Notify ABP for Firefox users about having adware symptoms

[philll]

Background

By #3802, we created a website informing ABP users about adware and how to get rid of it. We can now drive affected users to it.

What to change

Add the ​Adware filters filter list to every ABP for Firefox instance similar to the Adblock Warning Removal List so that it matches against the filters in it even when displayed as disabled. In opposite to the Adblock Warning Removal List, use our notification UI to display the following text to the user once a filter matches and don't show any choices to enable the list with that notification: "Your computer may be infected with software injecting ads. Click here for help." with "Click here" being linked to the website created by #3802 in the user's respective locale if available, falling back to English.

[saroyanm]

Note: Currently we have a URL parameter that controls the visibility of warning message on the page https://adblockplus.org/adware?warning=true

[jeen]

The popup should have 2 CTAs - 1) solve issue <links to adware page> 2) turn off notifications.

There are many steps involved in the process to remove adware, furthermore, users without admin rights to their device, will be unable to install any anti-malware software. As a result, there is likely to be a fair portion of users who will not complete the process.

This poses a potential user problem that the ABP notifications will become annoying:

• We need to determine how frequently and how many times we continue showing the user this notification before switching it off. I would suggest showing the notification no more than once a day, no more than 3 times a week, and to stop after 5 displays?
• We need to give users the options to turn off the notifications.
• Can we add a message in the flyout menu about the detection of adware, so that if users ever wanted to revisit the problem at a later date they could access the link there?

Update text in the popup to read:

Header: Your computer may be infected with malicious software.
Body text: Do you want Adblock Plus to help remove the software?
Button 1: Yes <links to the adware website>
Button 2: No, remind me later

[philll]

Header: Your computer may be infected with malicious software.

For legal reasons, we need to refrain from calling all ad injecting software "malicious", the text was already approved by tech writing and legal.

Body text: Do you want Adblock Plus to help remove the software?

The body text suggested is raising wrong expectations, Adblock Plus cannot do anything like removing software.

I would suggest showing the notification no more than once a day, no more than 3 times a week, and to stop after 5 displays?

This is possible.

We need to give users the options to turn off the notifications.

This is possible.

Can we add a message in the flyout menu about the detection of adware

What is the flyout menu? If you refer to the notification, this would only be available to the user when it is displayed, not later. If we want to provide the info for users later on, we'd need to include it somewhere in the options page. However, I doubt it's worth the effort: If a user didn't react on a notification, I doubt he is going to dig into the options page to find a link.

[jeen]

I am concerned that "Ad injecting software" is too technical a term for most users to understand, and no more simpler than simply calling it "Adware". Also if we are going to refrain from calling malware "malicious" then we should also refrain from using the word "infected"?

Perhaps we could reword:

Header: Your computer may contain software that displays unwanted ads and collects browsing data.
Body text: Do you need help removing the software?
@lisabielik - what do you think of the above suggestion?

The flyout menu is the menu that appears when you click on the icon in Chrome which displays top level info on the number of ads blocked and links to the Options page. Displaying a message here is a nice to have - but would be a way for users to access information on removing adware if the notification appeared at a time which was not convenient for the user to action upon.

[philll]

We don't know whether or not any software collects browsing data. I'd be fine with "Your computer may contain software that displays unwanted ads" but it sounds less strong than "infected", so I'd expect less people to act on it. We can of course user-test this.

In fact, I wonder why we now reword everything that was already decided on in an extensive process. We should rather work out the missing pieces like the UI and logic.

[jeen]

I'm happy to stay with something close to the original approved text - however, I would still suggest we replace "ad injecting software" to "software that displays unwanted ads" - this is much clearer for non-tech users imho.

Your computer may be infected with software that displays unwanted ads

The body text (Do you need help removing the software?) is necessary to account for the 2 CTA options (Button 1: Yes <links to the adware website>, Button 2: No, remind me later).

We've defined the frequency the notification appears, and the page it links to. So I think that is everything we need? Or am I missing anything else?

[philll]

Replying to jeen:

I'm happy to stay with something close to the original approved text - however, I would still suggest we replace "ad injecting software" to "software that displays unwanted ads" - this is much clearer for non-tech users imho.

Your computer may be infected with software that displays unwanted ads

The body text (Do you need help removing the software?) is necessary to account for the 2 CTA options (Button 1: Yes <links to the adware website>, Button 2: No, remind me later).

We've defined the frequency the notification appears, and the page it links to. So I think that is everything we need? Or am I missing anything else?

greiner proved you right and me wrong: https://issues.adblockplus.org/ticket/3808#comment:4

We need to define a method to disable the notification completely. wspee brought in the idea of chaining notifications such when you click "No", you get another one, offering "Remind me later" or "I want to keep these ads".

[jeen]

@

[trev]

Mass-closing all bugs in Adblock Plus for Firefox module, the codebase of Adblock Plus 3.0 belongs into Platform and User-Interface modules. Old bugs are unlikely to still apply.