Mozilla recently removed every version of uBlock Origin Lite from their add-on store except for the oldest version.
Mozilla says a manual review flagged these issues:
Consent, specifically Nonexistent: For add-ons that collect or transmit user data, the user must be informed…
Your add-on contains minified, concatenated or otherwise machine-generated code. You need to provide the original sources…
uBlock Origin’s developer gorhill refutes this with linked evidence.
Contrary to what these emails suggest, the source code files highlighted in the email:
- Have nothing to do with data collection, there is no such thing anywhere in uBOL
- There is no minified code in uBOL, and certainly none in the supposed faulty files
Even for people who did not prefer this add-on, the removal could have a chilling effect on uBlock Origin itself.
Incidentally, all the files reported as having issues are exactly the same files being used in uBO for years, and have been used in uBOL as well for over a year with no modification. Given this, it’s worrisome what could happen to uBO in the future.
And gorhill notes uBO Lite had a purpose on Firefox, especially on mobile devices:
[T]here were people who preferred the Lite approach of uBOL, which was designed from the ground up to be an efficient suspendable extension, thus a good match for Firefox for Android.
New releases of uBO Lite do not have a Firefox extension; the last version of this coincides with gorhill’s message. The Firefox addon page for uBO Lite is also gone.
And the browser experience is getting worse too. So, I’m not sure what our options are for the future. I tolerate the many issues large sites have displaying in Firefox because Firefox is the last holdout against all of this egregious tracking everywhere. But if they’re going to block uBlock, collect a bunch of data by default, and make websites look worse, why am I using it?
With which sites are you seeing these issues? I don’t think I’ve seen Firefox have a problem rendering a website any differently than chromium in many years.
Reddit, Facebook, IRS.gov, and Ticketmaster to name a few. I can’t log in from Firefox on the IRS site and can’t claim tickets on Ticketmaster.
Interesting. I have no problems with either Reddit or Facebook. I can’t comment on either irs.gov or Ticketmaster. I have no history with either.
Issues with those two sites are on Firefox for Android. I chalked it up to them breaking their mobile sites to push their stupid apps, but I got an iPhone a few days ago, and the sites look fine in Safari.
Edit: I’m sure some of it has to do with a combination of my uBlock origin filters, plus my NextDNS config, but I have the same DNS config on this phone, and an Adblock, without issues.