Spyware on German Firefox 1.0?
p2pnet.net News:- Rumours that the German Firefox 1.0 browser is riddled with spyware aren’t true, promises Mozilla.
The browser has been getting rave reviews – except in Germany where some users believed they’d downloaded something they’d be trying to get away from.
That was because the dot de version had an eBay function.
“We wanted to incorporate a search plug-in for eBay as we believe it would be useful to our users,” says Mozilla.
Anyway, “The only purpose for any tracking mechanism was to measure the level of utilization,” it says. “All the rumours about spyware are untrue and unfounded.”
The eBay search on the German Firefox referred to a URL of a partner company of eBay Germany, “instead of to eBay directly,” says the foundation, going on:
“This URL was provided by eBay Germany. The Mozilla Foundation allowed this URL to be implemented not realizing the privacy implications. This was an error on our part. When this was brought to our attention, action was immediately taken.”
All previous installed versions will be updated over the next 72 hours through Firefox’s update mechanism, says Mozilla. Anyone who wants an eBay search on their browser can install it manually here.
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See:-
spyware – Update to German Language Version of Firefox 1.0, Mozilla Foundation, November 22, 2004
