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How to remove Google Translate banner that suddenly appears in some pages - even in Safe Mode

  • 6 replies
  • 1 has this problem
  • 27 views
  • Last reply by pglpm

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Today I suddenly got a Google Translate banner at the top of a scientific journal page. Try for example

https://www.projecteuclid.org/journals/advances-in-applied-probability/volume-48/issue-4/Random-fields-of-bounded-variation-and-computation-of-their-variation/aap/1482548424.short

and see enclosed image (for a similar page). I never saw such a banner before. I do not want it nor any Google-translate services.

Tried the following:

  • Erase cookies and cache – banner still appears
  • Restart in Safe Mode - banner still appears
  • Remove Google from my search engines (even though it's not the default) - banner still appears
  • Set "geo.enabled" to False in about:config - banner still appears
  • Set "browser.translation.engine" to empty (why was it set to "Google"??) in about: config - banner still there
  • Disable safe browsing in Settings - banner still appears

I do not have any Google services (such as Google Updater) otherwise installed in my laptop. In fact, if I open that page in Internet Explorer I don't see the banner.

I see the same banner if I visit from Firefox on Android, though.

How's this possible? Why is Firefox sending my data to Google, even in Safe Mode, without my permission? How do I block this and stop seeing that banner?

Today I suddenly got a Google Translate banner at the top of a scientific journal page. Try for example https://www.projecteuclid.org/journals/advances-in-applied-probability/volume-48/issue-4/Random-fields-of-bounded-variation-and-computation-of-their-variation/aap/1482548424.short and see enclosed image (for a similar page). I never saw such a banner before. I do not want it nor any Google-translate services. Tried the following: * Erase cookies and cache – banner still appears * Restart in Safe Mode - banner still appears * Remove Google from my search engines (even though it's not the default) - banner still appears * Set "geo.enabled" to False in about:config - banner still appears * Set "browser.translation.engine" to empty (why was it set to "Google"??) in about: config - banner still there * Disable safe browsing in Settings - banner still appears I do not have any Google services (such as Google Updater) otherwise installed in my laptop. In fact, if I open that page in Internet Explorer I don't see the banner. I see the same banner if I visit from Firefox on Android, though. How's this possible? Why is Firefox sending my data to Google, even in Safe Mode, without my permission? How do I block this and stop seeing that banner?
Attached screenshots

Modified by pglpm

All Replies (6)

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Is the banner on other websites? If not, the banner could be part of that webpage.

Please provide a public link (no password) that we can check out. No Personal Information Please !

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Thank you for looking into this, and sorry for not posting a webpage example. I modified my post now.

I don't think it's only part of that website; it must result from some interaction with Firefox, because the banner doesn't appear if I access the page with Internet Explorer or Microsoft Edge (same laptop, same locale).

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This Google Translate widget is automatically added by webpages via JavaScript and there no way to prevent this. Maybe they detect that you are in a not English speaking region/country, so this can also happen if you use a VPN.

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Thank you cor-el. I'm curious then about why Explorer or Edge don't show the banner. I just checked, and javascript is enabled in both. Any idea why? How can I change my Firefox configuration to obtain the same behaviour (not showing the script)?

Also, my locale and language in Firefox are set to "en,en-GB,en-CA,en-US", if that's important.

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One more strange point: the webpage above shows a "translation disclaimer" which says "You have requested a machine translation of selected content from our databases...".

But I actually haven't. The setting "Translate web content" is actually turned off. So why does the page think that I requested a machine translation? Is it possible that there's some misconfiguration of Firefox?

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Update: I managed to remove the intrusive google-translation bar by using the uBlock Origin extension. However, this is just a make-do temporary fix. I think there's some misconfiguration in Firefox that should be fixed.