Advice Request Why so much hate for Malwarebytes for Firefox? Real or propaganda?

[camo7782]

I was looking after MWB/BE and found a lot of negative reviews, many pointing out that the extension is blocking content due to internal opinion control, what is your experience with this?

https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/malwarebytes/reviews/?score=1

 

[Nightwalker]

Malwarebytes Browser Extension is actually very good against malicious websites, specially against malvertising.

There are some false positives and some drama with the clickbait protection, personally I dont care much and I recommend it for advanced users that know their way around false positives.

 

[bribon77]

I have tried Malwarebytes Browser Extension and when it has detected something I was right to do it.
It's good but maybe a bit heavy on certain PCs.

 

[blackice]

People see conspiracies everywhere. To be fair there may be conspiracies everywhere, but I don’t think this is one. I turn off “clickbait” protection in the extension, you can turn it off without turning off any other protections.

 

[RoboMan]

All this data spying paranoia needs to stop.

All software collect data.

There's no such thing as a zero-data collection software. If developers do not gather at least a minimum amount of data, their software wouldn't be able to update. Data gathering is necessary to update software, discover vulnerabilities and perform better.

If a program doesn't collect anything, soon becomes a dead software.

Having said this, it must be pointed out some developers perform excessive data collection, and may or may not use this data for financial purposes, such as selling it to third-parties. This is known to happen with some firms, and nothing has been said about this about MalwareBytes, at least oficially.

Data such as product logs, IP addresses, MAC Address, routine product uses are common information that is gathered when you install a product. Some extensions will monitor every URL you browse in order to update their URL databases.

Spoiler: Disclaimer

You must understand, there is no such thing as privacy, but you can try to do you best to protect your information. But, by using Windows, Facebook and Google in any way, your data is already there for them. As well, you need to remember third party software use Facebook, Google and Microsoft services in order to properly work. Meaning, there almost a 99% chance you won't always be able to be anonymous.

So please stop paranoia. It's not mentally healthy.

 

[Janl1992l]

People see conspiracies everywhere

This is actualy good and one sign of intelligence. its not wise to believe even abit someone tells you. Research, everything, from everyone.

 

[blackice]

This is actualy good and one sign of intelligence. its not wise to believe even abit someone tells you. Research, everything, from everyone.

To a point. To a further extent it is a sign of acute paranoia. Questioning everything doesn’t mean everything is out to get you. I’m a fan of being skeptical. But also reasonable. It’s mostly marketers trying to make money.

 

[stefanos]

I have tried Malwarebytes Browser Extension and when it has detected something I was right to do it.
It's good but maybe a bit heavy on certain PCs.

And many FP

 

[Arequire]

The negative reviews are simply from people who aren't informed that the extension uses heuristics and behavioural patterns to identify malicious/clickbait content, which leads to a lot of false positives.
In their defence Malwarebytes doesn't state this anywhere in the extension's description.

 

[TairikuOkami]

I consider Malwarebytes to be junk, not just the extension, it blocks PUPs and that is about it. I never recommend it and hope, that it will finally die.
As for the privacy, logging visited webpages is obviously something people do not like. I abandoned those extensions because of theirs tracking.

 

[AlanOstaszewski]

You must understand, there is no such thing as privacy, but you can try to do you best to protect your information. But, by using Windows, Facebook and Google in any way, your data is already there for them.

I agree with everything except these two sentences

Let me briefly explain what I mean: If you go to a demonstration (as an example I take a demonstration for climate protection), it doesn't mean that I have to limit my consumption to the last in order to protect the planet.
The same with privacy. Just because you use Google and Facebook doesn't mean you have no right to privacy at all. It's worth fighting for privacy and it's even more worth fighting if there are alternatives to software. So if the tracking of the Malwarebytes extension is really so bad and all accusations are true, I would always choose a better alternative.

And in this segment there are enough alternatives, such as piHole, Emsisoft or similar.

 

[camo7782]

And many FP

?

As for the privacy, logging visited webpages is obviously something people do not like.

I think also HTTPS Everywhere does the same, is it a bad guy too?

And in this segment there are enough alternatives, such as piHole, Emsisoft or similar.

Equally good in detecting threats in the web pages?

 

[TairikuOkami]

I think also HTTPS Everywhere does the same, is it a bad guy too?

Yes, they force SSL to only known webpages from database, Smart HTTPS/SSL Enforcer force SSL on all webpages without the need to call home.

 

[Ink]

Most reviews are posted within the first 48 hours, or they are users who don't understand (study) 'what they have installed'. The negative reviews are based on the default settings (as shown below), similar to when an user downloads warez, then complains about their AV blocking it - funny right?

Default settings for Malwarebytes Browser Extension **screenshot posted from Chrome version**:


A solution for the majority of the 1 star ratings is to Disable "Enable clickbait protection". This will STOP the "Western Censorship regime".

Before installing the extension, read the Privacy Policy.