Firefox 115: some add-ons may be blocked from running on certain sites 😮

[beariddle]

You could also look at it from another perspective. How many browsers are left that don’t derive from the Chromium project or any of its derivative forks/works like QtWebEngine used in Falcon.

Got to keep the fox on life support.

[pebcak]

@beariddle

Got to keep the fox on life support.

Perhaps they should reconsider making the like of such “controversial” decision.

If I stretch myself, I could understand that there might be some use cases where this new “feature” may be useful.

But why not include it in the Settings: Privacy & Security and let the users to toggle it on and decide for themselves what addons should not run on what sites instead of introducing it beyond about:config and manage it silently. And remotely. Or if that is the intention?

Yes, it would be sad if the only viable alternative (on Googles life support for the past few years) to Chromium-based browsers to disappear. The question which begs to be asked is: who and what is responsible for its slow demise?

Just a casual ddg-ing for “firefox usage statistics” brings up the following (among a few others).

It’s a bit of a gloomy read.

Firefox Statistics 2023 - Market Share and Usage Statistics

[ricklinux]

I will never abandon Firefox for any other browser. Long live the

[keybreak]

Rick Astley - Never Gonna Give You Up (Official Music Video)

[pebcak]

According to the sites linked to above:

Around 1.3% of Firefox users have enabled the browser’s tracking protection.

Disable my addons, please, I beg you!

[ricklinux]

@pebcak

Around 1.3% of Firefox users have enabled the browser’s tracking protection.

By this you mean the setting don’t track me?

[r0ckhopper]

@dalto

I don’t think so. Even with this, it is still the best choice overall. At least for privacy.

This is the issue for me. I’m not happy at the lack of information about this new “feature” and the slight possibility that turning it off might be removed. But I am very reluctant to abandon it, because for my needs it is much better than any of the alternatives.

@pebcak

Just a casual ddg-ing for “firefox usage statistics” brings up the following (among a few others).

It’s a bit of a gloomy read.

It’s very difficult to compete with the gargantuan tech companies like Google and Microsoft. Although they were absolutely too slow to come up with a fully featured smartphone browser (they’ve got there now), they are still a major player when it comes to web standards. I would class Firefox (and Thunderbird) as open source successes - still almost 200m users after more than 20 years (not counting Netscape). For all Mozilla’s faults, the internet would be in a much worse place without them.

[ricklinux]

@r0ckhopper

For all Mozilla’s faults, the internet would be in a much worse place without them.

I agree! I sure as hell don’t want to use Chrome or Edge. I use Firefox and Chromium and Thunderbird. All the other browsers i also don’t care for. I just use Firefox and ublock origin and Thunderbird as they fill my needs. Chromium is my back up.

[chikenf00t]

I have a similar set up, except I also use Librewolf. It’s such a fantastic product.

[ricklinux]

This would also be an option for me.

[pebcak]

@r0ckhopper

For all Mozilla’s faults, the internet would be in a much worse place without them.

Nobody is questioning Mozilla’s raison d’être.

I wouldn’t mind this so called feature either, if the only would

@pebcak

include it in the Settings: Privacy & Security and let the users to toggle it on and decide for themselves what addons should not run on what sites instead of introducing it beyond about:config and manage it silently. And remotely. Or if that is the intention?

[pebcak]

@dalto

It seems to read the list of domains from a preference at the moment. Namely, extensions.quarantinedDomains.list.

For me, this was empty so I added endeavouros.com to it.

The results were fairly nasty in my opinion. It silently disables the extensions with the only notification being a tiny dot under the extension as seen here under the eye:

If you hover over it, it tells you it is disabled. Since most normal people would never notice something this small, it is almost hidden from the user unless you are looking carefully.

@dalto

Is this where you add the domain:

?

May I ask what addon you were using that got blocked when testing this?

I would like to try it to see how this thing looks like in action.

[r0ckhopper]

@pebcak

Nobody is questioning Mozilla’s raison d’être.

I fully accept that you are not.

@pebcak

if they only would

Yes, this would be better.

[dalto]

@pebcak

Is this where you add the domain:

Yes.

@pebcak

May I ask what addon you were using that got blocked when testing this?

I tested with privacy redirect because another poster mentioned that one.

[pebcak]

Proof of concept!

(Tested on Firefox Nightly 117.0a1)

[dalto]

Is that the hover over text?

Unless it stops and asks before it loads the page, it doesn’t really matter because it is too late one the page is loaded.

[pebcak]

@dalto

Is that the hover over text?

Yes.

I added endeavouros.com,archlinux.org to that preference (not mine ).
The addon gets blocked on both.

If I find some time, I’ll experiment with some others as well.

[ShawnsterP]

@ricklinux

Especially if you are using ones that are recommended by Firefox.

That’s the rub, though.

[r0ckhopper]

The webpage linked by @pebcak above has been updated - https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/quarantined-domains.

It now states:

Firefox version 115 introduced Quarantined Domains to protect user privacy and security when we discover significant security issues presented by malicious actors. This feature allows us to prevent attacks by malicious actors targeting specific domains when we have reason to believe there may be malicious add-ons we have not yet discovered. Users can also control this behavior for each add-on in the Add-on Manager (about:addons) starting with Firefox version 116. We will be further improving the UI for users in future releases.

While this is not as full and detailed an explanation as I would have wished for, it does alleviate my concerns somewhat, and I won’t (yet) be looking for an alternative browser.

[dalto]

Oh, that is true. You can configure it per addon even for non-recommended addons.

It still doesn’t solve the problem of how it works with almost no notification but it is at least better.

I guess that is what this part checks:

lazy.QuarantinedDomains.isUserAllowedAddonId(this.id)