Re: [tor-talk] Invaded by disconnect.me

[Mirimir <mirimir@xxxxxxxxxx>]

On 05/31/2015 08:55 PM, Paul A. Crable wrote:
> Perhaps someone could help me here.  On version 4.5.1 of the Tor (Firefox)
> browser, the search field, to the right of the place to enter the URL, now
> has a symbol on it that is proprietary to disconnect.me.  I have also
> found that while working on the WWW, from time to time a screen comes up
> from direct.me asking me to enter search terms and to select the search
> engine to use.
> 
> It appears that disconnect.me has hijacked the search field in Foxfile,
> and also found a way to interpose it's own search screen when URL's cannot
> be found.  I have done nothing to make this happen, and unfortunately
> don't know what I can do to make it go away.
> 
> Can anyone explain why this is happening?
> 
> Until now the default search engine for Tor was Start Page, but that's
> gone.  Is Tor no longer using Start Page as the default search engine?
> 
> I expect this kind of thing with a standard browser, but I thought Tor and
> Foxfile had pretty well locked things down to prevent this kind of thing
> happening.
> 
> Any thoughts?
> 
> Paul
> 

At first, I was just going to say that disconnect.me is the default
search option in Tor Browser 4.5.1. But then I see on the blog:[0]

| Last comment for the disconnect search add-on on on mozillas
| add-on pages does not sound good.
|
|
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-us/firefox/addon/disconnect-search/reviews/678756/
|
| >This plugin should enhance security, but in fact is doing
| quite opposite.
| Disconnect-search is regularly uploading plugin settings and
| usage data, along with unique user ID, browser Agent string
| and IP address not only to the developers website, but to
| third parties as well (amazon servers of unknown account and
| adobe stats servers).
|
| That is confirmed in the discussion about a different bug:
| https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1166692#c1

Some clarification would be good.

[0] https://blog.torproject.org/blog/tor-browser-451-released
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