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Unknown Mozilla dev addon "Looking Glass 1.0.3" on browser

(support.mozilla.org)
757 points shak77 | 18 comments | 15 Dec 17 13:47 UTC | HN request time: 0.001s | source | bottom
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blauditore ◴[15 Dec 17 16:23 UTC] No.15932880[source]▶
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 add-on does nothing until the user opts-in on studies.

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skymt ◴[15 Dec 17 16:32 UTC] No.15932953[source]▶
Speaking for myself here, but I'm not concerned that Mozilla might push malware into Firefox installations. I'm concerned about the lack of judgement in pushing an extension with a vague, scary-sounding name and description simply for a cross-marketing tie-in, and I'm worried that it could have damaged the trust ordinary users have in Firefox.
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1. WhitneyLand ◴[15 Dec 17 19:54 UTC] No.15934516[source]▶
I don’t see the harm in a good organization contributing lot of value to this world having a little fun.

Some of the comments are mentioning IT managers banning firefox, those will be the same IT managers doing all the other pennywise/pound foolish things that make you try not to work on their team in the first place.

Maybe it’s actually good to put something scary sounding in there to raise awareness. It could help people understand that scary phrases are not the most common sign of foul play. When the real hackers come for you, they usually dont look scary at all.

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2. pavel_lishin ◴[15 Dec 17 19:58 UTC] No.15934551[source]▶
> I don’t see the harm in a good organization contributing lot of value to this world having a little fun.

One potential downside is that now people might not pay close attention to the installed addons. "Oh, must be some Mozilla thing", as GoldenDwarf quietly consumes user CPU cycles to mine cryptocurrency for someone else.

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3. flamedoge ◴[15 Dec 17 20:18 UTC] No.15934718[source]▶
This calls for.... anti mining extension. like adblock, miningblock.
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4. ryanisnan ◴[15 Dec 17 20:35 UTC] No.15934851[source]▶
I don't look to my browser's implementation to "have a little fun". This is a foolish decision on Mozilla's part.
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5. ◴[15 Dec 17 21:08 UTC] No.15935134{3}[source]▶
6. bigbugbag ◴[15 Dec 17 22:21 UTC] No.15935743[source]▶
What do you mean having a little fun ?

Firefox is bleeding market share and has been for a while. Despite this, revenue and profit is at an all time high for mozilla which is weird as the revenue comes from sending theirs users to google for being profiled and exposed to ads. Meanwhile long time users lose faith and trust in mozilla and firefox.

Not exactly the best time to be caught having "a little fun" move showing that they will sneakily install stuff in your browser without asking.

Then again mozilla is "making far-reaching and very short-sighted decisions in a vacuum."[1]

[1]:http://forums-test.mozillazine.org/viewtopic.php?p=14736466#...

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7. TAForObvReasons ◴[15 Dec 17 22:39 UTC] No.15935865[source]▶
> Firefox is bleeding market share and has been for a while.

http://gs.statcounter.com/

    Chrome            54.98%
    Safari            14.79%
    UC Browser         7.98%
    Firefox            6.09%
    Internet Explorer  3.88%
    Opera              3.79%
In all fairness, Firefox has overtaken IE.
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8. WhitneyLand ◴[15 Dec 17 22:51 UTC] No.15935917[source]▶
non sequitur. either it’s right or it’s wrong, whether or not you like the org as a whole doesn’t change that.

even so to briefly chase your point, do you believe they are doing net good, and some things are looking more positive, like the servo work? my only point is that criticism works on a relative scale. i agree there are things they could do better, but i still prefer they exist.

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9. WhitneyLand ◴[15 Dec 17 22:57 UTC] No.15935961[source]▶
poor argument. ostensibly the only reason to separate business from pleasure is out of practical concerns. without stating practical concerns there’s no way consider the validity of your comment.

who knows, you may totally change my mind, but as it stands it makes it difficult to disagree or agree with you.

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10. ◴[15 Dec 17 23:20 UTC] No.15936139[source]▶
11. Crespyl ◴[15 Dec 17 23:20 UTC] No.15936141{3}[source]▶
How about this:

I opted into FF telemetry and "studies" with the understanding that some extra data would be collected and experimental features or specialized debugging tools might get pushed to my browser (like the last "study" I saw for collecting JS errors).

This addon is none of those things. It is an advertisement. Call it an "alternate reality game" if you like, but it's an advertisement for a television show. It has nothing to do with making FireFox a better browser.

Using the Shield Studies program to deploy extensions and advertisements that have nothing to do with the original stated purpose is an abuse of the tool and a breach of trust.

That's all aside from the fact that there's been numerous reports of people receiving the addon who never opted in to Shield Studies in the first place.

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12. harshreality ◴[15 Dec 17 23:29 UTC] No.15936186{4}[source]▶
Raising awareness about security and privacy relevant issues from a TV show seems to me like it (indirectly) makes Firefox a better browser. An AR game does nothing to improve the browser by itself, but think of the big picture. Cultural awareness is a big part of it.
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13. Crespyl ◴[15 Dec 17 23:35 UTC] No.15936227{5}[source]▶
If you want to take an ideological perspective, the big picture of this is that the browser maker is willing to push advertising software to people who didn't ask for it, over a channel that wasn't built for it, to further a political agenda.

Even if it's ostensibly about ideals I might agree with, this was a very poor decision and a breach of trust.

14. basicplus2 ◴[16 Dec 17 00:30 UTC] No.15936528{3}[source]▶
Not really.. Microsoft is killing off internet explorer
15. bigbugbag ◴[16 Dec 17 00:51 UTC] No.15936626{3}[source]▶
Actually chrome and microsoft are responsible for IE hitting the bottom. Look at the following chart from stat counter:

https://andreasgal.files.wordpress.com/2017/05/alldevices-e1...

That all versions of firefox combined barely do better than obsolete unsupported browser that the manufacturer actively try to remove from the market is not a good sign.

16. bigbugbag ◴[16 Dec 17 01:04 UTC] No.15936686{3}[source]▶
right/wrong or good/bad are concept derived from organized religions to control populations' beliefs and they are inappropriate in most cases if not all because they are relative to your own beliefs.

If you are the good guy then your enemy is the bad guy but from the bad guy point of view he is the good guy and you are the bad guy.

No one is ever the bad guy in the movie of her own life.

servo, or whatever else they could come up with will never reach a net good for me as I need ALSA support and the extensions mozilla has dropped to make firefox useful to me.

I would rather have them disappear so there is room for something better to exist in its place. Right now there are occupying space and prevents an alternative to emerge.

The sad part of this is that by accumulating blunders, near sighted and far reaching decisions, with their attitude of not caring about user feedback or user freedom of choice they managed to turned me, a long time supporter (since netscape times) that has based part of my business on their browser, against them and wishing they would go away. This is quite a feat in itself. I'm not sure there is another entity that managed to alienate me that much, not even canonical or gnome.

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17. michaelmrose ◴[16 Dec 17 08:35 UTC] No.15938512{4}[source]▶
Pulse seems pretty functional now. Did you know it was still possible to build firefox with alsa support?

https://github.com/Monsterovich/firefox-fuckpa

It seems like a lot of addons are being ported to the new apis too. Maybe you are too hasty?

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18. ackalker ◴[16 Dec 17 15:12 UTC] No.15939855{5}[source]▶
There would be "rioting in the streets" of the internet if Mozilla ever decided to drop support for ALSA in Firefox.

There are distros, Void Linux (which I am using right now) for one, which ship without pulseaudio (or systemd for that matter) installed by default, thank goodness.