The Register: Netscape’s disappearing privacy code

“Netscape has denied yanking privacy features from Mozilla
builds under pressure from parent company — and the leading
project sponsor of the open source browser project — AOL. The code
in question allows users to block banner ads.”

“According to Netscape’s Steve Morse, speculation is premature.
The code is being included in builds, but has been publicly
disabled. It can still be enabled in the user preference file that
Mozilla (and hence Communicator) reads at start-up.”

“An earlier Mozilla bug report pinpointed the problem with the
code as marking images as ads which weren’t ads at all —
specifically the buttons in AltaVista, which get fetched from
another server. … However, the speculation doesn’t seem to have
been entirely irrational. After the code had already been marked as
a problematic in an earlier bug report, Netscape’s reaction to a
subsequent bug report — noting the disappearance of the option
from the menus — was the one that aroused conspirators’
suspicions.”

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