Safe Browsing Version 4 (temporary add-on) ?

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Ortho_Fan
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Safe Browsing Version 4 (temporary add-on) ?

Post by Ortho_Fan »

Safe Browsing Version 4 (temporary add-on) -- I just noticed that in my Extensions folder, downloaded today (Oct. 4).

I clicked on "More" and read: "This temporary add-on enables the new version of the Safe Browsing API, which protects against dangerous and deceptive sites. It will be automatically removed once the roll-out of this feature is complete."

I noticed my version number FF 56.0 didn't change.

Couldn't find anything on Google about this, only about the "Safe Browsing" add-on, which I've never installed. Anyone know anything about this? Is it legit?

OF
(Paranoid about these things...)
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Happy112
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Re: Safe Browsing Version 4 (temporary add-on) ?

Post by Happy112 »

No, you're not paranoid - just cautious, on the alert. Nothing wrong with that - better safe than sorry !
This 'Safe Browsing Version 4 (temporary add-on)' is absolutely legit - it's for testing purposes only.
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dickvl
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Re: Safe Browsing Version 4 (temporary add-on) ?

Post by dickvl »

See:
bug 1393980 - Create a bootstrap add-on to switch a user to SBv4
Brummelchen
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Re: Safe Browsing Version 4 (temporary add-on) ?

Post by Brummelchen »

this addon is part of mozilla new philosophie, in german:
https://www.camp-firefox.de/forum/viewt ... 4&t=122007
And the add-on is only temporary to control the distribution from 0 to 100 percent.
https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.c ... 387651#c20

glad i can control this crap, i only have 3 out of x system addons (aus, e10s, screenshot)
my browser is no rat in a trial cage for mozilla.
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Reflective
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Re: Safe Browsing Version 4 (temporary add-on) ?

Post by Reflective »

Brummelchen wrote:glad i can control this crap, i only have 3 out of x system addons (aus, e10s, screenshot)
my browser is no rat in a trial cage for mozilla.
It might be shortly Brum. Mozilla is planning to team up with Cliqz soon. The experiment will only run in Germany according to ghacks.net: https://www.ghacks.net/2017/10/06/mozil ... ollecting/
Brummelchen
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Re: Safe Browsing Version 4 (temporary add-on) ?

Post by Brummelchen »

is it fair enough when i say that i dont like ghostery and i dont like cliqz (or cliqz browser)? ;)

https://www.ghostery.com/faqs/human-web-data-collected/
a company beside mozilla to collect data which is collected by trackers and ads!?
ghostery itself had an option (imo opt-in) for this.

the was an incident with firefox klar which offers no benefit for mozilla
https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/s ... user-data/
major critics were about that Adjust collected data and not mozilla themselves.

firefox in germany still has more users than around the world - and we seem more focussed on privacy.
what Zitronella wrote is that such actions need more transparency.

there were also injections when users were set on funnelcake experiment without knowledge.
funnelcake is same as firefox - is firefox - but the option to test out new extensions. people we upset too.

i can not speak for myself because i never experienced this mass collecting anonymous data.
looks like a panic attack because firefox definitely is loosing users.

marketshare between firefox and chrome seems same in the past 6 month for germany (for pc-desktop: F: 28%, C: ~30%, IE ~11, Edge ~2)

btw the rollout of 56.0.1 has begun and the forced switch to 64-bit if possible.

comments from the german audience
http://stadt-bremerhaven.de/mozilla-fir ... n-sammelt/

as pointed out here only less than 1 per cent of users is concernd but they are set silently on the funnelcake experiment when downloading firefox.

addional that the new owner (burda media https://www.burda.com/ ) as german media and technology enterprise - guess why a mag and news selling enterprise has jumped in ;)
Last edited by Brummelchen on October 6th, 2017, 8:46 am, edited 2 times in total.
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mightyglydd
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Re: Safe Browsing Version 4 (temporary add-on) ?

Post by mightyglydd »

Reflective wrote: It might be shortly Brum. Mozilla is planning to team up with Cliqz soon. The experiment will only run in Germany according to ghacks.net: https://www.ghacks.net/2017/10/06/mozil ... ollecting/
Well some of us connected the dots..... ;) (Edit was just to make the pertinent lines bold)

http://forums.mozillazine.org/viewtopic ... #p14728904
#KeepFightingMichael and Alex.
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Reflective
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Re: Safe Browsing Version 4 (temporary add-on) ?

Post by Reflective »

mightyglydd wrote:
Reflective wrote: It might be shortly Brum. Mozilla is planning to team up with Cliqz soon. The experiment will only run in Germany according to ghacks.net: https://www.ghacks.net/2017/10/06/mozil ... ollecting/
Well some of us connected the dots..... ;) (Edit was just to make the pertinent lines bold)

http://forums.mozillazine.org/viewtopic ... #p14728904
Ouch. I didn't realize Cliqz had already been released as an extension and as far back as 2014 as well according to the release history. Thanks for the tip mightyglydd.

Crunchbase has some info on Cliqz's CEO and it's interesting to see how many businesses he's involved in: https://www.crunchbase.com/person/jean-paul-schmetz

Interesting review of the extension here as well: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefo ... ws/912051/
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mightyglydd
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Re: Safe Browsing Version 4 (temporary add-on) ?

Post by mightyglydd »

#KeepFightingMichael and Alex.
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Reflective
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Re: Safe Browsing Version 4 (temporary add-on) ?

Post by Reflective »

What Mozilla is proposing with Context Graph is a very noble concept. Save users searching for whatever it is that they want by presenting them with the correct results straight out of the bag. Unfortunately though it can't be done unless you know a user's browsing habits and that means either spying on them, or inducing them to hand over their lives to Mozilla to dissect as they please.

Also it's a bit creepy being presented with a number of sites which fit the description of whatever a user was intending to search for.

Mozilla seems to have chosen a different path to what we've been used to. They appear to want to exercise more control over our lives and has started along that path by redesigning Firefox to look more like Chrome even though FF users are for the most part totally against the idea. What's more, Firefox has drifted away from being fully customizable browser to one which is much more restrictive. Furthermore, Mozilla refused to make the necessary APIs available to several popular extensions like Classic Theme Restorer which could undo Mozilla's own ugly custom job.

We'll have to wait and see what happens in a few weeks time when FF57 hits the digital shelves, but I'm sure there are going to be a great many unhappy users out there when all their favorite extensions suddenly stop working.
Ortho_Fan
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Re: Safe Browsing Version 4 (temporary add-on) ?

Post by Ortho_Fan »

As a follow-up:

After doing a little more online research, I went to the "new" Privacy Security tab under Options and unticked both "Allow Firefox to automatically send technical and interaction data to Mozilla" and "Allow Firefox to install and run studies". (They were both checked by default, apparently.) When I restarted Firefox and checked the add-ons, I noticed that "Safe Browsing Version 4 (temporary add-on)" is no longer listed.

I also noticed that FF runs somewhat faster now, though it may be my imagination.

OrthoFan
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mightyglydd
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Re: Safe Browsing Version 4 (temporary add-on) ?

Post by mightyglydd »

#KeepFightingMichael and Alex.
Brummelchen
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Re: Safe Browsing Version 4 (temporary add-on) ?

Post by Brummelchen »

there is a comment from cliqz themselves which points out their purpose - serving user related ads (each time when searching) and making money.
the magic number is 51 and you are probably part of it :p
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