Mozilla and Google remove WOT extension from Store

[Jack]

The popular browser extension Web of Trust is no longer available on the Firefox add-on repository or the Google Chrome Web Store.

Mozilla and Google have pulled the extension from their stores after a report aired on German national television that the company was selling the browsing history of its users.

The browser extension, designed to inform users about security or privacy issues on sites they visit, is currently not available for download.

Users who try to open the add-on site on Mozilla's Firefox add-ons site get a "we're sorry, but we can't find what you're looking for" error message currently.



Google's Chrome Web Store merely states that "the requested URL was not found on this server".



Information is scarce at this point as both Mozilla and Google have not openly released information about the removal.

The German newspaper FAZ managed to get a statement from Mozilla about the removal. According to the statement, Web of Trust was pulled because it violated add-on guidelines, and specifically transparency in regards to the add-on's collection of user data.

According to Web of Trust, which Faz got a statement from as well, this was caused by the company's latest privacy policy published on the company website not being made available on the Firefox add-on site.

If you check out the privacy policy on the Web of Trust website, you will notice that it collects the following information: IP address, geographic location, type of device, operating system and browser, date and time, browsing usage including visited web pages, clickstream date or web address accessed, browser identifier and user ID.

Users who have Web of Trust installed in the browser won't be affected by the pulling of the add-on.


Read more: Mozilla and Google remove WOT extension from Store - gHacks Tech News

 

[ElectricSheep]

Any decent alternatives? Heard there's something called Traffic light or similar?

 

[Cohen]

Any decent alternatives? Heard there's something called Traffic light or similar?

I believe Bitdefender TrafficLight is what you're asking about.

OT: Funny, something called Web of Trust has now been deemed untrustworthy to users of the web.

 

[XhenEd]

Any decent alternatives? Heard there's something called Traffic light or similar?

I believe Avast, Kaspersky, Bitdefender has similar function as that of WoT. I think the "traffic light" you're referring is Bitdefender's.
I think only Kaspersky among the three has no stand-alone extension/add-on for that.

 

[Jack]

Any decent alternatives? Heard there's something called Traffic light or similar?

You are talking about the Bitdefender add-on - TrafficLight right? If yes, I've tried it, and can't say I really like it. Bitdefender'sTrafficLight is giving a green rating to questionable websites, as the plugin relies on the Bitdefender malware scanner rather than on the website reputation. So if a website doesn't contain malicious code, it will be rate as "safe''.



What did make WOT great was the fact that you could have been warned not only when a website contained malicious code, but even the site was not trustworthy.

I'm also looking for an alternative, right now I'm trying - Avast Online Security - but it's far from being helpful... Major websites do have a rating, however smaller sites all have a grey ratting.
Like all the antivirus developer who create this type of extensions, they mainly rely on their antivirus scanners rather than the community, so the data isn't what a former WOT user would expect..

WOT was really great, don't think I will find anything that comes close to this add-on. I really hope that WOT devs will re-write the plugin from scratch and make it available again. It's strange that the WOT staff hasn't said anything about this on their blog, so my hopes could be in vain...

 

[JakeXPMan]

WOT, is a nice idea and serves a nice purpose when you're looking for info and want to avoid pages with types of malwares.

HOWEVER... it does mislead by rating a sites "content" and not the danger to your computer, like claiming a scam, when its not, or vise versa.

Then there's times where people rate a site bad with no real evidence besides hating the site or product on it (At least thats what I think is the reason)
I remember WOT had it in for Wise Care 365 which is NOT malware nor is its website.

 

[anonymous1xx1]

now i hate wot extension

 

[Vasudev]

BD Traffic Light in certain situation doesn't show Green signal. Even Webutation add-on isn't working on latest version of FF. Adguard even ships a modded version of WOT, which I believe will be targeted using remote code execution to fetch browsing habits of users and Adguard will remove WOT add-on from their codebase.

 

[Venustus]

I have used Avira browser safety for Chrome and it was very good at blocking and alerting for malicious sites

 

[tim one]

Not an extension but sometimes I use Identify websites involved in malware incidents, fraudulent and spamming activities | URLVoid to have an opinion on a suspicious site.

 

[Ink]

How Mozilla and Google protect their users; Guilty until proven innocent or changes are made. But when it comes to Privacy, rather safe than sorry.

Stopped using WOT many many years ago, figured "Web Advisors" were not required to safely browse the web. Personally I don't recommend anyone to use site rating add-ons, but that's my opinion and may differ from your views.

Manually check sites with URLVoid or VirusTotal, but you shouldn't need to if you visit (mostly) known sites, an up-to-date browser, don't run suspicious downloads and have real-time Antivirus protection installed.

 

[Dirk41]

Norton dns and ublock origin with many filters are enough for me. And yeah VT like @Spawn suggetsed.

If someone is interested even Avira has something like that maybe , something like Avira safe browsing .

 

[rosendalek]

what about mcafee web advisor as an alternative?

McAfee WebAdvisor by Intel Security

 

[frogboy]

I only used WOT for a few days a couple of years ago but was not a fan as i thought the ratings could to easily be manipulated.

 

[Soulbound]

what about mcafee web advisor as an alternative?

McAfee WebAdvisor by Intel Security

it is decent for what it does.

However the difference between WOT and others is still the following: WOT is based on community
Aint the first time a single user creates several accounts to rate down legit sites for competition, pure fun etc.

This is the reason why I never used WOT.

 

[_CyberGhosT_]

Spawn has the right idea

 

[Andytay70]

I used WOT once and it never seemed to warn me about dodgy sites i visited! Now i stick with common sense.

 

[Overkill]

You are talking about the Bitdefender add-on - TrafficLight right? If yes, I've tried it, and can't say I really like it. Bitdefender'sTrafficLight is giving a green rating to questionable websites, as the plugin relies on the Bitdefender malware scanner rather than on the website reputation. So if a website doesn't contain malicious code, it will be rate as "safe''.

View attachment 121925

What did make WOT great was the fact that you could have been warned not only when a website contained malicious code, but even the site was not trustworthy.

I'm also looking for an alternative, right now I'm trying - Avast Online Security - but it's far from being helpful... Major websites do have a rating, however smaller sites all have a grey ratting.
Like all the antivirus developer who create this type of extensions, they mainly rely on their antivirus scanners rather than the community, so the data isn't what a former WOT user would expect..

WOT was really great, don't think I will find anything that comes closer to this add-on. I really hope that WOT devs will re-write the plugin from scratch and make it available again. It's strange that the WOT staff hasn't said anything about this on their blog, so my hopes could be in vain...

I am very angry about this situation. WOT was a one of a kind extension and I have not found anything like it other than Webutation, but it doesn't work on FF at all and I read where some think it's abandonware! I have installed Netcraft which is mainly for blocking phishing links (it did good when I tested it) and my favorite malware blocking extension Avira Browser Safety which always does an excellent job at blocking malicious sites
BTW, I tested Avast, Dr. Web and Panda extensions and out of those Panda did the best. I am very disappointed in Avast's extension

 

[ZeroDay]

I have used Avira browser safety for Chrome and it was very good at blocking and alerting for malicious sites

I use this too and it is an excellent add on, However WOT was great too and it's a shame it was used to collect data.

 

[ForgottenSeer 55474]

I use traffic-light but i also have bitdefender total protection,i do not know what it is worth on its own