Mozilla and Google Remove WoT from Store

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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.[...]

http://www.ghacks.net/2016/11/05/mozilla-and-google-remove-wot-extension/

Add-on companies are selling the browsing history of millions of users to third-parties according to a report that aired on German national TV.

Reporters of Panorama managed to gain access to a large data collection that contained the browsing history of roughly 3 million German Internet users.

The data was collected by companies that produce browser extensions for various popular browsers such as Chrome and Firefox.

Panorama did mention only one add-on, Web of Trust or WoT, but did not fail to mention that the data was collected by multiple browser extensions.[...]

http://www.ghacks.net/2016/11/01/browsing-history-sold/

[Edited to break link in quote.]

 

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Excerpt from WoT's response on 6 Nov 2016 :

Dear users,

Thank you for your patience. We apologize for our delayed public reply and any anxiety this incident has caused. It has taken us some time to understand what has happened and how best to ensure we protect our users.

We take our obligations to you very seriously. While we deployed great effort to remove any data that could be used to identify individual users, it appears that in some cases such identification remained possible, albeit for what may be a very small number of WOT users.

Of course, if the data allows the identification of even a small number of WOT users, we consider that unacceptable, and will be taking immediate measures to address this matter urgently as part of a full security assessment and review.

Additionally, after Mozilla notified us that they were removing the WOT add-on from their store (pending responses to a set of questions / proposed changes they sent to us), we voluntarily removed the WOT add-on from all other platforms, including the Chrome store, in order to resolve this matter properly and comprehensively.[...]

https://www.mywot.com/en/forum/70818-to-the-wot-community





8 Nov 2016 BBC story excerpt :

[...]
The Web of Trust (WoT) add-on is used by millions of people to check if sites safeguard data and are safe to visit.

An investigation by German broadcaster NDR found that the firm behind it sold user data without properly anonymising it.

NDR was able to identify individuals' sexual preferences, health and surfing histories from data that was sold.[...]

http://www.bbc.com/news/technology-37909126