While I like the flexibility that JavaScript brings to the web, I also like that tools exist to control it. NoScript is a relatively popular Firefox extension that does just that. When Mozilla shifted away from their own extension framework and opted for WebExtensions API, which is supported by both Microsoft and Google, a lot of browser features became immediately unavailable.

It turns out that Mozilla has enough hooks for a new version of NoScript, however. As such, NoScript 10.x has been released earlier this week. It allows you to disable scripts on a domain by domain basis until they are added to a white list, or given access via the add-on button.

I also don’t really think it’s all the useful as a security tool outside of special use cases – JavaScript doesn’t really have a whole lot of room for malicious use – but its presence does allow things like heuristically tracking individuals and loading content into the handful of plug-ins that still exist. So, like, if you’re the Tor browser, then it makes sense. For the public? I doubt it. I would be more interested in an add-on that lets you just shutdown JavaScript on a tab-by-tab basis, so you can make particularly heavy sites act read-only once they are loaded.

Still, it’s available now.