The company behind the Firefox browser is to make new additions to its add-on policy following a spat between the developers of the AdBlock Plus (ABP) and NoScript plug-ins.
ABP prevents all ads on the web from being displayed to users with the add-on installed, while NoScript blocks script from running within the browser.
The former happened to block ads on the NoScript website, prompting NoScript creator Giorgio Maone to exploit an ABP bug to get around the problem and then eventually amend his add-on so that it disabled certain parts of ABP when Wladimir Palant of ABP retaliated.
In the end, web users with both add-ons installed encountered numerous problems with the browser and Mr Maone eventually published a public apology on his blog and released an updated version of NoScript without any extra ABP configurations.
Now Mozilla has specified that add-ons making changes to the default homepage, search preferences and settings for other extensions need to be related to the core function of the add-on.
They must also clearly state which changes are being made, should be opt-in and should restore the user's original settings should they uninstall the extension.
"Surprises can be appropriate in many situations, but they are not welcome when user security, privacy and control are at stake," Mozilla said in a blog post.
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