Mozilla has removed the FVD Speed Dial extension, which had been available since 2006 and had approximately 69,000 active installations, from the catalog at addons.mozilla.org (AMO). The extension provided an alternative implementation of the homepage, ensuring quick access to frequently visited websites and allowing users to create visual bookmarks by grouping sites. The reason for its removal is cited as a violation of directory rules, specifically the interception of search queries sent by the browser to the search engine.
The rules explicitly prohibit the accumulation of information about search queries or their interception without notifying users of such activity and obtaining prior confirmation for the extension’s access to search queries (opt-in), even if this data is used locally by the extension, for example, to provide a list of query history.
This violation was first identified in 2020, but after being notified about the problem, the developer disabled the mentioned functionality. Recently, the interception of queries was enabled again, and after the repeated violation, Mozilla removed the extension and blocked the operation of already installed versions, adding FVD Speed Dial to a blacklist that disables extensions already installed on users' systems.
Users of the extension expressed their outrage that the block was implemented without warning, and the negative impact from the cessation of the extension's operation was disproportionate to the identified violation, which posed no threat to privacy (the explanation for the block did not mention any transfer of search query data externally, only that queries were intercepted). After installing the Firefox 94.0.2 update, the FVD Speed Dial extension ceased to function, resulting in the loss of links and groups of sites added for access from the homepage. To restore and migrate bookmarks added via FVD Speed Dial, users can disable the extension's blacklist by changing the parameter ‘extensions.blocklist.enabled’ in about:config. serversThe release of the Deepin 20.3 distribution, which develops its own graphical environment.
Source: opennet.ru
