New Update Firefox disables & blocks FVD Speed Dial add-on for intercepting user search queries

Gandalf_The_Grey

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Mozilla has removed FVD Speed Dial extension from AMO for violating add-ons policies. If you’re using the extension, it may have already been disabled for you and is no longer available to download for Firefox for now.
Mozilla posted an official response on Discourse:

The company goes on to say FVD Speed Dial developer violated the AMO rules in 2020 for the aforementioned reason. When Mozilla warned such data collection was not allowed, the developer disabled the feature, and AMO continue to host the extension.

Recently, Mozilla learned the developer re-enabled the shady behavior, this time with repeated offenses, the company completely blocked the Speed Dial add-on.
 

Sammo

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Enable FVD Speed Dial in Firefox​

  1. Launch Firefox browser
  2. Visit about:config
  3. Search for blocklist and change “extensions.blocklist.enabled” pref value to false.
 

Nightwater

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Jan 26, 2021
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Glad I use Edge, I can't live without this extension, it keeps all the bookmarks organized, it's the best without a doubt, for me it doesn't matter because I don't use Mozila anyway
 

Kiss

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Very strange, because only Mozila says that this extension is suspicious? Chrome, Edge, Opera and all the others are still normal, nobody said anything about FVD, I'll keep using FVD it always made my life easier :)
 

silversurfer

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FVD Speed Dial users are furious after losing access to bookmarks

Now, while Mozilla banning the extension is good, it does pose some difficulties for users who relied on the add-on. Many users have lost access to all the bookmarks they had saved via FVD Speed dial. And now that the add-on has automatically been removed from the browser, and banned from the store, there is literally no way to install it again. This leaves the user in the lurch, as they have lost their priceless data. Some users are outraged, and are blaming Mozilla for blocking the add-on without warning. They believe that remote disabling of the add-on, is censorship, and that users should have been given the choice whether to use the extension or not. To make matters worse, Mozilla has locked the discussion with a dry apology.

Mozilla statement about FVD Speed Dial
 

Gandalf_The_Grey

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I wouldn't use FVD on any browser.
From Ghacks:

Why we don't recommend FVD Speed Dial?

Just because something looks nice, doesn't mean it is good. FVD Speed Dial has a rather poor privacy policy, which mentions that the extension tracks users using web beacons. There are sponsored bookmarks aka advertised dials as well, though these can be removed.
Maybe you can switch to one of the mentioned alternatives?
 

silversurfer

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I want to agree that first users should be notified with something like a warning for addons are now marked as "suspicious" by Mozilla.
On the other side, users should be glad that activity/behavior of browser addons/extensions are obviously monitored by Mozilla, Google, Microsoft,...
 

Sammo

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A safe alternative to FVD is Group Speed Dial and you can import the dials from FVD.
 

Kiss

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The Mozila community is really furious, their forum is just about FVD Speed Dial, solve the bomb now. It's like I always say, people don't care about privacy, they want something that works for them, that is practical and functional, that makes everything easier and FVD has always done that, it's the most popular dial-up extension on the internet.

Captura da Web_24-11-2021_174143_discourse.mozilla.org.jpeg
 
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