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This place is becoming like Reddit with the conspiracy theories
No, it's not possible to see what Amazon does with this information but it's clear they can do way too much. And, they can change the behaviour at any moment without the user getting notified within these existing wide permissions. At the very least it's very poor design.
The assistant should play the tune of "Every Breath You Take" by The Police when its doing this.
Seems to me that browser extensions need better access control. Why isn't it possible to restrict it to just amazon.com itself, for example?
They are by far the most risky thing one could possibly put on a PC. They essentially remove any alleged benefit to HTTPS/encryption or anything of the sort, because they live inside your web browser and have post-decryption access, often to every website you visit and everything you enter into them.
Do not use browser extensions. Ask your IT person to restrict the ability to install browser extensions.
[1] https://slickdeals.net/e/14668013-select-amazon-member-earn-...
Seems to me that browser extensions need better access control. Why isn't it possible to restrict it to just amazon.com itself, for example?
If the dominant web browser wasn't an ad company, browser extensions would not exist in the way they do today. Because any responsible security engineer would nuke browser extensions from orbit, but currently everyone who isn't an ad company has to maintain feature parity with the ad company for competitive reasons. They are by far the most risky thing one could possibly put on a PC. They essentially remove any alleg…
Novelty extensions are a completely different story but I wouldn't go so far as to ban all extensions ever.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
If the dominant web browser wasn't an ad company, browser extensions would not exist in the way they do today. Because any responsible security engineer would nuke browser extensions from orbit, but currently everyone who isn't an ad company has to maintain feature parity with the ad company for competitive reasons. They are by far the most risky thing one could possibly put on a PC. They essentially remove any alleg…
Huh? From my point of view extensions like uBlock Origin and 1PasswordX further enhance and secure my browsing, with uBO I'm blocking ads and trackers (including malicious ones) and with 1Pass I get secure form fill. Novelty extensions are a completely different story but I wouldn't go so far as to ban all extensions ever.
I designed this. I won't speak to any past or current practices, but I will say this: Amazon is obsessive about protecting customer privacy.
Does "privacy" mean Amazon will spy on their customers, but won't share that data further?
I just setup pihole today because it's so difficult to avoid being spied on wherever you go.
> Putting these JavaScript files into the extension would have been possible with almost no code changes The AMO team at Firefox used to outright ban addons with remote script injection. I guess it matters who you are -- like on the Apple App Store, big names just need to pull the right strings or call the right people for a free pass. Rules are not applied equally. The playing field is NOT level.
Note: I’m the author of this article and a former AMO reviewer.