I sometimes use startpage.com, so I installed its Firefox extension.
A few days ago, the following information box showed up, informing me that the extension had been updated and needs a new permission, namely access to browser tabs.
While the description on the Mozilla support page doesn't appear too privacy-invading by itself, I am wondering what the reasons could be for
The extension could obtain the URL, title, and icon from any tab
as none of the listed examples
- Access tab details to enable bookmarking
- Order and group tabs
- Move tabs between windows
- Provide an alternative way of listing tabs
seem applicable.
21 Answer
Startpage add-on is gaining a lot of 1 star reviews because of this. The answer from the company is:
"Thank you for using Startpage. The request to view tabs is only applicable in the initial install process, in order to pass a marketing page URL from add.startpage.com to confirm a successful installation. However, to enable that feature, we had to request users allow access to the tabs. Once install is complete, we NEVER look at your tabs, so we are actively pursuing other options to grab that URL without needing access to tabs."
That is a very weak excuse followed by basically "trust us". Have to agree with @Moab - add-on is not needed to use the search engine but for me this is a prompt to change to Duckduckgo.
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