Hacker News Reader

Comment by TheCoreh | Hacker News Reader

The Mr. Robot thing was not "malware". It was an easter egg, just like about:mozilla. You may say it was poor taste on Mozilla's part, since it was essentially a paid-for promotional tie-in with a TV show, and I would probably agree with you. But it did not damage anyone's computer, compromise any data or do anything that could put it on the "Malware" category.

Something similar that noone has complained about are the Android version names which are promotional tie-ins: Kit Kat and Oreo. Mozilla's biggest screw up IMO was failing to disclose properly what was going on.

View on HN

> it was essentially a paid-for promotional tie-in

From what I recall, it wasn't paid-for either.

> we developed an unpaid collaboration to engage our users and viewers of the show in a new way

Source: https://blog.mozilla.org/firefox/update-looking-glass-add/

If they didn't get paid, why on earth did they do it?

Not all incentives are direct financial incentives. It's free marketing. It increases market penetration. It encourages people who only use Chrome to try Firefox.

It was absolutely the wrong thing to do, but it's not like they stood nothing to gain from it.

Is this based on any fact or is it hyperbole?

I don't thing that word means what you think it means.

I'm just asking. It seems like a question that has an actual answer. Someone did it. Someone knows why it happened.

Someone actually that it was fun and valuable. Shocking, I know.

^thought

Of all possible explanations, that is the one I suspect is most divorced from reality.

People who wanted to solve the Mr. Robot ARG/puzzle had to download Firefox to complete the part of it the add-on enabled.

I think it was the opposite of paid. They wanted to draw the Mr. Robot crowd to Firefox.

for the lulz?

Hackers gonna hack. In the “let’s build cool stuff because we can” way.

It seems they wanted press. Well, they got it...

and lost a lot of trust as a result.

They assumed their user base has dwindled to only the kind of anticorporate hacker wannabes that watch Mr. Robot.

Note that the advertisement was for a TV show _owned by a company that helped destroy net neutrality_: Comcast. How am I supposed to "Join Mozilla in defending it" (from mozilla.org) when they are going to work for their own enemies?

That's an interesting aspect I did not consider. (I had no idea it was a TV show owned by comcast)

>>Mozilla's biggest screw up IMO was failing to disclose properly what was going on.

That was not the only issue

1. Failure to Disclose it before distribution

2. Failure to Properly name or provide any support context to the Add In.

3. Using the "Studies" System designed to improve the technology and advance the web browser for this Adware "Easter egg" not really an Easter egg addin

4. Failure to Publicly Comment about it until a full 72 hours after concerns were raised

5. Deleting and Hiding Bug Reports about the Addin in Bugzilla

6. Failure to adequately respond, apologize, or explain why and how the Studies system was used to distribute this Adware, There blog post so far is woefully inadequate.

7. Failure to disclose what steps are being taken immediately to ensure the Studies system is not abused in this manner in the future

Should I go on? There were many many many failures here, which are compounded by the many other failures Mozilla has had over the last few years.

Then you can go back to chrome or chromium, both of which Google has pushed a binary plugin to that records voice in the past.

Debian had to raise a storm over it and turned into a compile-time only option to not get the microphone listening plugin on your chromium install.

Speaking for myself, I'm not going back to Chrome over this alone -- I'm pleased with how FF57 handles and enough of Mozilla's positive efforts over time that I'm unlikely to let this event define them if they take steps to make sure it's an anomaly.

But every one of these things seems like legit issues that I'd like to see made an anomaly, and it's conceivable that if Mozilla isn't able to make it crystal clear that they know how to make things go that way, Chrome might well be the right choice.

Fine, but that doesn't make the points in the comment you're replying to any less valid. That's... not how it works.

I never left FF, I have been using FF since the very first Beta Releases, I have been using Mozilla Browsers since before FF was even a concept

I support Mozilla on Ideological grounds and it is said they are dropping their Ideology in favor of a pure commercial company.

And enabling the "studies" thing without my permission, which they did.

The real problem imho is that Mozilla hired a wild fox to become its CEO. Before becoming responsible for guidance and stewardship of a free and open internet, the fox primarily spent its time chasing mice and sneaking into chicken coops.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com