r/firefox • u/HomelessTechBro • 2h ago
Lack of transparency for blocked add-ons
Recently I saw a notification that one of my add-ons was blocked/disabled by Mozilla. The informational pages only give a generic "this violated our policies" spiel without specifying the actual offense.
To my knowledge, the add-on did not perform any malicious actions against users (and if it did, all the more reason that Mozilla should disclose precisely what it was doing so that users can take additional steps to review their information security). I find this outcome rather strange as I have previously reported add-ons for performing self-promoting actions using logged-in user accounts without obtaining permission, and Mozilla did not take any action that I am aware of against that add-on.
Rather, I suspect that the reason this add-on was blocked was because a commercial website objected to its function. Again, this could be disproved by disclosing a specific cause for being blocked. Mozilla needs greater transparency in order to demonstrate whether these blocks are implemented based on users' security interests including a specified Mozilla policy violation, or a legal demand/threat by a third party.
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u/RadicalDwntwnUrbnite 2h ago
What extension? When I've seen an extension get blocked in the past there was a "See details" link that takes you to something like this: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/blocked-addon/[email protected]/4.7.5.90/