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The Sponsored Shortcuts are available in countries where they should not be

Open data-sync-user opened this issue 3 weeks ago • 2 comments

[Affected versions]:

  • Firefox Beta 9000 (65551)

  • Firefox Release 146.0 (65544)

[Affected Platforms]:

  • iPhone Xr - IOS 18.3.

[Prerequisites]:

  • Have set the device region to India, China, Australia, or another country that does not support Sponsored Shortcuts. (see +HNT Confluence page+).

  • Have installed and set a VPN app to the same region as the device.

  • Have restarted the iOS device.

  • Have installed the Firefox Beta 9000 (64520) build.

[Steps to reproduce]:

  1. Open the browser and observe the top area of the Homepage.

  2. Go to Settings->Homepage->Shortcuts and observe the available options.

[Expected result]:

  • Step 1: No Sponsored Shortcuts are displayed.

  • Step 2: The “Sponsored shortcuts” option is not displayed or at least not enabled.

[Actual result]:

  • Step 1: Sponsored Shortcuts are displayed.

  • Step 2: The “Sponsored shortcuts” option is displayed and enabled.

[Notes]:

  • After tapping a sponsored shortcut, its URL specifies the correct region set.

  • This issue is reproducible with the following approaches:

  • Changed only the device region, reset the phone, and installed the Firefox build.

  • Changed both the device region and language, reset the phone, and installed the Firefox build.

  • Same as above, without resetting the phone.

  • Same as above, and change the device date two weeks into the future, both before and after installing the Firefox build.

  • Attached is a screen recording of the issue.

┆Issue is synchronized with this Jira Bug

data-sync-user avatar Dec 05 '25 08:12 data-sync-user

➤ Chris Peterson commented:

John Hall says that sponsored shortcuts are available in Australia and the HNT Regional Differences Confluence page ( https://mozilla-hub.atlassian.net/wiki/spaces/FPS/pages/80448805/Regional+Differences ) was out of date. He updated the page.

TBD whether sponsored shortcuts are supposed to be shown in China or India.

data-sync-user avatar Dec 05 '25 19:12 data-sync-user

➤ Simona Rosu commented:

I want to note that I’ve managed to verify the content of sponsored shortcuts only in Australia, China, and India. I’m not sure if this issue is also reproducible in other countries where it shouldn’t be, apart from the ones mentioned, but I can verify the other countries if required.

data-sync-user avatar Dec 08 '25 09:12 data-sync-user