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What is with the unwanted addition of hidden extensions in the FF68 update?

  • 6 cavab
  • 1 has this problem
  • 1 view
  • Last reply by cor-el

LastLoneWolf
LastLoneWolf
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I noticed that after the FF68 update I now have "Hidden Extensions" that FF has added. They do not show in the regular Add-On page but are in fact installed but "hidden" extensions. They can be turned off but CAN NOT be uninstalled! I never gave permission for these extensions to be installed nor do have any way of knowing their permissions. It is very concerning that Firefox would install hidden extensions without users permission and have no way to remove them. Please advise as to their permissions, use and why they were installed without consent. Thank you in advance.

See Attached Image Amazon, Bing, Ebay, Google, Twitter and Wikipedia

I noticed that after the FF68 update I now have "Hidden Extensions" that FF has added. They do not show in the regular Add-On page but are in fact installed but "hidden" extensions. They can be turned off but CAN NOT be uninstalled! I never gave permission for these extensions to be installed nor do have any way of knowing their permissions. It is very concerning that Firefox would install hidden extensions without users permission and have no way to remove them. Please advise as to their permissions, use and why they were installed without consent. Thank you in advance. See Attached Image Amazon, Bing, Ebay, Google, Twitter and Wikipedia
Attached screenshots

All Replies (6)

user633449
user633449
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These are features of Firefox. They aren't "Extensions" in that they are designed by third-parties. Specifically, these are the search engines that Firefox ships with by default.

LastLoneWolf
LastLoneWolf Question owner
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Thank you for you prompt reply. If that is what you say they are then I guess that answers my concern. But I really want Absolutely Nothing To Do with Bing! Again thanks.

user633449
user633449
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You can easily remove Bing. Add or remove a search engine in Firefox

jscher2000 - Support Volunteer
jscher2000 - Support Volunteer
  • Top 25 Contributor
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Hi LastLoneWolf, what tool is that screenshot from? Hopefully they will update with more complete information for the search engine plugins.

cor-el
cor-el
  • Moderator
  • Top 10 Contributor
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As posted above, those are builtin default search engines that are stored internally in one of the omni.ja archives. I notice that the screenshot doesn't show a file path and that is likely because the files do not appear on the hard drive unless there would be an update available.

Firefox comes with a lot of builtin search engines as you can see:

  • resource://search-plugins/
cor-el
cor-el
  • Moderator
  • Top 10 Contributor
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OK, I see these search plugins listed on the "Help -> Troubleshooting Information" (about:support) page. I see this information in extensions.json for the four search plugins that I've enabled via "visibleDefaultEngines":["google-b-d","bing","ddg","wikipedia"]. 

Name		Version	Type	Active	Location
Google		1.0	ext	true	app-builtin
Bing		1.0	ext	true	app-builtin
DuckDuckGo	1.0	ext	true	app-builtin
Wikipedia (en)	1.0	ext	true	app-builtin