What constitutes abuse in an extension or theme?

Every extension and theme distributed for use in Firefox is subject to Mozilla’s add-on policies, which also require compliance with the Conditions of Use for Mozilla services. These policies and conditions have been created to protect you from inappropriate content or behavior in extensions and themes for Firefox. The types of content and behavior that are considered inappropriate, and therefore constitute abuse, generally fall into these categories:

The types of content and behavior that are considered inappropriate, and therefore constitute abuse, are detailed in the add-on policies and conditions of use. Here are some examples of what these documents define as abuse:

Damages your computer or data

• Injects a virus, worm, or other type of malware
• Steals identifying or sensitive information
  • For example: logins and passwords, credit card and bank information, authentication tokens, social media profile information, bookmarks, and cookies
• Sends spam links to people in your contact list
• Steals bandwidth
• Is difficult or impossible to uninstall
• Requests or uses your data in ways that don’t match the extension’s description or privacy policy
  • For example, it collects pages you visit without your knowledge or permission, or when it isn’t necessary for the extension to function
• Mimics warnings and functionality from Firefox or your operating system

Creates spam or advertising

• Inserts advertisements on webpages, especially pages that didn’t previously have ads on them
• For themes: Inserts irrelevant advertisements in the theme’s background image, or includes unrelated advertisements in the description
  • For example: Includes something like, "Download free movies at www.website.com”

Changed search engine, homepage, or new tab without informing or asking you

• For example: You may have Google as your default search engine, and the extension changed it to something else without informing you or asking for your permission

Pretends to be something it’s not

• The description and imagery are false or misleading
• Examples:
  • The description contains random, click-baity keywords
  • The description didn’t specify the need for payment and now you are being asked for money

• Includes features that aren’t necessary for the extension’s purpose, or uses your data in ways that don’t match the extension’s description or privacy policy
• Examples:
  • An extension that collects pages you visit when it isn’t necessary, or without your knowledge and permission
  • A YouTube extension that collects your visited URLs or redirects your searches through an ad network

Doesn’t work, breaks websites, or slows Firefox down

• Doesn’t perform the function described in its description
• Doesn’t work well
• Features are slow or hard to use
• Websites look broken or unusual; parts of websites don’t load, such as forms, comments, or widgets
• Can’t log in or complete a form or transaction
• Can’t view a video, for example a Facebook Live or YouTube video
• Social media sharing or buttons don’t work
• Customer support chats don’t load
• Text and browser features disappear
• Negatively impacts Firefox’s performance

Hateful, violent, sexual, or illegal content

• Includes graphic depictions of sexuality or violence
• Contains abusive or threatening content that targets people based upon race, ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, religion, sexual orientation, gender, disability, age, etc.
• Contains content that threatens or bullies other people
• Promotes illegal activities, such as gambling or pornography

Never wanted this extension and can’t get rid of it

• You don’t remember installing the extension or you were tricked or forced into installing it from a website
  • For example: the extension trapped you in full-screen mode, or an application installed it without your permission
• It’s difficult or impossible to uninstall

Some things that don’t constitute abuse include:

• A lack of functionality compared to the extension’s description.
• Poorly working or difficult-to-use features.
• Slow functioning features, as long as these don’t affect the overall performance of Firefox.

How do I report an extension or theme?

If you believe you’ve identified an extension or theme that is abusing the policies or conditions, do the following to report it:

1. Go to the Firefox Add-ons page for the extension or theme and click Report this add-on for abuse.

   

2. Provide as much detail as you can in the Explain how this add-on is violating our policies. box.

   

3. When you’re finished entering details, click Send abuse report.

What happens next?

Your abuse report is sent to the Firefox add-ons team, who review it. If they confirm that the extension or theme is abusing the Mozilla add-on policies or conditions of use, the extension or theme is removed from addons.mozilla.org until the developer fixes the issues. Depending on the history and severity of the abuse, the add-ons team may issue a block that prevents the extension or theme from loading in Firefox. For more information, see Add-ons that cause stability or security issues are put on a blocklist.