Firefox faces backlash for auto-installing 'Mr. Robot' add-on

[froggyboy604]

A curious add-on called "Looking Glass" started popping up on Firefox for a number of users this past week -- even if they didn't give the browser permission to install it. Due to its nebulous nature and creepy description that only said "MY REALITY IS JUST DIFFERENT FROM YOURS," people took to social networks to ask other users and air their concerns.
Turns out Looking Glass isn't spamware, malware or any of the sort: it's a promotional campaign for Mr. Robot, a TV series about the life of a cybersecurity-engineer-slash-hacker.

Source

This is a bad decision made by Firefox since most people don't like having add-ons automatically installing on their web browsers.

Plus, some people don't want to automatically promote Mr. Robot when Firefox auto-install the Looking Glass plug-in.

 

[テクニカル諏訪子]

I've never heard of that extension before, but it sounds like some kind of scam any way.
When I check "about:addons" in Firefox, it doesn't seem to be listed there.

 

[froggyboy604]

I've never heard of that extension before, but it sounds like some kind of scam any way.
When I check "about:addons" in Firefox, it doesn't seem to be listed there.

The auto-add-on install for "Looking Glass" was removed from the auto-install section of Firefox after users complained about Firefox violating their trust by installing the Add-on Looking Glass add-on to promote the Mr. Robot TV series which is about Cybersecurity, computer engineering, hacking, and computers.

I think only a very small percentage of users got the auto-install before the add-on got a chance to install itself on more Firefox web browsers before Looking Glass was removed from the auto-add-on install section of Firefox because of user complaints.

 

[Demon_Skeith]

I can see why Firefox would do this but at the same time they are giving plenty of people a good reason to move to chrome.

 

[froggyboy604]

I can see why Firefox would do this but at the same time they are giving plenty of people a good reason to move to chrome.

I think Firefox mainly do something like this to earn money, or to promote a the Mr. Robot TV series which the Firefox staff are fans of.

I agree Firefox mistakes are giving more reasons for people to go to Chrome, and using a Google Chromebook where Firefox is not compatible with the Chrome OS operating system.