To anyone who uses Firefox as their browser

A word from our sponsor:

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This morning I noticed my computers had a Firefox add-on that I hadn't installed.

It is called Looking Glass 1.0.3. The weird add on had a description that said 'MY REALITY IS JUST DIFFERENT FROM YOURS' When I saw that I suspected some form of malware. An unsatisfactory explanation from Firefox can be found here.

I removed this add on from all three computers of mine. Firefox did not conduct themselves well at all with this thing.

On another note, just after I removed the add on and did a restart to one of my machines, Kaspersky Internet Security failed on that machine. I was told it was some corrupt files so I had to delete Kaspersky and re-install it. Everything was fine after this. I am just writing about it to inform any of you who also have Kaspersky and remove that add-on. It may not be related but you should just double check your machines afterwards. My other two machines had no problems.

Comments

And recent update made Opera almost unusable on my...

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...tablet... Now I have to scroll to the top of any page to get to the tabs bar... Very annoying when reading a long story...
Other changes to interface made it even less user friendly. For one - when switching between "normal" and "private" tabs you always end on first private or last normal tab. Again very annoying, when like me you have 50+ tabs open sometimes...

Thanks

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I Had the add-on too. It's apparently a study that Firefox is doing. You can remove the add-on like you did and prevent them from installing any others by changing your privacy settings. From this link: https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/questions/1194583 :

Copy/Paste about:preferences#privacy into Address Bar then Enter Untick the box that says : Allow Firefox to install and run Studies.

Also thanks

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My Firefox 57.0.2 had this unwanted add-in as well. I removed it, then read what Mozilla had to say.

"Participation in an individual study is opt-in and any and all data being collected will be declared openly. After confirming willingness to participation, a self expiring add-on will be installed on the user's machine."

Mozilla did not ask my permission to participate in a study, nor did it inform me that my system had been chosen to participate. It appears that this did not follow Mozilla's stated policy, which makes me suspect malware.

My Guess

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I'm guessing that what the reassuring words come down to is that having the ok to perform studies box checked is you having given your permission (in their view).

odd

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dawnfyre's picture

My Mozilla Seamonkey doesn't allow the studies thing at all.

The truly odd part:
The only code difference between Seamonkey and Firefox are user interface.
Seamonkey is the latest incarnation of the Mozilla suite ( Netscape Navigator / Communicator ) for those that remember that.
1 app, with email client a wyswyg page editor, irc chat client. It has the major benefit of NOT using the resource hog everything in tabs as well. Can't forget they didn't buy into the idiocy of no menu bar in a desktop app. ( Google Chrome / Chromium )

Stupidity is a capital offense. A summary not indictable.

Not on the ESR release

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I've advocated using the ESR (extended Service release) of Firefox here several times.
My FF is at 52.5.2 and does not have this add-on.

ESR is the long term support release. Those whizzo new features don't hit the ESR release until all the 'funnies' have been sorted (well that's what we hope from all software isn't it?).
I never advocate using the latest version of any software the day after is is released inless it is a real 'zero day' security issue that is being fixed. That is 40+ years of software development speaking.
Samantha

Considering I run Linux, I

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Considering I run Linux, I end up (mostly) with the stable software. Also, various pieces of crap like the Looking Glass thing don't get automatically installed.

I'll get a life when it's proven and substantiated to be better than what I'm currently experiencing.

I'm clear ...

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... perhaps it's a US (I'm in the UK) thing?

What I have discovered when I checked my Add-ons was that Lazarus is incompatible with FF ver 57. That's a pity because, although I used it infrequently, it's handy to be able to resurrect text when things 'disappear' either due to dumb fingers or a web site's failings.

Robi

There are almost _no_ add-ons

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There are almost _no_ add-ons that are compatible with Firefox 57. In the name of security, they've obliterated all of the functionality that made those add-ons work. Even some of the ones that still work, now require installing programs on your computer so that Firefox can interact with those to do what Firefox will no longer support on its own.

I'll get a life when it's proven and substantiated to be better than what I'm currently experiencing.

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