Firefox Browser Guard extension live

[exile360]

Greetings,

Entering your email is completely optional.  You may refer to the FAQ posted here for more information.

Regarding not being able to edit posts, this is an anti-spam/security measure implemented on the forums which prevents all regular members from being able to edit their posts due to a high frequency of spam/bot accounts which would create seemingly normal posts then return later to edit them to embed links to spam and other malicious/unwanted content in order to attempt to escape detection by forum moderators and administrators in order to increase clicks and SEO to whatever site(s) they might be promoting.  This policy, while perhaps a bit drastic, was one of several that were implemented some time ago which have collectively decimated the volume of spam received on the forums, cutting down from literally tens and even hundreds of spam posts per day to nearly 0 (on very rare occasions a single spammer/bot might get through and create a single post, but most days now pass with no such incidents whereas it used to be a constant/daily issue with floods of posts and new spam/bot accounts showing up and posting around the clock).

I hope this helps, and if there is anything else we might assist you with please let us know.

Thanks

[Massimiliano]

Personally I installed the MWB extension for the first time on this new installation of Firefox installed after a very long time and the email was not requested.

In the past I used the browser / extension pair but in the first beta test period.

[WZZZ]

Just reinstalled. Wasn't prompted again to enter password. Seems on again off again. Who knows. I do know that, when prompted for email address earlier, the icon was locked up with that prompt, so didn't appear to be optional.

[exile360]

Yes, it doesn't show up every time; I believe it is random and isn't supposed to show up if you go to install the extension a second time on the same system.  Of course if it does come up and you wish to proceed with the installation and activation of the extension without providing your email address you can always just enter a fake email address to proceed since it does not require you to validate the address that you enter.  Also, even for those who do enter their actual email addresses, I believe that it is only for the notifications and promotions etc. mentioned in the FAQ and should not be tracked or tied with any activity performed in your browser while the browser extension is active/installed so it isn't any sort of additional tracking or anything like that; it's simply an effort on the part of Malwarebytes' Product team to connect with more of Malwarebytes' users/customers to keep them better informed and offer them promotional opportunities and the like.

Anyway, if anyone from the staff wishes to jump in with further details then I defer to their first-hand knowledge as I'm simply providing the details that I can recall being discussed here and posted in the pinned topic I linked.  I hope this helps to address your concerns.

[WZZZ]

Realize you're not personally advocating this, maybe notifications, but "Promotions," no thank you. For me, promotions = spam. Actually surprised to see this for Browser Guard, since haven't seen anything else Malwarebytes asking for email address, or anything re. promotions (Mac or Android.)

[exile360]

They haven't provided a whole lot of details, but I got the distinct impression that the real purpose was more of a trial run than anything in order to determine what kind of response they would get (likely either to decide whether or not to roll out a similar feature in the future in a different/upcoming product, or perhaps potentially in all products; the new version 4 of Malwarebytes Premium/Free is currently in beta so it's possible that this is the real product they're considering rolling it out with depending on the results, but that's just my personal hypothesis and I have no official word stating anything about that).  Knowing Malwarebytes and their history, they are very unlikely to bombard users who volunteer their email addresses with tons of advertisements and the like and it would be far more likely for them to simply provide the occasional (like probably much less than even once per month, like a rare special occasion kind of thing) promotion/discount code or coupon etc. when one of their main products (probably Malwarebytes Premium, since that's their flagship product) is on sale/available for a lower price, but again, that's just my extrapolation based on what I know of them and their past activities (I'm also a former employee who worked in various positions in the company, including pretty high up just under the Executive team for several years, though they were much smaller then).

You can find comments from a member of the staff about it in this post as well as the FAQ I linked to above.  It really seems like the email thing is just a pilot with this much less widely known Malwarebytes tool.  I suspect that if they don't get a lot of responses or tons of 'fake' ones or lots of negative feedback/concerns about it, that they'll pull the feature going forward, but again, that's just my hypothesis based on what I've learned so far.

[alvarnell]

3 hours ago, WZZZ said:

haven't seen anything else Malwarebytes asking for email address, or anything re. promotions (Mac or Android.)

The My Malwarebytes site that allows you to manage your account(s) asks for your email address, as does this Forum.

I'm really surprised to see it still asking with the Firefox version as they did decide to remove it from the Chrome Extension after seeing the reaction here. I suspect it will be gone in v2.0.3.

[Krusty]

19 hours ago, alvarnell said:

We are collecting email addresses to know our customers better...

That could mean anything (like what websites we visit)... but anyway after entering a fake email address the extension works fine.  No problem here so far on any of my machines.  I found it interesting that MB Browser Guard for Firefox blocked the Windows Defender Network Protection test site found here:

https://demo.wd.microsoft.com/

[exile360]

It may be using the site's redirect behavior to heuristically/behaviorally detect the test site since it behaves like (and quite frankly kinda looks like, at least in my opinion) a potential tech support scam site or similar (big red page following a redirect displaying a security shield icon and containing the words 'Microsoft', 'Windows Defender' and talks about being infected by viruses etc.).

Of course it's also possible that they simply added the site to the block database just to use it as a test page for their own extension as well (though that's less likely I think).

[WZZZ]

1 hour ago, alvarnell said:

The My Malwarebytes site that allows you to manage your account(s) asks for your email address, as does this Forum.

I'm really surprised to see it still asking with the Firefox version as they did decide to remove it from the Chrome Extension after seeing the reaction here. I suspect it will be gone in v2.0.3.

What I would expect for most account logins, but not for an addon. 99% certain I don't think I've ever been asked for my email address to enable an already installed Firefox addon. Really obnoxious/big turnoff. Not something I would expect from this company. Especially that the prompt locks up the program until it gets an email address, and has zero information about its purpose, with no opt-out or skip. Whoever at Malwarebytes had this bright idea, doesn't belong there.

[nukecad]

It may be something to do with a similar test they are currently running in conjunction with a special version of ADW?

That test is also requesting emails, but not doing anything with them.
See this AdwCleaner announcement for an explanation:
https://forums.malwarebytes.com/topic/251271-adwcleaner-special-741-build/

Maybe @AdvancedSetup could confirm if that is in fact the case?