Since Firefox 4, the Add-ons Manager displays additional information about each add-on you have installed, including screenshots, description, ratings, downloads, Contributions, and other metadata.
In order to keep this information updated, Firefox will ask the Mozilla Add-ons gallery for information about the add-ons you have installed once a day. This involves sending the identifiers of each add-on you have installed to Mozilla, as well as information on how long it last took Firefox to start up.
The add-on identifiers are used to return updated information to you, as well as in aggregate to provide personalized recommendations in the Get Add-ons pane of the Add-ons Manager. Start-up time information is used to improve Firefox and identify add-ons that may be causing Firefox to be slow. This data is collected as described in the Mozilla Firefox Privacy Policy.
Opting Out for Users
Opting out of this daily ping will stop Firefox from sending the add-ons you have installed and most recent start-up time to Mozilla, and will also stop displaying updated metadata for your add-ons and discontinue personalized recommendations if they were displayed in the Get Add-ons pane of the Add-ons Manager.
To opt out, follow these instructions:
- In Firefox’s location bar, type
about:config - A warning may be displayed if this is your first time modifying Firefox config. If you wish to continue, click the button.
- In the Filter text box, type
extensions.getAddons.cache.enabled. - Double click the
extensions.getAddons.cache.enableditem to turn it fromtruetofalse
That’s it; Firefox will no longer update your add-on metadata.
Opting Out for Developers
Add-on developers can opt out of their add-on being included in this ping by following these instructions on MDN.