Mozilla pulls Bypass Paywalls from Firefox add-ons store

Re:Mozilla pulls Bypass Paywalls from Firefox add-ons store by the8472 on Friday November 30, 2018 @12:12PM (#18570541)

This threat model appears to optimized for the argument giving control to mozilla. It assumes that your system is essentially compromised but the attacker has just exactly so many self-imposed restraints that they can be thwarted just as long as things are under mozilla's control. But if you give the user control then suddenly the balance tips and their already-compromised system will be used for bad things.

It's a really long-winded way of saying "we know better, you cannot be trusted, freedom is slavery".

The correct solution is to remove malware, not to play games with it that require freedom-reducing gambits.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Mozilla pulls Bypass Paywalls from Firefox add-ons store by zaarn on Friday November 30, 2018 @12:55PM (#18570914)

There is plenty of software that adheres to these constraints. Most adware doesn't want to actively damage the system and doesn't worm too far in. In the past, adware would simply drop it's toolbar payload into the Mozilla and Chrome addon directories, which would after confirming it with the user, activate. Same thing with homepage and search engine settings (which still get modified).

I think it's a bit unfair to quote Orwell when the overall goal is to prevent the user from hurting themselves, not brainwashing them into thinking they don't need unsigned addons. If they need those there is the developer edition, which is officially supported by mozilla and allows installing any addon you like.

The default installs that most users will see simply have a different default setting. If you don't like that you can choose another edition or compile Firefox yourself.

[ Parent | on HN ]