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Unknown Mozilla dev addon "Looking Glass 1.0.3" on browser

(support.mozilla.org)
757 points shak77 | 1 comments | 15 Dec 17 13:47 UTC | HN request time: 0.209s | source
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pgl ◴[15 Dec 17 14:56 UTC] No.15932231[source]▶
Previously:

* https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15921134

This is a link to the GitHub issue:

* https://github.com/gregglind/addon-wr/issues/36

There are several scary things about this:

- Unknown Mozilla developers can distribute addons to users without their permission

- Mozilla developers can distribute addons to users without their knowledge

- Mozilla developers themselves don't realise the consequences of doing this

- Experiments are not explicitly enabled by users

- Opening the addons window reverts configuration changes which disable experiments

- The only way to properly disable this requires fairly arcane knowledge Firefox preferences (lockpref(), which I'd never heard of until today)

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1. tatterdemalion ◴[15 Dec 17 17:49 UTC] No.15933569[source]▶
I think this was a very bad move, because Mozilla installed adware in all of its browsers. The fact that it was installed through an add on, though, seems irrelevant. Mozilla developers can distribute arbitrary code to all users because they write the browser. The add on just makes this particular bit of code user visible.