Firefox Mr. Robot Adware (Looking Glass) Salt - Brendan Eich wouldn't have let this happen

[CrunkLord420]

During Mozilla Corporation's recent all hands meeting in Austin it was announced that there was going to be a special Mr. Robot promotion going on with the Firefox brand. It wasn't immediately clear to most employees, but this involved automatically pushing a ARG (Alternative Reality Game) extension called "Looking Glass" to people's browsers via a mechanism intended to do user studies (called Studies).

To the (fucking) normies this would seem like a non-issue, but to the FOSS (Free Open Source Software) community this was a devastating blow to the reputation of Mozilla. Much of the fondness towards Mozilla is due to the fact they're not Google and maintain a (false) reputation of being a non-profit hippy company, and remains a large reason people still use Firefox instead of the objectively superior Chromium browser.

For more details: https://www.reddit.com/r/firefox/comments/7jh9rv/what_is_looking_glass/ (https://archive.fo/ABDO7)

Spoiler: Investigator Reddit

WellMakeItSomehow 117 points 5 days ago*

So it's an experiment called "PUG ARG" to check whether page contents sniffing works. Its page doesn't reference any Bugzilla issue or Wiki page, while https://wiki.mozilla.org/Firefox/Shield/Shield_Studies/Queue most likely doesn't list it.

And we have lovely plans like "Messaging Study with action link to external site (survey, Brain Games, interface testing, external user task tool)" (from here) and "Site Enhance" which seems to be "add-on recommendations".

Are we going back to the old days of Bonzi Buddy and browser toolbars that "enhance your we browsing experience"?

EDIT: The source code references https://support.mozilla.org/kb/lookingglass, which (as of now) only says "test - 12817".

EDIT 2: So the add-on tests whether specific words can be detected on sites; the current list has nice picks like "revolution" and "privacy". Of course, this is only a test, but in the future Firefox might look for specific terms in the pages you load and do specific things based on them.

The other thing it's doing is to send an extra header to three specific sites: https://github.com/gregglind/addon-...2b624ef4/addon/webextension/background.js#L52. I suppose the words and the domain are a reference to the Mr. Robot series.

The add-on describes itself as an "Augmented Reality Game Experience" and was made by a certain "PUG Experience Group": https://github.com/gregglind/addon-wr/blob/da464ac8f1c3b089405ca96fc68b999d2b624ef4/package.json.

Of course, Shield Studies are supposed to be a way of making "more informed product decisions based on actual user needs".

Pinging /u/mythmon about why I'd rather have these disabled.

EDIT 3: This blew up a bit in the meanwhile, so I want to add a couple of clarifications. I'm not going to rehash the full story, since it's been done in other places, but:

1. The add-on doesn't do much unless a preference is set; it has to be enabled from aboutonfig, though in theory it could have been enabled by another Shield study.
2. Of course, since toggling the preference indicates consent, there's no reason for this to be pushed in such a shady way. Users could install it from addons.mozilla.org. This must be true, since it was announced that the add-on will be moved there.
3. Some people are saying that it only affects certain domains. As far as I know, it does the text thing on every domain (it's injecting JavaScript and CSS on all tabs), while the extra HTTP header is sent only on two domains related to the game and a testing one. The reason for sending that header must be to keep track of how many users visit them while playing this game.
4. Mozilla is still thinking this was a good idea: https://gizmodo.com/after-blowback-firefox-will-move-mr-robot-extension-t-1821354314.

Mozilla employee twitter storm: https://twitter.com/steveklabnik/status/941709048529014784 (https://archive.fo/xOJsU)

Coworker in the replies: https://twitter.com/satefan/status/942446344458854400 (https://archive.fo/q0f3O)

Bonus, he's an Antifa wannabe and hangs in the same crowd (note Ashley Williams) as the NodeJS/NPM SJWs

My homeboy Bryan Lundake (aka the "Linux Sucks" guy) being savage.

The Reddit has been a shitshow, some of these thread titles are hilarious. There are over a 1000 comments across all the Looking Glass threads to be mined: https://www.reddit.com/r/firefox/

https://www.reddit.com/r/firefox/comments/7kjn4y/security_is_a_real_issue_of_the_looking_glass/ (https://archive.fo/FwdOe)

If you switch away from Firefox to punish Mozilla, you are actually punishing the open web!: https://www.reddit.com/r/firefox/comments/7kg5sf/if_you_switch_away_from_firefox_to_punish_mozilla/ (https://archive.fo/Tnx1B)

I still love Firefox: https://www.reddit.com/r/firefox/comments/7kf0ws/i_still_love_firefox/ (https://archive.fo/jqjPQ)
Firefox is on a slippery slope: https://www.reddit.com/r/firefox/comments/7k8797/firefox_is_on_a_slippery_slope/ (https://archive.fo/I3Efc)
Will Firefox Recover From This?: https://www.reddit.com/r/firefox/comments/7kctug/will_firefox_recover_from_this/ (https://archive.fo/lvDRe)
"I am pretty upset with my employer, @mozilla, today": https://www.reddit.com/r/firefox/comments/7k8qfj/i_am_pretty_upset_with_my_employer_mozilla_today/ (https://archive.fo/MbDhh)

Some choice comments

https://drewdevault.com/2017/12/16/Firefox-is-on-a-slippery-slope.html (https://archive.fo/NYuyH)

Spoiler: Firefox is on a slipper slope by Drew DeVault

Published 2017-12-16 on Drew DeVault's blog — Permalink

For a long time, it was just setting the default search provider to Google in exchange for a beefy stipend. Later, paid links in your new tab page were added. Then, a proprietary service, Pocket, was bundled into the browser - not as an addon, but a hardcoded feature. In the past few days, we’ve discovered an advertisement in the form of browser extension was sideloaded into user browsers. Whoever is leading these decisions at Mozilla needs to be stopped.

Here’s a breakdown of what happened a few days ago. Mozilla and NBC Universal did a “collaboration” (read: promotion) for the TV show Mr. Robot. It involved sideloading a sketchy browser extension which will invert text that matches a list of Mr. Robot-related keywords like “fsociety”, “robot”, “undo”, and “fuck”, and does a number of other things like adding an HTTP header to certain sites you visit.

This extension was sideloaded into browsers via the “experiments” feature. Not only are these experiments enabled by default, but updates have been known to re-enable it if you turn it off. The advertisement addon shows up like this on your addon page, and was added to Firefox stable. If I saw this before I knew what was going on, I would think my browser was compromised! Apparently it was a mistake that this showed up on the addon page, though - it was supposed to be silently sideloaded into your browser!

There’s a ticket on Bugzilla (Firefox’s bug tracker) for discussing this experiment, but it’s locked down and no one outside of Mozilla can see it. There’s another ticket, filed by concerned users, which has since been disabled and had many comments removed, particularly the angry (but respectful) ones.

Mozilla, this is not okay. This is wrong on so many levels. Frankly, whoever was in charge should be fired over this - which is not something I call for lightly.

First of all, web browsers are a tool. I don’t want my browser to fool around, I just want it to display websites faithfully. This is the prime directive of web browsers, and you broke that. When I compile vim with gcc, I don’t want gcc to make vim sporadically add “fsociety” into every document I write. I want it to compile vim and go away.

More importantly, these advertising anti-features gravely - perhaps terminally - violate user trust. This event tells us that “Firefox studies” into a backdoor for advertisements, and I will never trust it again. But it doesn’t matter - you’re going to re-enable it on the next update. You know what that means? I will never trust Firefox again. I switched to qutebrowser as my daily driver because this crap was starting to add up, but I still used Firefox from time to time and never resigned from it entirely or stopped recommending it to friends. Well, whatever goodwill was left is gone now, and I will only recommend other browsers henceforth.

Mozilla, you fucked up bad, and you still haven’t apologised. The study is still active and ongoing. There is no amount of money that you should have accepted for this. This is the last straw - and I took a lot of straws from you. Goodbye forever, Mozilla.

Update

It has been clarified that an aboutonfig flag must be set for this addon’s behavior to be visible. This improves the situation considerably, but I do not think it exenorates Mozilla and I stand firm behind most of my points. The study has also been rolled back by Mozilla, and Mozilla has issued statements to the media justifying the study (no apology has been issued).

Responses:

Mozilla, Firefox, Looking Glass, and you via jeaye.com

Off-Topic, do you think Isaac Schlueter should have his own lolcow thread? https://twitter.com/izs/

 

[Diesel Boogaloo]

This True and Honest story about a failed certification test:
https://www.reddit.com/r/talesfromt...en_all_online_tests_are_invalidated_blame_mr/ (http://archive.is/IEnXe)

 

[Trans Fat 41g]

Idg what's so great about Fire Fox anyways.

 

[AnOminous]

Idg what's so great about Fire Fox anyways.

At a certain time long, long ago, it was the best browser. Then it turned increasingly into bloated shitware. I can't imagine why anyone would still use it except out of some kind of masochistic brand loyalty. Frankly, even Chrome is turning into shit.

 

[Done]

At a certain time long, long ago, it was the best browser. Then it turned increasingly into bloated shitware. I can't imagine why anyone would still use it except out of some kind of masochistic brand loyalty. Frankly, even Chrome is turning into shit.

I will admit that I switched back to Firefox just before Quantum, which itself is very good.

 

[AnOminous]

The main reason I stuck with Firefox as long as I did was the huge collection of Greasemonkey scripts that weren't really available in any other browser.

I still wish Chrome did a less shitty job supporting that kind of stuff, but it now has almost as robust a library of add-ons/extensions, plus Vivaldi more or less supports them smoothly (which is what I mainly now use).

 

[Ruin]

Get Waterfox even if the dev is a furry.

 

[Trans Fat 41g]

Edge on Android (Yes, Microsoft's Browser on Android) is even better than both Chrome and Firefox, even though it's missing crucial features.

God damn.

 

[A Hot Potato]

I still use Firefox.

 

[jace821]

safari ftw!

 

[Faint taste of butter]

I still use Firefox.

Me too.
Tbh I couldn' t think of any actual reason to switch, it works fairly well and I don' t really do any programming or anything where I might need a different or better browser.

Also, I like the interface.

 

[Stephanie Bustcakes]

Netscape navigator is where it's at.

 

[DeadwastePrime]

Netscape navigator is where it's at.

pfft, screw netscape navigator. mosaic is where it's at

 

[The Fool]

Not a big surprise, firefox users are always whining about how firefox is totally ruined forever now, they've been doing it for years. And while they have valid points, just fucking use Chromium or something already. Or any of those stupid weird obscure webkit browsers. Or just go full Stallman and wget everything.
what's even the point of giving a shit about open source stuff when you're not going to even modify the source and just yell at the company maintaining it like any closed-source software user would? they don't even want to exercise their freedom to choose another browser. may as well just use Internet Explorer if you want to be that much of a consumer.

 

[usernames can change now!]

I hope people don't try to discard this because the people upset about it run with SJWs. Privacy and security are important to anyone who opposes a government, whether the reason is trivial and involves misgendering or more serious and involves actual repression, the privacy and security solutions are the same. Just because Daddy Trump is President right now doesn't mean Chelsea Clinton or Michael Bloomberg won't be in 2024, and come for our guns and our cyberbullying.

 

[GrayWater]

Brave master race here.

 

[Hiphopopotamus]

People unironically use firefox still?

 

[Chiang Kai-shek]

This is why you use forks. Also waterfox ftw!

 

[RadicalCentrist]

I was wondering why the absolute fuck Firefox started using EIGHT gbs of memory a few months ago. Ofc I just switched away from that shit and haven't made a peep.

 

[Quijibo69]

Mr. Robot is a crappy show that gives you ads.