this post was submitted on 02 Mar 2025
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Mozilla is already revising its new Firefox terms to clarify how it handles user data (www.theverge.com)
submitted 1 day ago by Xatolos@reddthat.com to c/technology@lemmy.world
153 comments fedilink hide all child comments
 

AI Summary:

Overview:

  • Mozilla is updating its new Terms of Use for Firefox due to criticism over unclear language about user data.
  • Original terms seemed to give Mozilla broad ownership of user data, causing concern.
  • Updated terms emphasize limited scope of data interaction, stating Mozilla only needs rights necessary to operate Firefox.
  • Mozilla acknowledges confusion and aims to clarify their intent to make Firefox work without owning user content.
  • Company explains they don't make blanket claims of "never selling data" due to evolving legal definitions and obligations.
  • Mozilla collects and shares some data with partners to keep Firefox commercially viable, but ensures data is anonymized or shared in aggregate.
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[–] psyspoop@lemm.ee 91 points 1 day ago (2 children)

Mozilla says that “there are a number of places where we collect and share some data with our partners” so that Firefox can be “commercially viable,” but it adds that it spells those out in its privacy notice and works to strip data of potentially identifying information or share it in aggregate.

Sounds like they've already been selling (or trading) data and this whole debacle is a way to retroactively cover their asses.

[–] cley_faye@lemmy.world 7 points 20 hours ago

Yeah. And their privacy notice is basically a mix-match of ten or so sections that have no place in a web browser privacy policy, that allows them to do the things people reproach them for doing.

It's like saying "we're not doing that, because we're limited by that document that allows us to do just that". And now they're tripling down on it.

[–] Ledericas@lemm.ee 12 points 23 hours ago

google is probably thier number one customer for the data.

[–] justlemmyin@lemmy.world 90 points 1 day ago (7 children)

Ruh roh. Too late though.

Friendship ended with Firefox,❎ Librewolf is my new best friend. ✅

[–] woelkchen@lemmy.world 44 points 1 day ago (3 children)

Friendship ended with Firefox,❎ Librewolf is my new best friend. ✅

A big problem with such forks (same with packages made by Linux distributors) is that there is a delay between official FF release and the release of the corresponding update of the fork. 99% of the time this doesn't matter much but when there is a severe security issue, the patch needs to be available ASAP.

Past enshittifications of Firefox could be disabled by users. Users who know what to disable don't need such forks then.

I'm not yet clear what Mozilla even intends. Is it just an adjustment of language of things that are already in FF and can be disabled easily? If so, I just keep the following shit disabled and benefit from earlier update releases.

[–] cley_faye@lemmy.world 8 points 20 hours ago (1 children)

I have not dug too deep into it for now (especially if I end up changing browser), but even with everything in the preferences disabled, examining the content of about:config gives a lot of telemetry.whatever.enabled left to true, sometimes with names that do not seem to match any option given to the user. That's not a good look either.

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[–] FooBarrington@lemmy.world 8 points 23 hours ago (1 children)

The issue is that Mozilla is actively hiding these settings. There's one (I forgot which one) that you can't find by searching for the title in the FF settings, you have to scroll to it yourself.

[–] woelkchen@lemmy.world 3 points 22 hours ago (3 children)

The issue is that Mozilla is actively hiding these settings.

They are under "Privacy", just as I expected where they would.

There’s one (I forgot which one) that you can’t find by searching for the title in the FF settings, you have to scroll to it yourself.

🤷

[–] cley_faye@lemmy.world 3 points 20 hours ago (1 children)

Yes, you can disable the settings that are exposed to you with a checkbox. How about all the other that have no checkboxes and you can find by snooping around in either the code or about:config ?

[–] woelkchen@lemmy.world 8 points 20 hours ago (1 children)

How about all the other that have no checkboxes and you can find by snooping around in either the code or about:config ?

Which are? Genuine question. I'm not aware of those either.

[–] cley_faye@lemmy.world 1 points 12 hours ago

I'm not going to enumerate them, mostly because I did not keep track of which one was on and which one was off before messing all of them up. If you're curious, open "about:config" and search for "survey*.enabled", "collect*.enabled". Even with all settings disabled, some of them remains on, and they do cause traffic to the (documented) endpoints.

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[–] Max_P@lemmy.max-p.me 48 points 1 day ago (16 children)

They have no business collecting any data in the first place. If I wanted my data collected I'd be using Chrome like everyone else. I'm not choosing to use their buggy ass inferior and slower browser for any of Mozilla's services, I'm choosing it because I want to support non-Chromium browsers and regain my privacy.

There's no point whatsoever to using Firefox if it's just a worse Chrome.

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[–] KayLeadfoot@fedia.io 14 points 1 day ago

Me looking at Mozilla like: https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GHShUPtagAANgks.jpg

[–] Zak@lemmy.world 25 points 1 day ago

Great, but a web browser still does not need terms of service. There's no ongoing relationship between the user and the creator of the browser, at least, there shouldn't be unless the user signs up for additional optional services.

It's great if Mozilla wants to offer some optional services users can opt in to, and those services probably need terms. I use Firefox Sync, though I've started to reconsider that given the recent fuss. The browser itself? I'll move to a fork first, and stop recommending Firefox to others.

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