Stories
Slash Boxes
Comments

SoylentNews is people

posted by Fnord666 on Sunday December 17 2017, @04:04PM   Printer-friendly
from the random-plugin-included-for-free dept.

Submitted via IRC for SoyCow9228

Mozilla sneaked a browser plugin that promotes Mr. Robot into Firefox—and managed to piss off a bunch of its privacy-conscious users in the process.

The extension, called Looking Glass, is intended to promote an augmented reality game to "further your immersion into the Mr. Robot universe," according to Mozilla. It was automatically added to Firefox users' browsers this week with no explanation except the cryptic message, "MY REALITY IS JUST DIFFERENT THAN YOURS," prompting users to worry on Reddit that they'd been hit with spyware.

"I have no idea what it is or where it came from. I freaked out a bit and uninstalled it immediately," one user wrote on Reddit.

Without an explanation included with the extension, users were left digging around in the code for Looking Glass to find answers. Looking Glass was updated for some users today with a description that explains the connection to Mr. Robot and lets users know that the extension won't activate without explicit opt-in.

Mr. Robot is a TV series about hackers airing on USA Network.

Source: https://gizmodo.com/mozilla-slipped-a-mr-robot-promo-plugin-into-firefox-1821332254


Original Submission

 
This discussion has been archived. No new comments can be posted.
Display Options Threshold/Breakthrough Mark All as Read Mark All as Unread
The Fine Print: The following comments are owned by whoever posted them. We are not responsible for them in any way.
  • (Score: 5, Insightful) by maxwell demon on Sunday December 17 2017, @04:07PM (11 children)

    by maxwell demon (1608) on Sunday December 17 2017, @04:07PM (#611003) Journal

    Seems that Mozilla is trying hard to get rid also of the remaining users …

    --
    The Tao of math: The numbers you can count are not the real numbers.
    Starting Score:    1  point
    Moderation   +3  
       Insightful=3, Total=3
    Extra 'Insightful' Modifier   0  
    Karma-Bonus Modifier   +1  

    Total Score:   5  
  • (Score: 5, Interesting) by Rosco P. Coltrane on Sunday December 17 2017, @04:19PM (9 children)

    by Rosco P. Coltrane (4757) on Sunday December 17 2017, @04:19PM (#611006)

    I'll take stupid Mozilla over evil Google, Microsoft and Apple anyday.

    • (Score: 2, Insightful) by tftp on Sunday December 17 2017, @11:01PM (4 children)

      by tftp (806) on Sunday December 17 2017, @11:01PM (#611138) Homepage
      I'm not even sure if this can be explained by mere stupidity. By all indications, Mozilla Inc. is trying to exploit the customers harder than Google does with its Chrome. After all, Mozilla's product is the browser; the customers are just the disposable fuel that lifts it up. For that reason protests of the customers are ignored. Quite likely, Mozilla Inc.'s exit strategy is the buyout, and they are constantly reshaping the browser to what is fashionable today.
      • (Score: 2) by MichaelDavidCrawford on Monday December 18 2017, @05:36AM (2 children)

        by MichaelDavidCrawford (2339) Subscriber Badge <mdcrawford@gmail.com> on Monday December 18 2017, @05:36AM (#611280) Homepage Journal

        Back when I was but a lad software cost money.

        Sure there was piracy but even so there were many prosperous software companies.

        Many such companies offered free tech support.

        There's so much gratis software these days that it must be very difficult for paid software to gain traction.

        --
        Yes I Have No Bananas. [gofundme.com]
        • (Score: 2) by joshuajon on Monday December 18 2017, @07:56PM (1 child)

          by joshuajon (807) on Monday December 18 2017, @07:56PM (#611550)

          And yet the software industry is bigger and richer than ever, expanding at unprecedented rates. Sure, support isn't free any more - that's where many of these companies make the bulk of their income: recurring license fees.

          • (Score: 2) by MichaelDavidCrawford on Tuesday December 19 2017, @12:07AM

            by MichaelDavidCrawford (2339) Subscriber Badge <mdcrawford@gmail.com> on Tuesday December 19 2017, @12:07AM (#611647) Homepage Journal

            I am convinced that the reason ads are so frequent and so unpleasant to look at is that there are too many websites.

            For decades now the total amount spent on advertising has been close to 2% of the GDP.

            But everyone wants to make money by posting ads on their sites.

            When they find that ads don't earn them much money they publish even more ads. When product and service vendors find their ads are ineffective they increase their visibility - that is, they make them more glaringly obvious.

            --
            Yes I Have No Bananas. [gofundme.com]
      • (Score: 2) by Wootery on Monday December 18 2017, @11:18AM

        by Wootery (2341) on Monday December 18 2017, @11:18AM (#611333)

        Mozilla's product is the browser; the customers are just the disposable fuel that lifts it up

        What? With that kind of logic, there can be no way to structure an institution such that it serves the people.

        Google and Facebook treat the customer as the product, and therefore exploit their customers rather than putting the customers' interests first, right?

        Mozilla treat their browser as the product, and therefore exploit their customers as 'just the disposable fuel' rather than putting the customers' interests first, right?

        No pleasing some people.

        Quite likely, Mozilla Inc.'s exit strategy is the buyout, and they are constantly reshaping the browser to what is fashionable today.

        No, they just make a disappointing number of idiotic decisions. Hanlon's razor.

    • (Score: 4, Interesting) by FatPhil on Sunday December 17 2017, @11:15PM

      by FatPhil (863) <pc-soylentNO@SPAMasdf.fi> on Sunday December 17 2017, @11:15PM (#611141) Homepage
      How about Pale Moon? Firefox clearly was pumping blue pills ages ago, and Pale Moon was clearly a fork created for the right reasons. Works for me.
      --
      Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people; the smallest discuss themselves
    • (Score: 2) by crafoo on Monday December 18 2017, @03:59AM (1 child)

      by crafoo (6639) on Monday December 18 2017, @03:59AM (#611260)

      Why do you assume they are not also evil?

      • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday December 18 2017, @04:33PM

        by Anonymous Coward on Monday December 18 2017, @04:33PM (#611446)

        There are different types of evil in the world.

        pick the ones that best suit you.

        i can't just create a browser, but I can run old ones. sometimes clinging to the past doesn't work in the present. thus i pick the evils that can work for me, even if I don't like the fact I must do so.

        the alternative is to not use the internet in a modernized fashion. i didn't give up electricity simply because I don't like coal ash, but I can at least try to reduce the impact of my actions... likewise, not supporting mozilla google or MS at least reduces their impact on me.

    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday December 18 2017, @09:05AM

      by Anonymous Coward on Monday December 18 2017, @09:05AM (#611324)

      You know who pays Mozilla for all this crap?

      Evil Google.

      For a while, it was Yahoo (powered by Bing), but they are back to being paid by Google.

  • (Score: 3, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday December 17 2017, @06:05PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Sunday December 17 2017, @06:05PM (#611032)

    Seems that Mozilla is trying hard to get rid also of the remaining user

    ftfy