LWD

Mozilla recently removed every version of uBlock Origin Lite from their add-on store except for the oldest version.

Mozilla says a manual review flagged these issues:

Consent, specifically Nonexistent: For add-ons that collect or transmit user data, the user must be informed...

Your add-on contains minified, concatenated or otherwise machine-generated code. You need to provide the original sources...

uBlock Origin's developer gorhill refutes this with linked evidence.

Contrary to what these emails suggest, the source code files highlighted in the email:

• Have nothing to do with data collection, there is no such thing anywhere in uBOL
• There is no minified code in uBOL, and certainly none in the supposed faulty files

Even for people who did not prefer this add-on, the removal could have a chilling effect on uBlock Origin itself.

Incidentally, all the files reported as having issues are exactly the same files being used in uBO for years, and have been used in uBOL as well for over a year with no modification. Given this, it's worrisome what could happen to uBO in the future.

And gorhill notes uBO Lite had a purpose on Firefox, especially on mobile devices:

[T]here were people who preferred the Lite approach of uBOL, which was designed from the ground up to be an efficient suspendable extension, thus a good match for Firefox for Android.

New releases of uBO Lite do not have a Firefox extension; the last version of this coincides with gorhill's message. The Firefox addon page for uBO Lite is also gone.

sigh

Gary Vee is a notorious ~~grifter~~ NFT salesman with a checkered past.

Webacy is a cryptocurrency wallet "technology layer" that "provides security features" like password backup, "digital wills", etc.

On Valentine's Day 2024, Mozilla came out with a piece critical of AI chatbots titled "Creepy.exe: Mozilla Urges Public to Swipe Left on Romantic AI Chatbots Due to Major Privacy Red Flags."

But before they found red flags, back in 2019, Mozilla promoted a workshop on a creepy, rainbow-washed, chatbot ecosystem where people identified as "queer" were required to bare their most intimate sexual thoughts.

From the post:

your... interactions will be recorded... you will occasionally be prompted with random survey questions

What kinds of questions did they randomly ask the people who would "queer the AI"? Creepy stuff like

Have you ever sexted with a stranger?
Have you ever sexted with a machine?
Do you remember the first time you were aroused by language?
Do you think an artificial intelligence could help fulfill some of these... needs?

The workshop providers guided people into establishing an intimate, sexual connection with the chatbot they could create.

How might we build trust with an AI?
How might we give it its own sense of desire?

Even the consenting participants in the workshop complained about the AI's creep factor:

it feels like the A.I. is gas-lighting you. Seems like a noncommittal sexting bot. It should at least be clear about what it’s trying to do.

The startup that Mozilla fostered for this panel ended up crashing and burning, but its creepier, worse brethren live on inside of Firefox 130, displayed as first-class options within Mozilla's chatbot options. I just thought it would be fun to take a trip down memory lane to see how many creepy red flags AI companies could get within Mozilla's view without ever concerning them.

Now that Google and Microsoft each consume more power than some fairly big countries, maybe it's time for 2024 Mozilla to take heed of 2021 Mozilla's warnings.

There seems to be minimal information about this online, so I'm leaving this here so cooler heads can prevail in discussion.

Link to filing: https://archive.org/details/jyjfub

Notable portions:

Teixeira was hired as Chief Product Officer and was in line to become CEO.

Mr. Teixeira became Chief Product Officer (“CPO”) of Mozilla in August, 2022. During the hiring process, Mr. Teixeira had conversations with executive recruiting firm, Russell Reynolds Associates, that one of Mozilla Corporation’s hiring criteria for the CPO role was an executive that could succeed Mitchell Baker as CEO.

Also, shortly after being hired, Mr. Teixeira had conversations with Ms. Baker about being positioned as her successor.

After taking medical leave to deal with cancer, Mozilla swiftly moved to replace CEO Mitchell Baker with someone else.

Shortly before Mr. Teixeira returned from leave, Mozilla board member Laura Chambers was appointed Interim CEO of Mozilla and Ms. Baker was removed as CEO and became Executive Chair of the Board of Directors.

After returning, Teixeira was ordered to lay off 50 preselected employees, and he objected due to Mozilla not needing to cut them and their disproportionate minority status.

In a meeting with Human Resources Business Partner Joni Cassidy, Mr. Teixeira discussed his concern that people from groups underrepresented in technology, like female leaders and persons of color, were disproportionately impacted by the layoff.

... Ms. Chehak verbally reprimanded Mr. Teixeira, accusing him of violating [a] non-existent “onboarding plan” and threatening to place Mr. Teixeira back on medical leave if he did not execute the layoffs as instructed.

Mozilla's lack of inclusivity was a known problem

In February 2022, Mozilla commissioned the firm of Tiangay Kemokai Law, P.C. to assess its performance in providing a diverse, equitable, and inclusive workplace culture.

The report delivered in 2023 from Tiangay Kemokai Law, P.C. states in part: “MoCo falls into the Cultural Incapacity category based on leadership’s inadequate response to the needs of a diverse culture or else the need to create a more diverse, equitable, and inclusive culture, which is reflected in current systems, processes and procedures, policies and practices, or the lack thereof, and are incongruent with MoCo’s stated values and goals.”

Steve Teixeira has been put on leave.

On May 23, 2024, Mozilla placed Mr. Teixeira on administrative leave.

Mr. Teixeira requested a reason for being placed on administrative leave.

Mozilla did not provide Mr. Teixeira with a reason why he was placed on administrative leave.

Mozilla cut off Mr. Teixeira’s access to email, Slack messaging, and other Mozilla systems.

Mozilla instructed employees not to communicate with Mr. Teixeira about work-related matters.

Upon information and belief, an investigation into Mr. Teixeira’s allegations was finally conducted in late May 2024, but Mozilla did not do so under its internal policies and procedures regarding managing complaints of discrimination. Mr. Teixeira was not contacted to participate in the investigation into his complaint of unlawful treatment.

Coverage online so far

~~I say "alleged" because there appears to be no consensus on the veracity of this document.~~

Update: this appears to be confirmed.

This has received no "news" coverage besides one angry loudmouth (Bryan Lunduke) whose entire commentary career has been shaped by his political beliefs, regardless of truth.

I recently downloaded Firefox Nightly and noticed some new settings that were enabled by default:

• Suggestions from Firefox Nightly
  Get suggestions from the web related to your search
• Suggestions from sponsors
  Support Firefox Nightly with occasional sponsored suggestions

Learn more about Firefox Suggest

The link in the UI doesn't mention sponsorships anywhere. But this page does:

Who are Mozilla’s partners for sponsored suggestions?

We partner with organizations to serve up some of these suggestion types... For sponsored results, we primarily work with adMarketplace, while also providing non-sponsored results from Wikipedia.

This page links to the adMarketplace Privacy Policy which makes it pretty clear this company is okay with collecting your IP address and passing it to further unnamed entities.

Elsewhere, they say Firefox sends them "the number of times Firefox suggests or displays specific content and your clicks on that content, as well as basic data about your interactions with Firefox Suggest", and then will share interaction information "in an aggregate manner with our partners".

Update: Switched the link from the Desktop to the Mobile version. Added more quotes from FF, and bolded info about their one named AdTech partner.

I have a Samsung phone, which allows 3 profiles to simultaneously be active:

• The default ("Personal") profile
• The Secure Folder
• Through an app like Shelter, a Work profile

I only recently noticed, when using the browser in Secure Folder, that searching "my IP address" returns my non-VPN address, even though I was running a VPN app in my main profile. So I cloned my VPN app to the Secure Folder, logged in, and connected to a different server. To my surprise, it actually worked.

Then I tried the same procedure in my Shelter-provided Work folder, with the same result. I am simultaneously connected to three different VPN servers.

If you happen to be like me, and you like using a VPN and secondary profiles simultaneously, make sure to protect your secondary profiles by copying over your VPN app and turning it on!

Wiremin is an app promoted by scammers, and those scammers are slowly getting smarter.

Originally, they tried promoting it via direct concern trolling across multiple Reddit threads.

When that became too obvious, they started doing "call and response" across a small handful of Reddit accounts, where one user would ask a leading question and the other one would respond "WireMin is the best, of course!"

• On r/ChatGPT, Fun_Belt_29 makes a thread to promote it while disguising it as a post about ChatGPT.
  Top response: "Wow, you must really love wire min. Practically every single comment you've ever made is about it - often asking what it is even after you've already posted about it."
• On r/conspiracy, NoPermit9887 posts about how the app is so great.
• On r/Nostr, a deleted user (the web archive reveals it to be NoPermit9887) asks for differences between Nostr and WireMin.

But now, they're here...

tioute: A case study in Lemmy

A user who goes by tioute(@)lemmy.world is a WireMin veteran.

I just joined Lemmy, and I never expected to see people discussing WireMin here. Considering its super small user base, hardly no one I know uses it. So I usually use to store all my dark moods since it is secure and complete anonymous... I use ChatGPT on WireMin anonymously...

- tioute, September 8, 2023 (deleted)

Scuttlebutt decentralised social network, and yes, Wiremin.

- tioute, September 18, 2023 (deleted)

But suddenly, tioute has severe memory loss and can only ask questions about Wiremin:

I've heard of Mastodon and Misskey... But what is WireMin?

- tioute, November 3, 2023 (deleted)

Is @WireMin also a chat app?

- tioute, November 20, 2023 (deleted)

After deleting these comments, tioute has started aiming for a lower profile by only linking to people talking about WireMin. Like this comment on an innocuous post made by bachalxyz(@)lemmy.world, which is innocuously Just Asking about Wickr alternatives.

It would be really funny if bachalxyz also had a history promoting Wiremin, wouldn't it?

WireMin happens to be one of the encrypted software I've been following. What makes WireMin special is [nobody cares about the spyware features]

- bachalxyz, Tue, 29 Aug 2023 (deleted)

People should seriously consider migrating to alternative platforms such as Mastodon WireMin [link removed]

- bachalxyz, 18 Oct 2023 (deleted)

(In case you're wondering how I got my hands on deleted comments, you can DM me to ask, but I would prefer to keep these methods relatively quiet for now.)

A recent article from the Economic Policy Institute notes that CEO pay slumped slightly in 2022:

CEO pay is linked strongly to the stock market—and market declines in 2022 led to an uncharacteristic dip in CEO pay...

CEOs are getting paid more because of their leverage over corporate boards, not because of contributions they make to their firms.

Another site calculated the average decrease:

[I]n 2022, CEO pay decreased 7.3% and 2.7% for the overall Russell 3000® and S&P 500® indices, respectively

And yet, the Mozilla CEO pay has risen from $5,591,406 in 2021 to $6,903,089 in 2022. That's a 23.5% increase.

"nothing to hide, nothing to fear"