Yet another round of extension [Firefox] recommendations

Since the uselessness of my extension as a security tool has been hereby demonstrated with solid technical argumentations, and my own hypocrisy, greed and untrustworthiness have been disclosed, I'm afraid I've got no time for trolling here anymore: I need to find a real job now...

Goodbye

 

The horror

Btw I use noscript, tab mix plus and the standard adblock (not the "Plus") without any problems. Must be a very lucky guy I guess.

 

Hey Giorgio,
Don't give up. You do a fine job and a bit of an argument is no reason to give up. Instead stay and prove the unbelievers wrong. If I took the Linux attitude to heart, I would have ceased trying to convince anyone. But I am a believer.
Mrk

 

Italians
Sicilians !!

Always the drama, the opera, the gnashing of teeth, the tears, the dark looks,
next: vendetta for 10 generations.

 

Yes

 

Blocking Javascript has benefits beyond dealing with browser vulnerabilities...

Firstly Javascript can be used to obfuscate (or even encrypt) webpage HTML either to prevent term/tag filtering (and ad removal) or to disguise potentially malicious code (see ZDNet: JavaScript encryption added to malware arsenal).

Secondly many sites use Javascript for tracking purposes. Visit Paypal's home page and you will likely have a tracker from Omniture using both Javascript and web bugs. Blocking Javascript here can help protect an individual's privacy (though the web bug needs filtering also) - especially with https: pages which are encrypted and therefore cannot be handled by most external filters (though a Firefox extension like NoScript has no such problem - see the Dangers of HTTPS thread for more details).

Javascript could also be used to reveal details of browser and system configuration which may reveal details about a user (e.g. comparing the timezone with the IP geolocation to detect proxy usage).

For the curious, Paypal's home page included the following code for Omniture when I viewed it:

Code:

<!-- SiteCatalyst Code
Copyright 1997-2005 Omniture, Inc.
More info available at http://www.omniture.com -->
<script type="text/javascript" src="https://www.paypalobjects.com/WEBSCR-455-20070414-1/js/site_catalyst/pp_jscode_080706.js"></script>
<script type="text/javascript">
<!--
/* SiteCatalyst Variables */
s.pageName="Homepage";
s.prop11="";
s.channel="Homepage";
s.prop1="p/wel/index-outside";
s.prop7="Unknown";
s.prop8="Unknown";
s.prop9="Unknown";
s.prop10="US";
s.prop12="Unknown";
/************* DO NOT ALTER ANYTHING BELOW THIS LINE ! **************/
var s_code=s.t();if(s_code)document.write(s_code)//--></script>
<script language="JavaScript"><!--
if(navigator.appVersion.indexOf('MSIE')>=0)document.write(unescape('%3C')+'\!-'+'-')
//--></script><noscript><img
src="//paypal.112.2O7.net/b/ss/paypalglobal/1/H.6--NS/0?pageName=NonJavaScript"
height="1" width="1" border="0" alt="" /></noscript><!--/DO NOT REMOVE/-->
<!-- End SiteCatalyst Code -->