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Categories: policy

Add-on Policies Update: Newtab and Search

7 responses

As part of our ongoing work to make add-ons safer for Firefox users, we are updating our Add-on Policies to add clarification and guidance for developers regarding data collection. The following is a summary of the changes, which will go into effect on December 2, 2019.

  • Search functionality provided or loaded by the add-on must not collect search terms or intercept searches that are going to a third-party search provider.
  • If the collection of visited URLs or user search terms is required for the add-on to work, the user must provide affirmative consent (i.e., explicit opt-in from the user) at first-run, since that information can contain personal information. For more information on how to create a data collection consent dialog, refer to our best practices.
  • Add-ons must not load or redirect to a remote new tab page. The new tab page must be contained within the add-on.

You can preview the policies and ensure your extensions abide by them to avoid any disruption. If you have questions about these updated policies or would like to provide feedback, please post to this forum thread.

7 comments on “Add-on Policies Update: Newtab and Search”

  1. Pieter van Leeuwen wrote on

    Hi Andreas ….
    I am still on FF 52.
    That is because I am still waiting for Mozilla to provide an add on or extension, that if I upgraded, would preserve CRITICAL functionality that I have now, that would be lost based on my understanding of what is out there with Quantum.

    I have hundreds if not thousands of bookmarks.
    With FF 52 and AIOS, I can (a) open my bookmarks in a SEPARATE WINDOW (not in a sidebar, and not via Library which I find insufficient, because …..).

    and I want to be able to (b) open two or more folders in my bookmark collection AT THE SAME TIME. Opening one folder does not require me to close another first.

    Until that functionality returns, no Quantum for me. That functionality existed in FF up to 3.26. Then it was later offered via All In One Sidebar, allowing me to upgrade to FF 27 or so.

    I want the Browser and the Bookmarks to be separate windows, both open, whichever one I select to have in front by my choosing. And I don’t want tunnel vision when navigating around my bookmarks. I want them ALL to be open at one time, if I should ever wish to see them all. Not just the contents of one folder at a time. Yes, the bookmark tree but not one folder at a time.

    Thank you for reading.
    Pieter

    1. Juraj Mäsiar wrote on

      Sounds like you need a SpeeDial, it’s great way to replace bookmarks.
      I’m author of GroupSpeedDial extension which can handle thousands of of links in unlimited number of folders, highly customizable, plus you can import your existing bookmarks and synchronize between devices. It’s like dream comes true 😀
      https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/groupspeeddial/

  2. Tobias wrote on

    Will this apply to NewTab Override extension (https://addons.mozilla.org/de/firefox/addon/new-tab-override/) too? Since it loads remote pages.

    1. Andreas Wagner wrote on

      In the current state of the add-on, it is not affected by these policies changes.

  3. Dieter Schmitz wrote on

    Is this consent dialog also neccessary if our extension is deployed via group policy in enterprise environments?
    If yes, can the extension determine if it was installed by the user? Or do we need to create a seperate enterprise extension?

  4. Helge Klein wrote on

    How do we control the opt-in through policies? There is nothing related in the policy templates (https://github.com/mozilla/policy-templates/blob/3a65c2046dafa7afdbdd64bd02389f8fc36952de/README.md).

    Background: if enterprise IT deploys an extension silently through a policy (force_installed), user interaction (opt-in) is simply not an option.

  5. Michael Kaply wrote on

    It would be up to the add-on author to create a way to control this consent via group policy using chrome.storage.managed.

    We are not providing a standard way for the user to ask for opt-in.