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0 pointsacqq8y ago0 comments

> Don't talk the ethics talk if you're not prepared to do the ethics walk.

Exactly.

> "The experience does not collect or share any data," Jascha Kaykas-Wolff, chief marketing officer of Mozilla, said

Looking in the sources of the extension, it adds additional HTML header to every HTML request to https://www.red-wheelbarrow.com/forkids/ pages. The activity of the users there could of course be tracked and the data dependent on the extension being active collected. Good try Mr. marketing officer of Mozilla delivering Mr. Robot ad using the mechanism for the "studies."

> "Firefox worked with the Mr. Robot team to create a custom experience that would surprise and delight fans of the show and our users."

Obviously fail. Surprise, yes. Delight? No.

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callahad8y ago

The add-on only initializes itself (and thus sends the header) if the user has manually gone into about:config and flipped the `extensions.pug.lookingglass` preference: https://github.com/gregglind/addon-wr/blob/59659431fd2a75c33...

acqqOP8y ago

It was obviously not complete in the form it was delivered, the "turning on" was supposed to be added somewhere at some later moment.

The whole thing is still suspicious: it was delivered to everybody whereas if it was supposed to be used only by the users who are aware of it, as now Mozilla tries to spin it, i.e. only to those who decided to "play the game", then the hidden install, especially to every user, was unnecessary as the normal extensions to Firefox are easily installed by the user, a click or two are enough:

https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/tabby-cat-fri...

acqqOP8y ago

The proof of the planned data collection, confirming my previous claims, found declared in the source of the extension itself:

"## Observed data

- Possible page view counts on SUMO

- Possible page view counts (with and without the special 'enrolled' header) on Partner pages."

I've also already explained the "special 'enrolled' header."

The turning on was obviously either planned for some special moment, which wasn't the moment of that the extension was actually delivered, or the extension was accidentally delivered in the unfinished state -- doesn't matter, it provably didn't get enough scrutiny, see my other comments here for the details, the damage it actually done is regarding "tracking" less than planned, but regarding annoyance of their users probably more.

j / k navigate · click thread line to collapse

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callahad8y ago

acqqOP8y ago

It was obviously not complete in the form it was delivered, the "turning on" was supposed to be added somewhere at some later moment.

https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/tabby-cat-fri...

acqqOP8y ago

The proof of the planned data collection, confirming my previous claims, found declared in the source of the extension itself:

"## Observed data

- Possible page view counts on SUMO

- Possible page view counts (with and without the special 'enrolled' header) on Partner pages."

I've also already explained the "special 'enrolled' header."

j / k navigate · click thread line to collapse