Web of Trust (WOT) - you might want to remove this browser add-on

[coffeecat]

Just came across this:

http://www.pcmag.com/news/349328/web-of-trust-browser-extension-cannot-be-trusted

Similar article:

http://news.thewindowsclub.com/web-of-trust-wot-add-on-taken-down-86981/

Analysis on github:

https://gist.github.com/Rob--W/bda5f28a0ac3b877780c6665bbed2e1b

It's surprising how little there is about this serious issue on the web at the moment, even though the news is about 3 days' old. Since quite a few of our forum members are likely to have this addon, I guess, I thought I'd post this.

Talk about irony!

[mikodo]

^^ Thanks. Yes, ironical. Tis thusly makes me take pause and wonder about some of the privacy and security apps I use. Thankfulness given, that journalists still have the right in some parts of the world, to publish openly.

[T.J.]

I realize this might sound awful, but I never completely trust a piece of code that I can't get the source for. As for the Web - well that is a very large cesspool of mismanaged code, constantly switching between JS, HTML, Flash and heaven knows what else on the server. My assessment is probably irrelevant - but my question is: How can you really trust ANY browser plugin that is not FOSS or collects data? As a rule of thumb, the first thing I disable is data collection.

[vasa1]

I haven't used WOT for several years. But this information is important to those who do. And WOT isn't the only known case of a popular protection utility going rogue in recent times.

[Frogs Hair]

Tried WOT for a day or so some years ago and removed it . Thanks for the info.

[bearlake]

Thanks for the info.

Never used it but will do a few searches on some of the extensions I do use.

[CantankRus]

wot the hell... :P
The Re-Identification Of Anonymous People With Big Data (https://datafloq.com/read/re-identifying-anonymous-people-with-big-data/228)

[linuxyogi]

I installed debian 8 yesterday and and searched for Noscript, Ublock and WOT but couldn't find WOT. I guess they removed it.

[vasa1]

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

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.

[ardouronerous]

Any other alternatives to WOT on Ubuntu? Is McAfee Site-Advisor safe for Windows?