That can't possibly be true. I had it installed, and I'm on my work machine using Firefox Developer Edition. I didn't opt in to any ARG.
To put it another way - if I discovered a rootkit sitting in the ~/Downloads directory on my Mac, that would be a problem. If the entity that surreptitiously placed it there said that I shouldn't worry about it because it hadn't been run, I wouldn't be inclined to trust them.
I've used FF since before it was FF, and I've installeded it on umpteen other people's computers; strongly advocating for it. Since they sacked that guy for not conforming to a specific liberal ideology they seem to have gone batshit crazy ... what happened? Was he their main privacy advocate or something?
By that definition, this would be unallowed modification of the computer of the user, and fall under the various hacking acts.
The more interesting thing is that this has also been rolled out to german government computers, which mostly used to use Firefox, but due to previous troubles with CliqZ and the Google Analytics in the addon menus, have already moved on to other browsers.
You mean like the TOS and EULA you agree to when you install the browser? That would qualify as "expected by the user" and "explained in plain text" both.
How does it not occur to them that this is a clear lie?
Mozilla has injected malicious-looking advertisement executable software into my process without my permission and then lied about it. I have no idea what this software is, what it does, or whether it is proprietary or free. I opted into nothing.
This is a huge, huge mistake by Mozilla.
> No changes will be made to Firefox unless you have opted in to this Alternate Reality Game.
Also, from the same page for those that appreciate irony:
> One of the 10 guiding principles of Mozilla's mission is that individuals' security and privacy on the internet are fundamental and must not be treated as optional. The more people know about what information they are sharing online, the more they can protect their privacy.