Project Insight — em_te

How to Use:
Click the Toolbar Icon or go into the Settings page to open, Project Insight.

Features:

• See what permissions are granted for each add-on.
• See what URLs the add-on can connect to and intercept.
• A user-friendly explanation of what each permission can do when you click on it.

What are Permissions?
When you install any add-on from the Mozilla website, it will ask you to accept a list of permissions that that that add-on is requesting. Add-ons can only operate within the boundaries of those permissions. For example, if you give an add-on the "Downloads" permission, it can download and save a file from the Internet on to your computer.

Well designed add-ons should not request more permissions beyond what it absolutely needs to function. Poorly designed add-ons request many permissions that it doesn't use.

What should I look out for?
Ideally, before installing an add-on you should review its list of permissions and if it looks suspicious, you should not install it, and opt for another add-on with fewer permissions.

If you already have many add-ons installed, you can use, Project Insight, to review your current add-ons and evaluate whether some add-ons are too permissible and if there are other add-ons on the Mozilla website that perform the same tasks with fewer permissions.

Why are fewer permissions better?
Predators prey on add-ons with many permissions. It has happened before. A company buys an existing add-on off a developer for a handsome sum of money and then silently modifies the add-on to track the user's browsing habits and send it to the company. Because that add-on had many permissions to begin with, the add-on inherently has many ways it can track the user. If the add-on had minimal permissions, it would greatly limit its ability to track the user.