Install Dialog v2
Problem
The current extension install dialog displays a different string of text depending on the permissions the extension requests. This has a few problems:
- It isn't extensible. We keep adding new permissions, but it's hard to update the text strings to deal with all possible combinations of permissions.
- It isn't clear. Users don't realize that the text is telling them something specific about the extension they're installing.
- Advanced users have complained that they would like to see the details of the exact permissions being requested, not the text form.
- Very advanced users have requested the ability to disable individual permissions during installation.
Proposal
The current set of permissions are:
- Data on a domain (eg www.google.com)
- tabs system details (urls, titles, etc)
- browsing history
- geolocation
- unlimited storage quota
- desktop notifications
Some of these permissions are too granular to be useful to most users during installation, and should be hidden by default. For example, most users won't want to approve access to desktop notifications during installation. Installation should grant that privilege automatically. Similar for extra storage quota. Access to the tab system and to the history system are basically the same kind of access, so those should be grouped.
Thus the user-visible permissions for the above would be simplified to:
- Data on a domain
- Browsing history (tabs, history, etc)
- Geolocation
The new install dialog should show a list of high-level permissions by default, but give advanced users a way to see the detailed list if they want.
So something like:
+=============================================+
| +------+ |
| | | |
| | icon | Install Gmail Checker? |
| | | |
| +------+ |
+---------------------------------------------+
| This extension will have access to: |
| |
| ! Your private data on mail.google.com, |
| www.google.com, and 3 other web sites. |
| |
| ! Your physical location on planet Earth. |
| |
| ! Your browsing history. |
| |
| [more details] |
| |
| |
| [ ok ] [cancel] |
+=============================================+
When the user clicks "more details", the dialog expands and shows all the permissions requested in as much detail possible. In the future, we might also make it possible to turn off individual permissions in that area, but the extension system doesn't support that yet.
Text details for high-level permissions
Site access
Your private data on www.google.com.
Your private data on www.google.com and foo.com.
Your private data on www.google.com, foo.com, and 5 other sites.
Your private data on all web sites.
Tabs and History
Your browsing history.
Geolocation
Your physical location on planet Earth.
NPAPI
Full access to your computer and private data.
Camera (future)
Your computer's camera
Microphone (future)
Your computer's microphone
Infinite Storage, Notifications
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