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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

#121

Post by pbhjpbhj »

majewsky wrote: post #45
dpwm wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

From the page: > No changes will be made to Firefox unless you have opted in to this Alternate Reality Game. Also, from the same page for those that appreciate irony: > One of the 10 guiding principles of Mozilla's mission is that individuals' security and privacy on the internet are fundamental and must not be treated as optional. The more people know about what information they are sharing online, the more they can…

> No changes will be made to Firefox unless you have opted in to this Alternate Reality Game. How does it not occur to them that this is a clear lie?

Because the previous ads for Pocket and Telefonica were effective and they don't care?

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

#122

Post by akerro »

bronson wrote: post #101
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.

It's not easy to keep them turned off. Browser upgrades seem to silently re-enable things.

What platform are you on?

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

#123

Post by fixermark »

garganzol wrote: post #98

Mozilla Firefox installer is signed by a code-signing certificate. But at the very end it means nearly nothing: if the developer cannot be trusted, no amounts of certificates, green bars, smart screens, stores and walled gardens can fix that. That's a very important point to grasp, as I hear a lot of voices nowadays claiming that the modern security model (read walled gardens of all kinds) is the universal panacea. J…

In general though, what is the alternative to trusting the source and distributor of a piece of content? As you've noted, if you can't trust the developer, the walled garden is irrelelvant... But if you can't trust the data source, isn't basically everything about the medium irrelevant?

In contrast, if you do trust the data source, why is a walled garden model of security worse than alternatives?

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

#124

Post by chriswarbo »

teekert wrote: post #23
shak77 wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't know what the hell is going on with Mozilla. Ever tried to install Firefox on Android? The new tab page is full of ads by default! And this is the company we are supposed to trust? Because right now I feel like I trust Google more, and that's a lot to say.

Adds are annoying yes, but they are only bad for your privacy if they track and profile you. Adds allow for free stuff and they can be done the right way. Granted this is becoming more and more rare so I understand your standard association of adds with distrust. The adds you refer to are non tracking (please tell me if I'm wrong though) and will slowly be replaced by sites you visit (often).

> Adds[sic] allow for free stuff

The opposite is true: ads must be paid for, which makes products and services more expensive.

Ads are a convoluted, inefficient form of wealth redistribution; whether that's "good" or "bad" depends on the specific circumstances.

For example, we might (simplistically) say it's "good" when we receive something paid for by ad revenue, but the burden of paying for (e.g. by price increases) and being subjected to those ads is carried by others. For example, if we tune in to a radio station, listen to a song, and tune out before some ad for a product we don't use.

We could say it's "bad" when the opposite happens, for example if we pay higher fees for shopping on Amazon, which then get spent on advertising Prime Video which we don't use.

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

#125

Post by nickpeterson »

gr3yh47 wrote: post #106
LyndsySimon wrote: post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Hopefully, it's a bug, and that addon wasn't intended to be installed (much less active) universally like it is. That doesn't make it OK, but it would make me look at them with suspicion instead of hostility.

>Hopefully, it's a bug, and that addon wasn't intended to be installed (much less active) universally like it is. hey look, a voice of reason! seriously. Mozilla is a company that has a long track record of dedication to openness and the free and open internet this isnt Google, facebook, etc let's all take a step back and give them a little benefit of the doubt here, until we get some facts on what happened. for ever…

Don't forget torches, you have to burn down the evil castle or else they'll just hide until everyone leaves.

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

#126

Post by _Codemonkeyism »

y0ghur7_xxx wrote: post #24

This happened to me yesterday, so I looked for it. The Extension actually does nothing, but invert (make them upside down) a few words on specific sites. It's an experiment called "PUG ARG" to check whether page contents sniffing works. Its page doesn't reference any Bugzilla issue or Wiki page, while https://wiki.mozilla.org/Firefox/Shield/Shield_Studies/Queue doesn't list it. The source code references https://supp…

Wow, FF is sniffing the content and changing words.

Could not think of anything worse a web browser could do.

Do they change political arguments on pages in the future to see how I react in a user study?

Signed Mr. Guinea Pig

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

#127

Post by revelation »

sp332 wrote: post #116
revelation wrote: post #109

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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...

That's novel, going to so much effort to use a tracking service while proclaiming you are not tracking!

Sounds like taking a shower without getting wet. I see you silently dropped the Pocket thing, then?

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

#128

Post by thyrsus »

jchw wrote: post #79
yborg wrote: post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Apparently it's getting loaded anyway for some people that say they had "Studies" disabled and/or "Studies" itself became re-enabled. The whole idea of slipping paid advertorial content into what are billed as "research" kind of gives the lie to this whole thing and is why I never turn these on in any product. Which is also why it's now "opt-out" by default, and why it will eventually not be an option at all. It's al…

Firefox Studies aren't new, and aren't opt-out by default. They're opt-in per study, in fact. The code to run them comes with Firefox, that's it. All this HN link is is someone asking what the add-on is, not proclaiming it did anything.

In my Firefox 52.5.1 under a current CentOS 7, there is no about:studies. Either "studies" has been newly removed (Firefox updated yesterday, I think?) or about:studies is new or Firefox Studies has been included by default after the 52 series. Perhaps its just me, but I still think of post-52 Firefox as "new".

It's nonetheless not obvious to me why you were downvoted; I don't know if someone else was annoyed at your definition of "new" or whether there were other dubious claims in your comment. Perhaps privacy advocates are just too exhausted and cranky to explain themselves again.

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

#129

Post by pecg »

Sir_Cmpwn wrote: post #61

What the fuck Mozilla? You can't just sideload extensions that are literally ads . There is no universe in which this is even a little bit okay. http://qutebrowser.org/

And this is exactly what I'm going to do, switch to a simple browser, in my personal computers. If they programmed firefox to be capable of doing thinks like this, then definitely I cannot trust them anymore.

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

#130

Post by shak77 »

_Codemonkeyism wrote: post #126
y0ghur7_xxx wrote: post #24

This happened to me yesterday, so I looked for it. The Extension actually does nothing, but invert (make them upside down) a few words on specific sites. It's an experiment called "PUG ARG" to check whether page contents sniffing works. Its page doesn't reference any Bugzilla issue or Wiki page, while https://wiki.mozilla.org/Firefox/Shield/Shield_Studies/Queue doesn't list it. The source code references https://supp…

Wow, FF is sniffing the content and changing words. Could not think of anything worse a web browser could do. Do they change political arguments on pages in the future to see how I react in a user study? Signed Mr. Guinea Pig

>Do they change political arguments on pages in the future to see how I react in a user study?

It's possible: https://blog.mozilla.org/blog/2017/08/08/mozilla-information...

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