PSA: Google Meet no longer works in hardened Firefox
EDIT
This issue may be due to WebRTC being disabled. WebRTC is required for google meet, but also used for fingerprinting.
Recently I tried to join a google meet meeting in my hardened config firefox browser, and google meet didn't let me in at all. I was confused as hell. I could join only on my phone, but not any of my three computers I tested it on. I then went into a virtual machine with regular firefox(also linux), and the meeting works. The only conclusion I can draw is that google is so desperate for my data that they refuse to service me unless I give them this.
This post intends to inform people that issues with google products may be related to their valid wish for security, and the actions they have taken in pursuit of that. The post also intends to inform people of a solution. The two apps that I recommend are:
- Jitsi Meet: This is self hosted, but you can also make a meeting with jitsi's own servers. A excellent alternative to google meet, the only reason I didn't use it is that I had issues the day I needed to meet, and had to fall back to google meet instead.
- Jami: This is a distributed-network chat and video calling app which is open source and a GNU package. It does require an app, but is free and open source and will serve your purpose.****_________
What is your config? It's possible you've got things configured in an unexpected, but valid, way that causes Google Meet to fail.
How does it fail? Are there errors in the console?
You're immediately assuming malice, but it may simply be a mistake (Google's or yours).
I am pretty sure no one at Google tests outside Blink & only gets around to it when there are bug reports
Part 1
So first off I appreciate your "about:config" dump, that is helpful.
However, having ONLY that dump makes it difficult to actually diagnose your issue. It would be helpful to have an idea of what fails.
Second, you have "media.peerconnection.enabled" set to "false". That setting controls WebRTC. Google Meet uses WebRTC. If I set that value to false my Google Meet meetings fail to load, it just stays stuck at the joining meeting phase.
So maybe that's your culprit. Of course I would expect if you've had this set for a long time I would have expected it to fail for a long time. Also both alternatives you mentioned use WebRTC, so I would expect those to fail with that setting disabled.
Of course if it used to work with that disabled then it's possible Google Meet changed and had a fallback no longer in use or something else.
As an aside, I understand that WebRTC has (had?) issues leaking local IP addresses while connected to a VPN. So I understand why you might have it disabled.
The webrtc setting is probably it. IMO it's still google's fault for not providing a meaningful error message. It just stuck on the loading screen, assuring me that I would enter the meeting but I just didn't. I don't like webrtc because it can be used for fingerprinting, so I will probably use jami in the future. Thank you very much for diagnosing my problem!
Part 2
Great. Your job is to take standard Firefox and switch one of these settings on at a time, testing Google meet until you find which one is the culprit. Good luck! 👍
Teams web version also stopped working in Firefox, so just using chromium for meetings.
do you update your browser? and which Teams version you use (Classic or new)? my New Teams with Firefox deb and ublock origin looks okay.
Exhibit #17837 why Firefox isn't "just more hardened by default".
It's also not necessarily just because Google wants more of your data (which they do); they may also just use a feature that can also be used to fingerprint you. But since it's also just useful in general, it's not disabled by default by regular Firefox.
The issue was likely WebRTC being disabled. The thing is, WebGL and WebRTC should be more secure. They shouldn't be implemented in ways that make it easy to fingerprint the user. Unfortunately, for now I can't change that, but I can use alternative methods like Jami or temporarily enabling rtc again to use a locally hosted instance of Jitsi.
I don't know much about WebGL and WebRTC specifically, but sometimes it's just inherent to the feature, and it's literally impossible to implement it without allowing fingerprinting the user.
For example, your screen resolution/viewport size can also be used to fingerprint you. It is impossible to allow adjusting a website to different viewport sizes without leaking those viewport sizes - the only way to restrict fingerprinting is to not offer the feature of using arbitrary viewport sizes (which is what Tor browser does, for example).
Yes, it's all a trade off of functionality for privacy.
Ironically, I just recently had a meeting I had to call into because of this, and the purpose of the meeting was to review the "great new update" lol
I had the same issue using Librewolf, but are you really surprised?
No. However, the issue was ultimately my fault. Google meet relies on webrtc, and I disabled it to prevent fingerprinting.
if your client or your employer mandates the use of Google Meets as a meeting app. you have to comply.
Employer on a job meeting on an employer device that is. Clients? Not so much ...
I do pretty much everything in Firefox but during the week I keep a Chrome window up for Hangouts and Jira.
Chrome in the front, Firefox in the back
Might be true, but is some real bullshit. There are protocols/programs that do work on multiple platform (including not web) with privacy settings turned up. Employers should consider if they want Google listening in on all of their business discussions before forcing its buggy platform on employees. I’ll wait for the one that cries that it has Google Calendar integration, when you don’t need Google for a calendar.
While you are setting up that server for Jitsi, realize its XMPP server can cover your text chat & presence needs too.
Sadly MS Teams, Google Meets/Hangouts, Zoom and webex are the defacto standard for video conferencing app in many companies atm and I never heard companies use Jitsi
Everyone I met has heard of Jitsi—guess I should feel blessed about my circle. But that doesn’t mean we should not let these places know there are opportunities to keep that voice data on-premise (which also indirectly helps the privacy of employees). I have chosen jobs for things like this though.
This was not a work meeting, though I appreciate your concern.
Back in the day, all features of MS Teams didn't work properly on Firefox either. I remember installing Edge (then in Preview for Linux) both for trying the browser and getting Teams to work as well.
Personally Meet hasn't worked in Firefox for weeks, unless I clear all my Google cache and cookies, where it'll work once and then no more.
I have Enhanced Tracking Protection set to strict and disabling uBlock Origin and Privacy Badger does not fix the issue, though I haven't tried lowering / disabling ETP.
If you need meet, then try enabling webrtc(
media.peerconnection.enabled). BE WARNED THAT THIS MAY MAKE YOU SUSCEPTIBLE TO FINGERPRINTING. If already enabled and you're still facing issues, then my issue might lay elsewhere.I don't know if it's related, but I noticed very recently Google sheets quit working correctly on Firefox.
Try: gfx.canvas.accelerated = false. There is a ff bug since a few months that causes various apps, including all kinds of google docs to malfunction severely, and this setting works around it.
Apparently I already have that setting turned off so I'm not sure what the issue is. I've been having issues with the overlays like "find and replace" and "sort range" not appearing. It just randomly broke recently with no apparent change to plug-ins so I'm not sure what's up. I haven't bothered disabling plug-ins one at a time to see if one broke it.
More details?
How many days ago? I was just using it
They're also sabotaging Youtube in all variants of Firefox for the past 6-8 weeks.
Is this true? I’ve been having some issues on my LibreWolf this past week or two, when sometimes YouTube takes 3-4 seconds to recognize a key press.
Definitely true in my experience. Having all sorts of problems in Librewolf and Firefox whereas Vivaldi will play the videos no problem. I found a reddit thread of others having the same experience since August.