41–50 of 161 posts
Always the same cycle. 1/ New great product is built. People love it. 2/ Once enough people use it, start monetizing in shady ways, annoying users just not too much or they leave. 3/ Very annoyed users switch to another product back to 1/
This is a huge problem for the extension ecosystem in general. Who originally publishes an extension may not be the same entity that is pushing you updates in two years time, and there's no way as a user to know this. I publish a few extensions [1] [2] [3] and have been contacted multiple times by companies asking to buy them for several thousand dollars. They told me the going rate was 0.20 USD per user. You can ima…
I've not received my own updates for weeks a few times because I haven't noticed the warning, and about a third of our users are on ancient versions presumably because of it [1].
I think the real solution to this problem is GDPR: massive fines if you abuse your users' trust (and get caught).
I'm not keen on the literal dark pattern that Firefox uses to dissuade developers from requiring new permissions.
[1] https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/tridactyl-vim...
This is a huge problem for the extension ecosystem in general. Who originally publishes an extension may not be the same entity that is pushing you updates in two years time, and there's no way as a user to know this. I publish a few extensions [1] [2] [3] and have been contacted multiple times by companies asking to buy them for several thousand dollars. They told me the going rate was 0.20 USD per user. You can ima…
tl;dr: Use Stylus [1]. Use Stylus. Use Stylus. I guess there should be an addon that notifies users for any ownership changes to browser addons they use. Or is there? [1] https://github.com/openstyles/stylus
tl;dr: Use Stylus [1]. Use Stylus. Use Stylus. I guess there should be an addon that notifies users for any ownership changes to browser addons they use. Or is there? [1] https://github.com/openstyles/stylus
Firefox lets you know when addon changes permission between versions. You are prompted to accept the new permissions before upgrading the addon. This has been helpful in weeding out addons that become too data hungry.
So once they are ready to add malicious code in the future to pass that information somewhere else, no permission changes will be required.
Before downloading any extensions, I usually inspect them quickly with https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/chrome-extension-s...
Most important parts are "manifest.json" and then if defined then content scripts that match catch all urls and "https://*/*" / "http://*/*.
It's not actually stealing if it's in the ToS, is it?
For example,
> TOS agreements require giving up first born—and users gladly consent
https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2016/07/nobody-reads-tos...
This is a huge problem for the extension ecosystem in general. Who originally publishes an extension may not be the same entity that is pushing you updates in two years time, and there's no way as a user to know this. I publish a few extensions [1] [2] [3] and have been contacted multiple times by companies asking to buy them for several thousand dollars. They told me the going rate was 0.20 USD per user. You can ima…
Luckily enough the source code was still on github, and I managed to fork it and improve that version into "Tab Manager Plus" [1]
Since then I've refurbished around 10 extensions and published a few of my own. It's fun, just annoying that malicious extensions aren't getting taken down fast enough, since I suppose not enough people report them.
How to report malicious extensions is also sometimes unclear. Some people think they have to install them first, that's only true for ratings, not reports. For example to report the extension from this blog post you just have to submit this form [2]
For other malicious extensions simply replace the extension id in that link.
[1] Tab Manager Plus - https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/tab-manager-plus-f...
[2] Report extension - https://chrome.google.com/webstore/report/fjnbnpbmkenffdnngj...
tl;dr: Use Stylus [1]. Use Stylus. Use Stylus. I guess there should be an addon that notifies users for any ownership changes to browser addons they use. Or is there? [1] https://github.com/openstyles/stylus
Before uninstalling stylish, consider visiting its webstore page and rating it 1-star so that upcoming users know it's not a great extension.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Quickly though.
GDPR applies for all users located in the EU, not only to companies headquartered in the EU, so Brexit is not that much of a concern here. Also, the transition period will bind the UK to most EU laws for a few more years.
* http://legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2018/12/contents/enacted/dat...
tl;dr: Use Stylus [1]. Use Stylus. Use Stylus. I guess there should be an addon that notifies users for any ownership changes to browser addons they use. Or is there? [1] https://github.com/openstyles/stylus