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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

#71

Post by Simon_says »

theossuary wrote: post #43
AdmiralAsshat wrote: post #22

https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/lookingglass The Mr. Robot series centers around the theme of online privacy and security. 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 protect their privacy. ...which you've d…

If you clicked on the link about shield studies you'd see it says they're opt in, did you not getting prompted about it?

I did not knowingly opt-in to any shield studies, and I see it installed for me. I guess it's possible that I clicked on something without reading it.

Anyways, I've taken the opportunity to opt-out of Firefox.

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

#72

Post by dpwm »

icebraining wrote: post #59
LyndsySimon wrote: post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> No changes will be made to Firefox unless you have opted in to this Alternate Reality Game. That can't possibly be true. I had it installed, and I'm on my work machine using Firefox Developer Edition. I didn't opt in to any ARG.

I think what they mean is that the addon doesn't do anything unless you opt-in. Still, why install it at all?

The installation of the add-on is unquestionably a change to Firefox. Whether the add-on does anything is largely immaterial.

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

#73

Post by [deleted] »

_red wrote: post #52
teddyfrozevelt wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Going through your browser settings really is quite the hoop.

Yeah, its so intuitive for the average person to type: about:config in address bar and scroll through hundreds of oddly named parameters to turn off spyware. Comments like yours are illustrative of a certain mindset. When you encounter the complexity of domains you are not intimately familiar with (court system, law, finance, etc), and those complexities are designed specifically to make it hard for you to protect yo…

[deleted]

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

#74

Post by Ajedi32 »

yborg wrote: post #53
theossuary wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you clicked on the link about shield studies you'd see it says they're opt in, did you not getting prompted about it?

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…

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.

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

#75

Post by teamhappy »

nkrisc wrote: post #18
proaralyst wrote: post #7

Looks like it's a promo for Mr Robot, which is really not ok. > What's happening? Are you a fan of Mr Robot? Are you trying to solve one of the many puzzles that the Mr Robot team has built? You’re on the right track. Firefox and Mr Robot have collaborated on a shared experience to further your immersion into the Mr Robot universe, also known as an Alternate Reality Game (ARG). The effects you’re seeing are a part of…

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://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/shield and https://wiki.mozilla.org/Firefox/Shield/Shield_Studies

Now they have partnered with Mr Robot to use the same feature to offer some sort of "Alternate Reality Game".

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

#77

Post by sp332 »

linkmotif wrote: post #63

I checked out FF for the zillionth time the other week after the Quantum release hoping to love it, but the deep Pocket integration was just too offputting. Turning it off requires some Googling. There were other irritating commercial things too. It’s a shame. FF is probably the most important open source project in the world and it’s a shame they do stuff like this. I’m still on Chrome :(

Firefox bought Pocket. So it's a first-party feature.

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

#79

Post by jchw »

yborg wrote: post #53
theossuary wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you clicked on the link about shield studies you'd see it says they're opt in, did you not getting prompted about it?

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.

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

#80

Post by dekrg »

tamriel wrote: post #34
exelius wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Seems kind of like it is part of an ARG. I can't say I'm totally against something like that; Mozilla's gotta make money somehow, and as long as it's not selling out user privacy it's a better tradeoff than Chrome.

> Mozilla's gotta make money somehow They're a nonprofit; they're not allowed to just "make money". And, they already take donations.

This is a very common misconception about non-profits that is not true. The details depend on local laws, but generally a non-profit only means that the owner of the non-profit can't take the all of the actual profit (money) directly out of the non-profit via dividends. Things like non-profits must be focused public good or they can't pay high (or any) salaries are urban legends that have no basis in reality.
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