Unknown Mozilla dev addon "Looking Glass 1.0.3" on browser

Post by libertyEQ » Fri, Dec 15, 2017, 4:45 PM UTC

thyrsus wrote: post #128

jchw wrote: post #79

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

Post by ryukafalz » Fri, Dec 15, 2017, 4:52 PM UTC

y0ghur7_xxx wrote: post #188

blauditore wrote: post #170

Many people seem to be shocked because Mozilla installed an add-on automatically. In my opinion, it doesn't really matter since the code is coming from Mozilla - they're building the whole browser, so they could introduce functionality anywhere. If someone distrusts their add-ons, why trust their browser at all? The main question is what behavior is being introduced. I haven't researched deeply, but apparently the ad…

> I haven't researched deeply, but apparently the add-on does nothing until the user opts-in on studies. It adds some css to a list of words: https://github.com/gregglind/addon-wr/blob/da464ac8f1c3b0894...

Post by palunon » Fri, Dec 15, 2017, 4:54 PM UTC

makecheck wrote: post #180

teekert wrote: post #94

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How do they abuse your privacy without tracking? Of course if they didn't abuse your time and attention they wouldn't make sense. But someone has to be paying Firefox's development, and it is not you. I'll take that last part back if you contribute to Mozilla. Hey, maybe it's an idea for a donation: make a 5$ Firefox without adds. I'd pay. To bad part goes to Google that way.

The irony is that people pay, just not to the right place. Every unnecessarily-bloated download tears through data plans and costs people money to their ISP that never makes it to the provider. I want plain-text ads that provide just as much revenue to web sites but without obnoxious experiences and fat downloads.

Post by lozenge » Fri, Dec 15, 2017, 4:55 PM UTC

y0ghur7_xxx wrote: post #188

blauditore wrote: post #170

Many people seem to be shocked because Mozilla installed an add-on automatically. In my opinion, it doesn't really matter since the code is coming from Mozilla - they're building the whole browser, so they could introduce functionality anywhere. If someone distrusts their add-ons, why trust their browser at all? The main question is what behavior is being introduced. I haven't researched deeply, but apparently the ad…

> I haven't researched deeply, but apparently the add-on does nothing until the user opts-in on studies. It adds some css to a list of words: https://github.com/gregglind/addon-wr/blob/da464ac8f1c3b0894...

Post by Ajedi32 » Fri, Dec 15, 2017, 5:01 PM UTC

acqq wrote: post #97

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.

> you also need to explicitly opt-in Wrong, as far as I see: Looking in my about:config, I see app.shield.optoutstudies.enabled=true browser.onboarding.shieldstudy.enabled=true enabled by default . The settings that I've changed from the default are shown in bold. These aren't bold. Those are the defaults. Everybody can check. That means that the user must actively take steps to disable them, if he knows that they ex…