293566 - Extension adds Amazon affilitate ID to Amazon URLs on Google; this is not adequately disclosed

Status: RESOLVED FIXED

(addons.mozilla.org Graveyard :: Public Pages, defect)

Description

[Ben Last]

User-Agent:       Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.7.7) Gecko/20050414 Firefox/1.0.3
Build Identifier: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.7.7) Gecko/20050414 Firefox/1.0.3

In the "About" box for this extension (which is not shown on installation), the
author discloses that it adds his Amazon affiliate ID to any Amazon URLs shown
in Google searches.  I don't consider that this information is adequately
disclosed; nowhere in the description for this extension is this made clear.


Reproducible: Always

Comment 1

[Carlo Zottmann]

Yes, that is indeed the case. After BetterSearch has gathered product info and
product image from Amazon and added those to the related search result, the link
is tagged with my referral ID. This behaviour is explained in the Options Dialog
as well as on the extension homepage.

I hope this isn't a problem. I can add a developer comment to the BetterSearch
UMO (or is it AMO now?) listing if you wish.

Also, there are a few extensions doing exactly this and being less clear about
it. (From the top of my head I could name GooglePreview.)

-Carlo

Comment 2

[Carlo Zottmann]

> I hope this isn't a problem. I can add a developer comment to the BetterSearch
> UMO (or is it AMO now?) listing if you wish.

Just a heads-up, I just added said comment to the AMO page.

Comment 3

[Ben Last]

Carlo; not for me to decide, I was just the guy who submitted the bug, but maybe
you should disclose it on install or first use?  That way there can be no
argument that you haven't been upfront about it, and it's a cool enough
extension that I don't think you should suffer less use.  Alternatively, make it
configurable (on by default) and announce it at first use?  That way you're
giving people an easy way to pay you something for your work.  Oh, and also, why
not do amazon.co.uk and amazon.de, .fr, etc, at the same time?

Comment 4

[Michael Morgan [:morgamic]]

AMO BUGSPAM FOR COMPONENT MOVE AND DELETE (FILTER ME)

Comment 5

[Reed Loden [:reed]]

AMO BUGSPAM FOR QACONTACT FIX (FILTER ME)

Comment 6

[Mike Shaver (:shaver emeritus)]

Carlo: I don't see explanatory text in your add-on description -- could you please add that as soon as possible?  Thank you.

Comment 7

[Carlo Zottmann]

Hi Mike,

done. It's explained and disclosed in both the extensions options window and the extension website, but no problem.

I hope you're asking the same thing of the GooglePreview (https://addons.mozilla.org/firefox/189/) author because we both do pretty much the same thing, only I am yelled at all the time, and I find that a bit unfair. ;)

Comment 8

[Mike Shaver (:shaver emeritus)]

Thanks!  I'll ask the GooglePreview person as well; I only became aware of yours because of this bug.