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Are disable Add-ons really disable?

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  • i mujjee tontu mooy TyDraniu

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I've installed lots of add-ons thru out the years and when I'm not using them, or just didn't like them, I just go to the "Add-ons" settings and press on "disable" thinking that's the end of the story. But I've become more privacy and security concerned as time passes and now I'm wondering if I should delete all the add-ons that I no longer have any use for, (and some useful ones but are very sketchy).

What I mean is that some add-ons "require" permission to everything you do in your web browser "to work properly" and well that's beyond sketchy. I recently used an old add-on and realized it worked perfectly even after over 2 years of it being disable, I mean even after multiple firefox updates. I realized that the add-on had "automatic updates" turned on so... even disabled it was updating in the background... therefore it was somewhat active.

Now I'm wondering if all of this sketchy add-ons that I've installed thru out the years that need all kinds of weird "permissions" like access to well... -everything- (passwords, history, credit cards, etc...) have been collecting all this data even after I disable them years ago?

I've installed lots of add-ons thru out the years and when I'm not using them, or just didn't like them, I just go to the "Add-ons" settings and press on "disable" thinking that's the end of the story. But I've become more privacy and security concerned as time passes and now I'm wondering if I should delete all the add-ons that I no longer have any use for, (and some useful ones but are very sketchy). What I mean is that some add-ons "require" permission to everything you do in your web browser "to work properly" and well that's beyond sketchy. I recently used an old add-on and realized it worked perfectly even after over 2 years of it being disable, I mean even after multiple firefox updates. I realized that the add-on had "automatic updates" turned on so... even disabled it was updating in the background... therefore it was somewhat active. Now I'm wondering if all of this sketchy add-ons that I've installed thru out the years that need all kinds of weird "permissions" like access to well... -everything- (passwords, history, credit cards, etc...) have been collecting all this data even after I disable them years ago?

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No, it's disabled and doesn't work.

You can still remove some of disabled addons, if you're not going to use them.