What to do about Junk Firefox Ad-Ons??

Discussion of general topics about Mozilla Firefox
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old zmanzero
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Post by old zmanzero »

yea, but we don't need these sick toolbars in our house. keep us posted frank.

edit - see. here's a new one for today.

https://addons.mozilla.org/firefox/3380/
https://addons.mozilla.org/firefox/45167/author/
http://www.wordlearner.com/
http://www.wordlearner.com/web.index.php?page=privacy
http://www.teachers-pet.org/upspring/about.htm

check out that first link. no mention of tracking or anything.
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anderzen
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Post by anderzen »

Agreed...hopefully the Internet of the future will be a little more healthier....QUESTION : how many people do you think it would take to mark all the bad add-ons ? and inspect the new ones ?

(this forum seems to be generating a good disscusion hopefully more will take notice)

play safe !
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J-Mac
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Post by J-Mac »

zmanzero wrote:yea, but we don't need these sick toolbars in our house. keep us posted frank.

edit - see. here's a new one for today.

https://addons.mozilla.org/firefox/3380/
https://addons.mozilla.org/firefox/45167/author/
http://www.wordlearner.com/
http://www.wordlearner.com/web.index.php?page=privacy
http://www.teachers-pet.org/upspring/about.htm

check out that first link. no mention of tracking or anything.


And surprisingly there are not already a few dozen or so 5 star reviews saying things like "Greatest toolbar, very useful, and it is REALLY NOT spyware cause it not collect any but anonymymymous data, so how can be spyware you stupid peoples..."
J-Mac

Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 6.1; en-US; rv:1.9.2.6) Gecko/20100625 Firefox/4.0.1
old Ol Grumpy
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Post by old Ol Grumpy »

I don't use any specialized toolbars for the simple reason they limit to the subject or want to put software on your computer which may be suspect. In a way it's like listening to a point of view or a salespitch which allays only the positive and not the negetive. Some might argue this is precisely what a toolbar is to do, seperate the wheat from the chaf, but should it limit other sources in the same information vein through non disclosure. I have a couple of default toolbars which came with softwares but find they eat up too much screen space for viewing a subject web page with text or images. Some of the add-on tool bars seem more like directional controls by the creators instead of helpmates, leading you towards the designers viewpoint while conflicting points of view are not revealed for the same subject. They seem to be replacements for the web sites which portend to help you find things on the net but are just loggers or trackers and are shallow in real depth of information.

This turns into more of a free enterprise - free speech kind of consideration and it may be well to define the nature of the toolbar as to it's recommendation, support or location for download. Possibly a specialized page of links to the provided toolbars with warnings of crass commercialism, extreme philosophies or possible privacy issues.
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malliz
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Post by malliz »

Hell I even turn the adds down on the tv when they come on so why would I install them on my damned web browser. I think all those so called "Toolbars" should be axed from Addons
What sort of man would put a known criminal in charge of a major branch of government? Apart from, say, the average voter.
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VanillaMozilla
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Post by VanillaMozilla »

And while you mention it:
The danger of extensions
Someone should point this guy over here too.
dk70
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Post by dk70 »

Yep, dont run any leaking extension. His Leak Monitor seems to be almost an official tool and since delivering reproduceable results I would 1. expect authors to use it before submitting and 2. reviewers to have in their toolbox and possibly make a note at extension entry if any hits. Would go nicely with the FAQ entry explaining about conflicts, Firefox profiles, link to forum/KB for help/troubleshooting etc. - simple advice which site miss. Not just a candystore.

Anyway, Wordlearner sure looks crappy. When checking out their homepage turn off Adblock, shows the real internet! However they have nothing to do with Conduit. Also if you read the whole page at Bugzilla you will find a "FIXED" right?

"I'm marking this FIXED, as the toolbars at issue have been removed, and I had a conversation today with EffectiveBrand folks that makes me quite optimistic that we'll have a good story for their toolbars in the near future"

Old story, old code. Even at Conduit forum you can see analyzes of browser requests to HQ so? Do they deny there is tracking going on? Or that the real deal is to direct traffic to some search pages of their own. How exactly do they violate policy? I think there is better chance of throwing them out by claiming all these "authors" are no more than middlemen and Conduit is the one and only author - pointless to speak with those. As this shows here http://forum.effectivebrand.net/index.php?topic=2436.0 Questions from reviewer cant be answered by author for good reasons. Of course strange other reviewers do accept them but due to lack of policy I guess.
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anderzen
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Post by anderzen »

It would be helpful if the download manager had a way of detecting weather or not the program you were downloading had adware or spyware annonymous user data collecting malware crap and would warn you that continuing the download would infect your computer...mabey (i don't know if this already existis) you could have a option to download somthing through your anti virus/firewall or some similar type of program that would give you a warning that the file you were trying to download was infected giving you the option to continue the download or cancel it

some web sites to check out :
www.cylab.cmu.edu
www.microsoft.com/vigilante
www.shibboleth.internet2.edu
"Be discreet in all things, and so render it unnecessary to be mysterious about any."
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anderzen
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Post by anderzen »

dk70
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Post by dk70 »

Antivirus and Antispyware programs almost all have resident shields doing what you think of. Free MS Windows Defender is one of them, http://www.microsoft.com/athome/securit ... fault.mspx

So Symantec warns against Conduit? Or is warning based based on another toolbar? http://forum.effectivebrand.net/index.php?topic=1856.0 Be careful about details, this is about a toolbar for Firefox. What the Conduit ADM says is probably true - they are likely to license out code to other "publishers". Or they have licensed it them self. There could be other Conduits out there.
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anderzen
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Post by anderzen »

I curently use Ad-Aware SE and Spyblaster and i belive my ISP uses a lincensed version of f-secure Firewall program seems good for what i use the Internet for anyway i was more thinking of somthing that would be built in to the Internet itself...a program that was avalible to every one computer wise or not somthing that wouldn't be on your computer but like i said built in to the internet or browser of your choice ?...i guess the comment i made about downloading through the firewall or anti virus program was what lead to your (dk70) reasponse...thanks will check out website

I had some Symantec programs but got rid of them all
"Be discreet in all things, and so render it unnecessary to be mysterious about any."
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J-Mac
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Post by J-Mac »

Anderzen wrote:I curently use Ad-Aware SE and Spyblaster and i belive my ISP uses a lincensed version of f-secure Firewall program seems good for what i use the Internet for anyway i was more thinking of somthing that would be built in to the Internet itself...a program that was avalible to every one computer wise or not somthing that wouldn't be on your computer but like i said built in to the internet or browser of your choice ?...i guess the comment i made about downloading through the firewall or anti virus program was what lead to your (dk70) reasponse...thanks will check out website

I had some Symantec programs but got rid of them all

"Built in to the Internet"?? You're joking, of course! Aren't you? Who "builds" these things into the Internet?

We actually do have such tools. The main and best one we have is - common sense! Read and know what you are downloading, before you download and install it! Also, Siteadvisor has a tool that shows you their review of the downloads from most sites and whether or not that site has malware on it. I usually try my best to know the site I am downloading from, and if they have bad stuff there, I simply never use that site.

AMO was always considered by me to be a "safe" site, since it is part of Mozilla itself. Guess not!
J-Mac

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anderzen
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Post by anderzen »

J-mac if you had read some of my previous posts you would no that i am not joking evntually not in the near future though this will have to be done
i wasn't talking about somone doing this tommorow or next year but posibly in the next 10-20 years and as far as common sense read my other posts as i have stated this already....Look before you leap...and for anyone who thinks the internet will continue to run and be run the way it currently is
full of viruses and constantly aquireing more everyday you need to wake up the Internt is sick and will never get better
"Be discreet in all things, and so render it unnecessary to be mysterious about any."
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J-Mac
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Post by J-Mac »

I agree it is sick, and I also agree that it is not likely to "get better". That's why the thought of someone building anti-malware software into the Internet sounds like you are joking.

Look before I leap? Ha! :D
J-Mac

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dk70
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Post by dk70 »

Well is it not Microsoft plan to expand on the available phishing part of IE7/Vista? To build a database like Siteadvisor. Google/Mozilla could do the same. So every time you visit favorite cracksite you are warned. Some ISP block childporn sites, could get expanded as well. But personal choice/freedom must be kept alive so there will be limits of a GOD proxy thingy. Besides childport what you think people can agree on?

With IE7 there is reason to believe all current browsers can be considered SAFE yet easy to use. Microsoft will take over security market like with Windows Defender, there is more. Good. Content influenced by millons of plasticcards, advertising taking over in every corner is another matter. Internet is also business but you decide where to go.

"Internet" cant help all those Myspace users who got infected with virus this summer http://news.com.com/2061-10789_3-6097156.html Add updated software to common sense and you are very secure.

http://www.bit-tech.net/columns/2006/06 ... 2_privacy/ partly why I think crying about a toolbar is waste of time - unless of course it contains "evil" code. Keep up with the "evolution of online businesses" or you will go bitter ;) I love many of these intruding Web2 sites - some have my fake address and age already. Can still be profiled through tracking on site and that is taking place Im sure, may be with Google Analytics type of software. Sign up for a free account, check it out. Probably the lightest tool used by marketing dudes, how things work today.
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