Unknown Mozilla dev addon "Looking Glass 1.0.3" on browser

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.

If this were the first incident, and they quickly backtracked on it, then maybe we can give them a pass. But this isn't the first case of somewhat shady behavior. Remember the "user-enhancing" sponsored tiles a few years ago?

https://twitter.com/dherman76/status/433320156496789504

> Excited to share the launch of @mozilla @firefox Tiles program, the first of our user-enhancing programs

The problem there wasn't just the idea of putting ads in the browser, it was also the way in which they tried to present it as a useful addition just like every other ad company tries to defend ads

There are things I don't agree with that Mozilla does, but I will stand up for that one. The idea behind the "tiles" was to try to figure out a way to do privacy-respecting ads. And if you look at how it actually worked... it was actually a really good plan for how that could happen.

Mozilla's job is to find ways to push the web forward in ways that respect humans, and ads are, well, how the web mostly gets funded. So it's entirely within bounds for them to try to figure out ways to make ads work without invading people's privacy.