Mozilla stops endorsing security plug-in due to tracking concerns

Mozilla's headquarters in San Francisco. The company behind Firefox has removed a plug-in by Creative Software Solutions from its list of recommended security extensions. — dpa

Mozilla has removed a plug-in called Web Security from its list of recommended security extensions for the Firefox browser after users noticed that it was collecting and uploading the URLs of sites they visited.

The plug-in, developed by the German company Creative Software Solutions, is a tool for blocking malicious pages and phishing sites. Mozilla had previously recommended the plug-in on its blog.

"We've received concerns from the community about the Web Security extension and are currently investigating those concerns," a Mozilla spokesperson told British tech website The Register.

Fabian Simon, the managing director of Creative Software Solutions, told The Register that the plug-in only uses people's browsing history to check sites against Web Security's global blacklist.

"I am sure that if they look into the issue they will see that this is a normal and necessary behaviour," he said. – dpa