Clear storage (userred, useryellow, usergreen, blockedOrigins, etc) when addon is uninstalled?

[diracdeltas]

This doesn't happen automatically, but it seems like it should. On the other hand, maybe users who care about this for privacy reasons would just delete their Firefox profile.

[garrettr]

This surprised me - I thought it would be handled automatically. Lightbeam has the same problem.

In an ideal world, the Add-on SDK's onUnload listener would be the way to implement this. Unfortunately, it does not work for the uninstall case.

It looks like this bug is impossible to resolve without patching Firefox.

The closest thing we could do is listen for the disable event, since (from skimming bug comments, could be wrong) it gets called before uninstall. We could pop an alert saying "Are you trying to uninstall Lightbeam? If so, do you want to clear your saved information?" but... that's horrible UX.

[garrettr]

What we ended up doing for Lightbeam is having a clearly marked "Clear Data" button, and encouraging users who wish to clear their data to use it. We no longer promise that their data is cleared when the addon is uninstalled (because we cannot).

Having a similar "Clear Data" or "Reset" function might be good for Privacy Badger. If we add the ability to export the list of blocked domains (e.g in ABP-compatible format), this would be a logical UI companion.

Since we use the Add-On SDK's simple-storage for everything, the quickest path to automatically clearing data on uninstall would be a fix for Bug 627432.

[diracdeltas]

There's something like a "Clear Data" button in the settings menu in the panel, but empirically it seems that users don't understand what it does. It is labeled "Clear all blocker settings", perhaps it should just say "Clear data".

There's also a button in the same menu that only clears data that the user has set (meaning that it keeps the heuristic blocker settings). I'm leaning towards taking out this option.

At minimum, the "Clear data" button needs to clear PBadger's local stores and reset cookie permissions set by PBadger. If we've messed with any built-in Firefox prefs, such as enabling the DNT header, we also need to reset those preferences. It remains unknown how to signal to users that they need to click this button when uninstalling the extension.

[cooperq]

via @Hainish

Perhaps a desirable solution to this is to clear the cache upon installation? Or is persistence a desired property? Either way, it should behave consistently across FF/Chrome.

[cooperq]

We had a clear data button, but I removed it. I guess I should probably add it again.

[MHWallace]

I vote for adding a clear data button into PB Options. As a user I would like to be able to reset back to settings that PB has when first installed. (clear PBadger's local stores and reset cookie permissions set by PBadger.) Not knowing the inner workings of PB I'm not sure exactly what is possible but my idea is to reset to settings as they were "out of the box".

[dvdbane]

You may already be working on adding Clear all data button but is it possible to add another button to delete all except user custom setting?

[cooperq]

I would be reluctant to add such a button.

[oemb1905]

Please re-add the clear settings button.

[MHWallace]

Agreed about Cooperq's reluctance on "delete all except user custom settings" button. That is opposite what I am looking for. Refining Oemb1905's thought to add a "clear user custom settings" button that preserves default settings. I don't want to clear all settings, just the custom settings I've set over time. Reiterating my initial idea is reset to settings as they were "out of the box". I do this with NoScript settings using their "Reset" button.

[oemb1905]

Forgive me for being brief. Yes, I am looking for a Reset to Default option similar to the No Script extension; just as MHWallace describes. Regards, oemb1905