Environment

The environment consists of data that is expected to be characteristic for performance and other behavior and not expected to change too often.

Changes to most of these data points are detected (where possible and sensible) and will lead to a session split in the “main” ping. The environment data may also be submitted by other ping types.

Note: This is not submitted with all ping types due to privacy concerns. This and other data is inspected under the data collection policy.

Some parts of the environment must be fetched asynchronously at startup. We don’t want other Telemetry components to block on waiting for the environment, so some items may be missing from it until the async fetching finished. This currently affects the following sections:

profile

Structure:

{
  build: {
    applicationId: "",
    applicationName: "",
    architecture: <string>, // e.g. "x86", build architecture for the active build
    buildId: <string>, // e.g. "20141126041045"
    version: "00.",
    vendor: null,
    platformVersion: "00.",
    xpcomAbi: <string>, // e.g. "x86-msvc"
  },
  settings: {
    isDefaultBrowser: <bool>, // whether Firefox is the default browser. Checked once near startup. On Windows, this is operationalized as whether Firefox is the default HTTP protocol handler and the default HTML file handler.
    defaultSearchEngine: <string>, // e.g. "yahoo"
    defaultSearchEngineData: {, // data about the current default engine
      name: <string>, // engine name, e.g. "Yahoo"; or "NONE" if no default
      loadPath: <string>, // where the engine line is located; missing if no default
      submissionURL: <string> // set for default engines or well known search domains
    },
    locale: <string>, // e.g. "it", null on failure
    update: {
      channel: <string>, // e.g. "release", null on failure
      enabled: <bool>, // true on failure
    },
    userPrefs: {
      // Only prefs which are changed are listed in this block
      "pref.name.value": value // some prefs send the value
      "pref.name.url": "<user-set>" // For some privacy-sensitive prefs
        // only the fact that the value has been changed is recorded
    },
    attribution: { // optional, only present if the installation has attribution data
      // all of these values are optional.
      source: <string>, // referring partner domain, when install happens via a known partner
      medium: <string>, // category of the source, such as "organic" for a search engine
      campaign: <string>, // identifier of the particular campaign that led to the download of the product
      content: <string>, // identifier to indicate the particular link within a campaign
      variation: <string>, // name/id of the variation cohort used in the enrolled funnel experiment
      experiment: <string>, // name/id of the enrolled funnel experiment
      ua: <string>, // identifier derived from the user agent downloading the installer, e.g., chrome, Google Chrome 123
      dltoken: <string>, // Unique token created at Firefox download time. ex: c18f86a3-f228-4d98-91bb-f90135c0aa9c
      msstoresignedin: <boolean>, // optional, only present if the installation was done through the Microsoft Store, and was able to retrieve the "campaign ID" it was first installed with. this value is "true" if the user was signed into the Microsoft Store when they first installed, and false otherwise
      dlsource: <string>, // identifier that indicate where installations of Firefox originate
    },
  },
  profile: {
    creationDate: <integer>, // integer days since UNIX epoch, e.g. 16446
    recoveredFromBackup: <integer>, // integer days since UNIX epoch, e.g. 16446 - optional
  },
  partner: { // This section may not be immediately available on startup
    distributionId: <string>, // pref "distribution.id", null on failure
    distributionVersion: <string>, // pref "distribution.version", null on failure
    partnerId: <string>, // pref mozilla.partner.id, null on failure
    distributor: <string>, // pref app.distributor, null on failure
    distributorChannel: <string>, // pref app.distributor.channel, null on failure
    partnerNames: [
      // list from prefs app.partner.<name>=<name>
    ],
  },
  system: {
    memoryMB: <number>,
    isWow64: <bool>, // windows-only
    cpu: {
        count: <number>,  // desktop only, e.g. 8, or null on failure - logical cpus
        cores: <number>, // desktop only, e.g., 4, or null on failure - physical cores
        vendor: <string>, // desktop only, e.g. "GenuineIntel", or null on failure
        name: <string>, // desktop only, e.g. "Intel(R) Core(TM) i9-8950HK CPU @ 2.90GHz",
                        // or null on failure
        family: <number>, // desktop only, null on failure
        model: <number, // desktop only, null on failure
        stepping: <number>, // desktop only, null on failure
    },
    os: {
        name: <string>, // "Windows_NT" or null on failure
        version: <string>, // e.g. "6.1", null on failure
        windowsBuildNumber: <number>, // windows only or null on failure
        distro: <string>, // linux only, or null on failure
        distroVersion: <string>, // linux only, or null on failure
    },
    gfx: {
        DWriteEnabled: <bool>, // null on failure
        ContentBackend: <string> // One of "Cairo", "Skia", or "Direct2D 1.1"
        Headless: <bool>, // null on failure
        TargetFrameRate: <number>, // frame rate in Hz, typically 60 or more
        adapters: [
          {
            description: <string>, // e.g. "Intel(R) HD Graphics 4600", null on failure
            vendorID: <string>, // null on failure
            deviceID: <string>, // null on failure
            subsysID: <string>, // null on failure
            RAM: <number>, // in MB, null on failure
            driver: <string>, // null on failure
            driverVendor: <string>, // null on failure
            driverVersion: <string>, // null on failure
            driverDate: <string>, // null on failure
            GPUActive: <bool>, // currently always true for the first adapter
          },
          ...
        ],
        // Note: currently only added on Desktop. On Linux, only a single
        // monitor is returned for the primary screen.
        monitors: [
          {
            screenWidth: <number>,  // screen width in pixels
            screenHeight: <number>, // screen height in pixels
            refreshRate: <number>,  // refresh rate in hertz (present on Windows only).
                                    //  (values <= 1 indicate an unknown value)
            pseudoDisplay: <bool>,  // networked screen (present on Windows only)
            scale: <number>,        // backing scale factor (present on Mac only)
          },
          ...
        ],
        features: {
          compositor: <string>,     // Layers backend for compositing (e.g. "d3d11", "none", "opengl", "webrender")

          // Each the following features can have one of the following statuses:
          //   "unused"      - This feature has not been requested.
          //   "unavailable" - Safe Mode or OS restriction prevents use.
          //   "blocked"     - Blocked due to an internal condition such as safe mode.
          //   "blacklisted" - Blocked due to a blacklist restriction.
          //   "denied"      - Blocked due to allowlist restrictions.
          //   "disabled"    - User explicitly disabled this default feature.
          //   "failed"      - This feature was attempted but failed to initialize.
          //   "available"   - User has this feature available.
          // The status can also include a ":" followed by a reason
          // e.g. "FEATURE_FAILURE_WEBRENDER_VIDEO_CRASH_INTEL_23.20.16.4973"
          d3d11: { // This feature is Windows-only.
            status: <string>,
            warp: <bool>,           // Software rendering (WARP) mode was chosen.
            textureSharing: <bool>  // Whether or not texture sharing works.
            version: <number>,      // The D3D11 device feature level.
            blacklisted: <bool>,    // Whether D3D11 is blacklisted; use to see whether WARP
                                    // was blacklist induced or driver-failure induced.
          },
          d2d: { // This feature is Windows-only.
            status: <string>,
            version: <string>,      // Either "1.0" or "1.1".
          },
          gpuProcess: { // Out-of-process compositing ("GPU process") feature
            status: <string>, // "Available" means currently in use
          },
          hwCompositing: { // hardware acceleration. i.e. whether we try using the GPU
            status: <string>
          },
          wrCompositor: { // native OS compositor (CA, DComp, etc.)
            status: <string>
          }
          wrSoftware: { // Software backend for WebRender, only computed when 'compositor' is 'webrender'
            status: <string>
          }
          openglCompositing: { // OpenGL compositing.
            status: <string>
          }
        },
      },
  },
  experiments: {
    "<experiment id>": { branch: "<branch>", type: "<type>", enrollmentId: "<id>" },
    // ...
  }
}

build

buildId

Firefox builds downloaded from mozilla.org use a 14-digit buildId. Builds included in other distributions may have a different format (e.g. only 10 digits).

Settings

defaultSearchEngine

Note: Deprecated, use defaultSearchEngineData instead.

Contains the string identifier or name of the default search engine provider. This will not be present in environment data collected before the Search Service initialization.

The special value NONE could occur if there is no default search engine.

The special value UNDEFINED could occur if a default search engine exists but its identifier could not be determined.

This field’s contents are SearchService.defaultEngine.identifier (if defined) or "other-" + SearchService.defaultEngine.name if not. In other words, search engines without an .identifier are prefixed with other-.

defaultSearchEngineData

Contains data identifying the engine currently set as the default.

The object contains:

a name property with the name of the engine, or NONE if no engine is currently set as the default.
a loadPath property: an anonymized path of the engine xml file, e.g. jar:app/omni.ja!browser/engine.xml (where ‘browser’ is the name of the chrome package, not a folder) [profile]/searchplugins/engine.xml [distribution]/searchplugins/common/engine.xml [other]/engine.xml [other]/addEngineWithDetails [other]/addEngineWithDetails:extensionID [http/https]example.com/engine-name.xml [http/https]example.com/engine-name.xml:extensionID
a submissionURL property with the HTTP url we would use to search. For privacy, we don’t record this for user-installed engines.

loadPath and submissionURL are not present if name is NONE.

userPrefs

This object contains user preferences.

Each key in the object is the name of a preference. A key’s value depends on the policy with which the preference was collected. There are three such policies, “value”, “state”, and “default value”. For preferences collected under the “value” policy, the value will be the preference’s value. For preferences collected under the “state” policy, the value will be an opaque marker signifying only that the preference has a user value. The “state” policy is therefore used when user privacy is a concern. For preferences collected under the “default value” policy, the value will be the preference’s default value, if the preference exists. If the preference does not exist, there is no key or value.

The following is a partial list of collected preferences.

browser.migrate.interactions.bookmarks: True if the user has imported bookmarks from another browser before. This preference gets transferred during profile resets.
browser.migrate.interactions.csvpasswords: True if the user has imported passwords through the migration wizard from a CSV file. This preference gets transferred during profile resets.
browser.migrate.interactions.history: True if the user has imported history from another browser before. This preference gets transferred during profile resets.
browser.migrate.interactions.passwords: True if the user has imported passwords from another browser before. This preference gets transferred during profile resets.
browser.privatebrowsing.autostart: True if the user has enabled the permanent private browsing mode. Defaults to false.
browser.search.suggest.enabled: The “master switch” for search suggestions everywhere in Firefox (search bar, urlbar, etc.). Defaults to true.
browser.urlbar.autoFill: The global preference for whether autofill in the urlbar is enabled. When false, all types of autofill are disabled.
browser.urlbar.autoFill.adaptiveHistory.enabled: True if adaptive history autofill in the urlbar is enabled.
browser.urlbar.dnsResolveSingleWordsAfterSearch: Controls when to DNS resolve single word search strings, after they were searched for. If the string is resolved as a valid host, show a “Did you mean to go to ‘host’” prompt. 0: Never resolve, 1: Use heuristics, 2. Always resolve. Defaults to 0.
browser.urlbar.quicksuggest.onboardingDialogChoice: The user’s choice in the Firefox Suggest onboarding dialog. If the dialog was shown multiple times, this records the user’s most recent choice. Values are the following. Empty string: The user has not made a choice (e.g., because the dialog hasn’t been shown). accept_2 is recorded when the user accepts the dialog and opts in, reject_2 is recorded when the user rejects the dialog and opts out, learn_more_1 is recorded when the user clicks “Learn more” on the introduction section (the user remains opted out), learn_more_2 is recorded when the user clicks “Learn more” on the main section (the user remains opted out), close_1 is recorded when the user clicks close button on the introduction section (the user remains opted out), not_now_2 is recorded when the user clicks “Not now” link on main section (the user remains opted out), dismiss_1 recorded when the user dismisses the dialog on the introduction section (the user remains opted out), dismiss_2 recorded when the user dismisses the dialog on main (the user remains opted out).
browser.urlbar.showSearchTerms.enabled: True if to show the search term in the urlbar while on a default search engine results page.
browser.urlbar.suggest.quicksuggest.sponsored: True if sponsored Firefox Suggest suggestions are enabled in the urlbar.
browser.urlbar.suggest.searches: True if search suggestions are enabled in the urlbar. Defaults to false.
browser.zoom.full (deprecated): True if zoom is enabled for both text and images, that is if “Zoom Text Only” is not enabled. Defaults to true. This preference was collected in Firefox 50 to 52 (Bug 979323).
security.tls.version.enable-deprecated: True if deprecated versions of TLS (1.0 and 1.1) have been enabled by the user. Defaults to false.
privacy.firstparty.isolate: True if the user has changed the (unsupported, hidden) First Party Isolation preference. Defaults to false.
privacy.resistFingerprinting: True if the user has changed the (unsupported, hidden) Resist Fingerprinting preference. Defaults to false.
network.trr.mode: User-set DNS over HTTPS mode. Defaults to 0.
network.trr.strict_native_fallback: Whether strict fallback mode is enabled for DoH mode 2. Defaults to true on Nightly, false elsewhere.
extensions.InstallTrigger.enabled: Whether the InstallTrigger property should be enabled (or completely hidden).
extensions.eventPages.enabled: Whether non-persistent background pages (also known as Event pages) should be enabled for "manifest_version": 2 extensions.
extensions.quarantinedDomains.enabled: Whether “Quarantined Domains” is enabled.
media.gmp-gmpopenh264.enabled: Whether OpenH264 is enabled.
media.gmp-gmpopenh264.lastDownload: When OpenH264 was last downloaded as seconds since Jan 1, 1970.
media.gmp-gmpopenh264.lastDownloadFailed: When OpenH264 was last downloaded unsuccessfully as seconds since Jan 1, 1970.
media.gmp-gmpopenh264.lastDownloadFailReason: The exception value when OpenH264 was last failed to downloaded.
media.gmp-gmpopenh264.lastInstallFailed: When OpenH264 installation last failed as seconds since Jan 1, 1970.
media.gmp-gmpopenh264.lastInstallStart: When OpenH264 installation was last started as seconds since Jan 1, 1970.
media.gmp-gmpopenh264.lastUpdate: When OpenH264 was last updated as seconds since Jan 1, 1970.
media.gmp-gmpopenh264.visible: Whether OpenH264 is visible.
media.gmp-manager.lastCheck: When the gmp-manager last checked for updates as seconds since Jan 1, 1970.
media.gmp-manager.lastEmptyCheck: When the gmp-manager last checked for updates and there was nothing to install as seconds since Jan 1, 1970.
nimbus.qa.pref-1: Used to monitor the results of pref-setting test experiments.
nimbus.qa.pref-2: Used to monitor the results of pref-setting test experiments.
signon.firefoxRelay.feature: User choice regarding Firefox Relay integration with Firefox Password Manager. Can be one of undefined, “available”, “offered”, “enabled” or “disabled”.
dom.popup_allowed_events: Which events should allow popups. Only exposed with about:config.
intl.ime.use_composition_events_for_insert_text: Whether a set of composition events is fired when user inserts text without keyboard events nor composing state of a composition (only on Linux and macOS).
xpinstall.signatures.required: Whether XPI files cryptographic signatures are being verified and enforced.
xpinstall.signatures.weakSignaturesTemporarilyAllowed: Whether new XPI files only signed with weak signature algorithms are still allowed to be installed

attribution

This object contains the attribution data for the product installation.

Attribution data is used to link installations of Firefox with the source that the user arrived at the Firefox download page from. It would indicate, for instance, when a user executed a web search for Firefox and arrived at the download page from there, directly navigated to the site, clicked on a link from a particular social media campaign, etc.

The attribution data is included in some versions of the default Firefox installer for Windows (the “stub” installer) and stored as part of the installation. All platforms other than Windows and also Windows installations that did not use the stub installer do not have this data and will not include the attribution object.

profile

creationDate

The assumed creation date of this client’s profile. It’s read from a file-stored timestamp from the client’s profile directory.

Note

If the timestamp file does not exist all files in the profile directory are scanned. The oldest creation or modification date of the scanned files is then taken to be the profile creation date. This has been shown to sometimes be inaccurate (bug 1449739).

recoveredFromBackup

The time that this profile was recovered from a backup. If the profile was never recovered from a backup, this field will not be present. It’s read from a file-stored timestamp from the client’s profile directory.

partner

If the user is using a partner repack, this contains information identifying the repack being used, otherwise “partnerNames” will be an empty array and other entries will be null. The information may be missing when the profile just becomes available. In Firefox for desktop, the information along with other customizations defined in distribution.ini are processed later in the startup phase, and will be fully applied when “distribution-customization-complete” notification is sent.

Distributions are most reliably identified by the distributionId field. Partner information can be found in the partner repacks (the old one is deprecated): it contains one private repository per partner. Important values for distributionId include:

“MozillaOnline” for the Mozilla China repack.
“canonical”, for the Ubuntu Firefox repack.
“yandex”, for the Firefox Build by Yandex.

system

os

This object contains operating system information.

name: the name of the OS.
version: a string representing the OS version.
windowsBuildNumber: the Windows build number.

experiments

For each experiment we collect the

id (Like hotfix-reset-xpi-verification-timestamp-1548973, max length 100 characters)
branch (Like control, max length 100 characters)
type (Optional. Like normandy-exp, max length 20 characters)
enrollmentId (Optional. Like 5bae2134-e121-46c2-aa00-232f3f5855c5, max length 40 characters)

In the event any of these fields are truncated, a warning is printed to the console

Note that this list includes other types of deliveries, including Normandy rollouts and Nimbus feature defaults.

Version History

Firefox 158:
- Removed many fields and set ones unable to be removed to small, stable values. (bug 2068624
Firefox 155:
- Removed addons.activeAddons/theme/activeGMPlugins from the environment. The addons Glean ping should be used instead. (bug 2055613)
Firefox 137:
- Removed unused and Android-only fields as part of Glean mirroring support. (bug 1943698)
- Removed browser.urlbar.quicksuggest.onboardingDialogChoice as part of removing whole onboarding dialog. (bug 1936455)
- Removed settings.default(Private)SearchEngineData.origin (bug 1929058)
Firefox 88:
- Removed addons.activePlugins as part of removing NPAPI plugin support. (bug 1682030)
Firefox 70:
- Added experiments.<experiment id>.enrollmentId. (bug 1555172)
Firefox 67:
- Removed persona. The addons.activeAddons list should be used instead. (bug 1525511)
Firefox 61:
- Removed empty addons.activeExperiment (bug 1452935).