate. If it does, does responsibility for avoiding simultaneous (restricted action) requests lie with the user, the computer or the browser?
Simple example:
Thanks in advance!
[1]: For advanced users section at the end of the page: https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/containers
https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/co ... containers
Although it is a built-in browser feature, with an API exposed to extensions, actually using containers requires either installing an extension to use them (the extension exposes the browser API through an UI to the user) or changing some settings¹. The Mozilla team provides such an official extension, and there are other unofficial ones.
In the case of NS, this means a user can use multiple nations, each in a separate tab, within the same browser window.
Functionally, using containers for different nations is the same as using a separate browser or separate Chrome profile for each nation, except it is on a per-tab basis instead of per-window. A similar effect could probably also be achieved on Chrome by using a script caching cookies and submitting different ones for different tabs (which is essentially what Firefox does).
Under current site and script/tool rules, this does not seem to be illegal. However, after a discussion with two other players, it seems like a legal grey area — they've pointed out that the simultaneity rule on restricted actions could potentially apply to both cases (multiple browsers and containers). I'd appreciate some clarification.
I searched the forum for previous topics, but only this one seems of relevance:
https://forum.nationstates.net/viewtopic.php?p=35272894&sid=c3426b77bf93a5bd4abda5e749c4dde6#p35272894, specifically the distinction between a script itself interacting with the server vs other “UI” tools.
Effectively, this is a question on whether the simultaneity rule applies to anything other than scripts and the requests they generate. If it does, does responsibility for avoiding simultaneous (restricted action) requests lie with the user, the computer or the browser?
Simple example:
- A user uses two computers to simultaneously answer issues on two different nations.
- A user uses two browsers to simultaneously answer issues on two different nations.
- A user uses two tabs (containers) to simultaneously answer issues on two different nations.
Thanks in advance!
[1]: For advanced users section at the end of the page: https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/containers