You cannot install the WOT addon anymore in Firefox. This is due to WOT selling all your browsing data to firms - easily de-anonymizable (containing e-mail addresses, usernames or identifying parts of URLs in cleartext).
Reporters of German broadcast NDR found out about this by inspecting a test dataset they acquired disguised as a company asking around to buy personal data.
Mozilla stops distribution of WOT addon
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Re: Mozilla stops distribution of WOT addon
#2Did not find any english versions of this news yet, so here a translated heise site:
https://translate.google.com/translate?sl=auto&tl=en&js=y&pr...
Re: Mozilla stops distribution of WOT addon
#3WOT = Web of Trust
Re: Mozilla stops distribution of WOT addon
#4Did not find any english versions of this news yet, so here a translated heise site: https://translate.google.com/translate?sl=auto&tl=en&js=y&pr...
In the article you posted the WOT spokesperson appears to say that they'll be making sure that data is better anonymized in future - not that they will stop selling it. I don't think this type of response is going to work out well for them...
"When there are cases where information has not been anonymized and protected, we will, of course, review this and, if necessary, take steps to ensure adequate protection for our users."
Re: Mozilla stops distribution of WOT addon
#5Web of Trust is a browser extension that claims 140 million installs. The marketing language on the home page [1] is all about how the extension will help users decide which websites to trust.
Their privacy statement [2] includes a section that describes "Browsing usage, including visited web pages, clickstream data or web address accessed;" as one of the categories of "non-personal information" that they may disclose or share with 3rd parties.
I'd imagine most users installing an extension to make their browsing safer would not be happy to know they were also making their entire browsing history available to 3rd party data brokers at the same time.
Unscrupulous business practices are definitely made easier when no one actually reads Privacy Policies...
Re: Mozilla stops distribution of WOT addon
#6WOT = Web of Trust
It should be rebranded as WAT
Re: Mozilla stops distribution of WOT addon
#7Web of Trust is a browser extension that claims 140 million installs. The marketing language on the home page [1] is all about how the extension will help users decide which websites to trust. Their privacy statement [2] includes a section that describes "Browsing usage, including visited web pages, clickstream data or web address accessed;" as one of the categories of "non-personal information" that they may disclos…
The info collected is not considered as consented by the user in Germany by the Hamburg commissioner for data protection:
"disclosure of personal data, companies need basically a data subject's consent." "an extensive evaluation the data by Web of Trust is therefore under German law "not allowed"
https://translate.google.com/translate?sl=auto&tl=en&js=y&pr...
Re: Mozilla stops distribution of WOT addon
#8I wanted to say: And Google did not removed it. But actually it is also gone in Google extension store. Google also seriously needs to think about security in their Chrome extension store. I've seen more than once ads injected by extensions by the auto update (no real security there). Maybe I've been also tracked in the past. Google needs to actively monitor all extensions for ad injection and tracking code (where are their AI experts on that?) and also it should react faster to reports. In the past, weeks and months go by before a report has consequences for a extension. So the discovery of WOT is only thanks to German reporters.... but it was longer known that WOT tracks you.
Re: Mozilla stops distribution of WOT addon
#9Re: Mozilla stops distribution of WOT addon
#10Here is a brief (and compared to the german sources not so great) english language version of what happened:
http://techdows.com/2016/11/web-of-trust-add-on-removed.html