Mozilla flamed by Firefox fans after promises to not sell their data go up in smoke
Mozilla flamed by Firefox fans after promises to not sell their data go up in smoke
Open source browser maker ties itself up in legalese and explanations
The answer to "what is Firefox?" on Mozilla's FAQ page about its browser used to read:
The Firefox Browser is the only major browser backed by a not-for-profit that doesn’t sell your personal data to advertisers while helping you protect your personal information.
Now it just says:
The Firefox Browser, the only major browser backed by a not-for-profit, helps you protect your personal information.
In other words, Mozilla is no longer willing to commit to not selling your personal data to advertisers.
A related change was also highlighted by mozilla.org commenter jkaelin, who linked direct to the source code for that FAQ page. To answer the question, "is Firefox free?" Moz used to say:
Yep! The Firefox Browser is free. Super free, actually. No hidden costs or anything. You don’t pay anything to use it, and we don’t sell your personal data.
Now it simply reads:
Yep! The Firefox Browser is free. Super free, actually. No hidden costs or anything. You don’t pay anything to use it.
Again, a pledge to not sell people's data has disappeared. Varma insisted this is the result of the fluid definition of “sell” in the context of data sharing and privacy.
Are there any specifics about this? It all seems fairly theoretical to me. What do they [want to] do that contradicts "doesn't sell your personal data" within the context of the fluid definition of "sell"? Do they sell my personal data or don't they? What definitions of "sell" are relevant here?
It's all sounding a bit Bill Clinton to me: "it depends on your definition of 'is'."
said Ajit Varma, veep of Firefox Product
Pack up your shit, and get the FUCK out. You're a fucking disgrace.
Given that this is a privacy community, I would think that it would go without saying, But I just like to point out, We should probably disable Firefox sync if were using it. Log out of Firefox accounts in the browser. Even if you're not giving them telemetry they have all that data.
You can use the x bookmarks sync plugin, Don't make an account with them just use the un-logged in plugin to backup and restore your bookmarks between browsers. On the upside it'll even let you copy bookmarks from Firefox derivatives to Chrome derivatives.Go down a comment or two and use Floccus, Just converted it's wonderful
at their location. However the want it
Another year another browser to avoid. It's an endless cycle...
Exactly what I expected: a restatement of the terms, pointing out that they're not onerous at all, and a link to jwz's blog, the single person on earth with the biggest hate boner for Mozilla.
They need money and they don't get much from donations. I'd love to hear everyone's ideas for how they can generate enough revenue to keep the lights on without either making deals with Google or engaging in any form of advertising or data trading.
There's absolutely a line where I would start looking elsewhere, but this ain't it.
Mozilla shares your data under certain circumstances. This helps people realize that Mozilla is able to share your data, regardless of 'selling' potential. Some people assumed 'we dont sell your data' meant 'we dont share your data' when that was impossible for the definition of how some built in features work.