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Comment by user5994461 | Hacker News Reader

Summary of the article:

The noscript website is showing ads which are installing malware. (typical clean your computer [with a trojan] bullshit)

Bonus: The extension goes the extra mile to disable specific adblock filters during its installation + the website is displayed automatically on every extension update.

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Important thing to note, the ad the article is talking about is hardcoded and always shows up to windows users.

This isn't a case of someone using a shady ad network, this is a case of the noscript author knowingly trying to get their users to download and install malware.

Edit: As another user pointed out lower in this submission. The software isn't exactly malware, and does do what it says on the box.

If that's the case, this isn't really an issue to me. It's just an ad for software that I have no need for.

> the ad the article is talking about is hardcoded and always shows up to windows users

NoScript has a checkbox to disable displaying the page on updates.

That doesn't change the fact that the ad is always displayed to any windows users that visit the website.

Even if this page was never shown during install/updates, it would still be an issue.

Is it really too much to ask that the author of a security/privacy related application not try to push malware?

Exactly. I find it bizarre that so many here seem to see this as no big issue. An application touting itself as something to keep you safe on the web uses its website to advertise malware, and the author of this application goes to great lengths to make its ad for this malware as difficult to block as possible - even for users who've gone to trouble of protecting themselves (ie. by installing an adblocker). Why anyone would want to downplay this or continue to use an application from someone who does this is beyond me.

As another user pointed out lower in this submission. The software isn't exactly malware, and does do what it says on the box.

If that's the case, this isn't really an issue to me. It's just an ad for software that I have no need for.

The software reportedly tells you there are problems with your computer when none actually exist. That's shady at best and fraudulent at worst.

Depends on what your definition of a problem is. Even a fresh Windows install is going to have deletable temp files.

Really the worst thing you can say about that app is that it's overpriced. It's doing nothing that ccleaner doesn't do for free.

It's still enabled by default.

I might be misinterpreting what you're saying. But it almost sounds like you're saying this is not such a bad thing.

I would regardless ask the question in the punchline of the article: "why would you trust a security suite when they pull tricks like that"? (not verbatim)

You're misinterpreting. I am simply giving the main points of the article so people can follow the news without reading everything.

In American English this is generally called a summary. Your use of "resume" confused me here as well.

Fixed.

What to use instead? Having scripts disabled by default saves battery life significantly.

uBlock Origin and uMatrix works great :)

YesScript

uMatrix! It's a brilliant addon that lets you control what gets run at a pretty fine-grained level (per domain, per subdomain, whitelists can be local to a site, etc) without being at all clunky (easier to use than NoScript in spite of being more flexible).

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