TL:DR
Signed Addons should not be used from sites that impersonate Mozilla|Firefox and misrepresent what thy are and do.
This is an example where either the addon is breaking our rules or the rules need clarifying and modifying.
The addon I am asking & complaining about is
SafeSearch Incognito 0.1.8 @safesearchincognito
It was reported on Sumo (There will be other questions I am sure)
- Is this from Firefox - Is this a phishing website?
- The webpage in question being (on that particular date) http://firefox-101111.reupd.net/protect/enable
** Which has a padlock icon on it’s tab and the tab title “Improve Browser Privacy Protection”
** The “technical details link” does not provide details it starts the downloading doorhangers.
So that is also misleading.
** The faint EULA link is genuine and links to Private Search Search the Web Without the Tracking - SafeSearch Incognito Extension Terms of Service & includes a link to https://searchincognito.online/privacy
This is the screenshot of the body of the webpage
The installed addon over-rides the default search engine used in the addressbar, and also over-rides all the search engines in the search bar.
If this addon has a genuine use doing this it should be clearly pointed out that this is what it does.
It certainly should not be advertised so that it is impersonating a Mozilla Firefox official security update.
If I search from the addressbar for test-string it does a bing search with in this particular instance
http://www.bing.com/search?q=test-string&pc=cosp&ptag=C1N13ABE91C7D8F5&form=CONBDF&conlogo=CT3210127
The addon does not clearly show its home or support page the about:addons page after using more only shows
Hardly informative or allowing any choice or support.
The guidelines for unlisted addons are at https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/Add-ons/AMO/Policy/Reviews
I am sure this add-on can be considered to be breaking some of those policies, and also probably is breaking conditions of use by using the Firefox logo on the download webpage.
It does keep to one rule it will uninstall cleanly without breaking search settings or redirecting the home page.