On Tuesday October 19 2004 00:09, Calle Hedberg wrote:
By the way: One of my collegues - who also is Open Source oriented - this morning warned me against using Firefox, alleging that "it is full of spyware". He said he had installed it on a Linux box and intercepted "a lot of suspicious traffic".
This is plain rubbish.
I have been following source code development in Mozilla and it's Firefox branch for a long time now, and know most of the code.
In any case, anybody can check the full source code for herself, and compile Firefox from scratch, if there are any doubts.
Tell your colleague he is a bloody ignorant and should know better than just spreading FUD.
Horst
Horst is being kind.
No well-known browser, e.g. IE, Firefox (or anything Mozilla-based), Opera, is "full of spyware".
Spyware, by and large, is downloaded and installed. No browser can completely protect a user from their own ignorance and/or poor judgment.
If anything, Mozilla browsers have kept their users *more* secure, over time. They have consistently led the industry with privacy and security safeguards, e.g. cookie warnings and management, script security settings, popup menu blocking. This is not by accident. Most open source developers and enthusiasts are somewhat paranoid libertarians who take their privacy *very* seriously. I would rather have them looking out for my interests than any company.
--Greg
