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Unknown Mozilla dev addon "Looking Glass 1.0.3" on browser

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Re: Unknown Mozilla dev addon "Looking Glass 1.0.3" on browser

#111

Post by nkrisc »

teamhappy wrote: post #75
nkrisc wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Wow. So Mozilla lets advertisers push extensions to your browser? Is that right or am I misunderstanding something?

> So Mozilla lets advertisers push extensions to your browser? Of course not. Mozilla can install extensions if you have "shield studies" enabled. They use extensions it to run UI studies and things like that. I think you have to opt-in to each study individually if you want to be part of it. Enabling the studies in your settings only means "notify me when there's a new study I can participate in". See https://suppor…

But it appears from the link thread that there was no individual opt-in to this particular study, done for what appears to be the purposes of advertising. Clearly it's not as bad as what I first thought it to be, but still sounds fishy.

Re: Unknown Mozilla dev addon "Looking Glass 1.0.3" on browser

#112

Post by sli »

dpwm wrote: post #87
Ajedi32 wrote: post #74

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You don't just need "Studies" enabled, you also need to explicitly opt-in to each specific study on an individual basis: > Participation in an individual study is opt-in Source: https://wiki.mozilla.org/Firefox/Shield/Shield_Studies If that didn't happen in this case, then I suspect it's probably a bug.

I can confirm this most certainly did not happen in my case and, from other comments, there seem to be a number of us who did not opt in to this "study."

Same here. I didn't even known about Studies until reading this thread.

Re: Unknown Mozilla dev addon "Looking Glass 1.0.3" on browser

#114

Post by jasonlotito »

ChrisSD wrote: post #31

I'm using FF57 and did not get this addon. Was I just lucky?

Running FF58. I don't have it either. I also don't agree to stuff unknowingly. It's clearly spelled out in the settings under privacy that you can agree to this stuff. Nothing I've seen suggests this isn't happening. People are saying things but no one is backing up any accusations with any proof yet.

Re: Unknown Mozilla dev addon "Looking Glass 1.0.3" on browser

#115

Post by sundarurfriend »

majewsky wrote: post #56

In the Preferences, scroll down to "Data Collection and Use", and disable everything . I know that you only need to need to turn off "install and run studies", but this has now cost Mozilla all telemetry data from me, and I encourage everyone to do the same.

I've switched to Waterfox, because of things like this (including the Cliqz issues). I'm all for Mozilla making money and trying things, the problem is the way in which they do it. They fail to respect the users enough to communicate things, and have not been behaving like a user-friendly transparent company for some time now. I was a big enough fan to regularly donate and urge friends to do the same, but something has gone wrong inside the company.

Re: Unknown Mozilla dev addon "Looking Glass 1.0.3" on browser

#116

Post by sp332 »

revelation wrote: post #109
sp332 wrote: post #82

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Firefox bought Pocket. And they had negotiated with Google to remove tracking on that page. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14753546

The acquisition was two years after the integration. The referenced comment says nothing about tracking being removed, only referencing a "special deal" whatever that means. You are trying to muddy the waters here. Even if I were to accept your (wrong) explanations, they still don't jive with the image Mozilla is trying to project.

Mozilla went through a year long legal discussion with GA before we would ever implement it on our websites. GA had to provide how and what they stored and we would only sign a contract with them if they allowed Mozilla to opt-out of Google using the data for mining and 3rd parties. https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=697436#c14 https://bug697436.bmoattachments.org/attachment.cgi?id=73207...

Re: Unknown Mozilla dev addon "Looking Glass 1.0.3" on browser

#117

Post by bo1024 »

dahart wrote: post #64
mark-r wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't think that makes it better. Knowing that there's a way to get an addon installed invisibly is going to be more justification for paranoia.

There almost certainly is not a way to invisibly install add-ons, unless you are part of Mozilla, and, you know, making Firefox. If paranoia is your thing, it might be worth considering that Mozilla can do anything it wants inside Firefox core, all of it is "invisible" to you.

Yes and a big part of this entire issue is users deciding whether we can trust Mozilla with that power or not.

Re: Unknown Mozilla dev addon "Looking Glass 1.0.3" on browser

#118

Post by throwanem »

mjw1007 wrote: post #33
Karunamon wrote: post #15

Better yet, it appears that these "studies" (read: Mozilla pushing addons to your browser without notification or permission) are default opt-out. Will they stop doing it? Of course not. I can't recall any time that this company has changed course in response to outcry.

I can: when they renamed firebird to firefox.

Was that outcry? I thought it was that or get sued. Been a while, though, so maybe I misrecollect.

Re: Unknown Mozilla dev addon "Looking Glass 1.0.3" on browser

#119

Post by pbhjpbhj »

LyndsySimon wrote: post #103
sp332 wrote: post #65

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's installed, but apparently doesn't do anything if you don't have "studies" enabled.

Something was installed on my system without my permission, from a vendor that I chose specifically because they promise not to do things like that. To put it another way - if I discovered a rootkit sitting in the ~/Downloads directory on my Mac, that would be a problem. If the entity that surreptitiously placed it there said that I shouldn't worry about it because it hadn't been run, I wouldn't be inclined to trust…

That lack of permissions make this illegal IMO. CFAA in USA and CMA in UK both make unauthorised access and unauthorised modification of a computer a crime.

I've used FF since before it was FF, and I've installeded it on umpteen other people's computers; strongly advocating for it. Since they sacked that guy for not conforming to a specific liberal ideology they seem to have gone batshit crazy ... what happened? Was he their main privacy advocate or something?

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