I don’t understand how they are supposed to “sell your data” if you just never use a Mozilla account and uncheck all the telemetry. Its not like they can secretly steal your data, since its Open Source.
It seems to me like just more FUD that Google is spreading to undermine our trust in free software.
Mozilla is changing the license used for the Firefox executable/binary. The TOS will be the governing license over Firefox, the branded browser executable. It will no longer be open source, as defined by the Open Source Initiative, as users are no longer free to use the software however they want. Firefox will now be source available.
The source code for the browser, is (at least as of this comment) FOSS under the MPL2 license. People are free to recompile the browser under a different name (e.g. Librewolf, Waterfox, etc.).
This is not FUD. I read through the new TOS, Acceptable Use Policy, and Privacy Policy. Since the browser executable was governed under the MPL2, there was little concern from the open source community. I made my judgement from those documents alone.
I’m a software developer, and understand the technicalities and options available to me. I am capable of forking Firefox and make myself a custom build with anything I don’t like stripped out. (Capable of, not wanting to.)
They removed “We don’t sell your data and we never will” from their FAQ and they added “We may sell your data” to the ToS.
I am unhappy about this change. It is a clear sign that the people in charge of Firefox want to sell user data, and that the irrecoverable enshittification path has been chosen. It means that at some point in the next few years, I can’t trust Firefox’ with my privacy. And they sure as fuck don’t have anything else going for them: The browser eats memory and freezes my camera during video conferencing, and is plain not supported in some of the software I use at work.
The rationale is probably something entirely reasonable, like “While we do not intend to sell user data, the phrasing was too vague and not helpful. What is selling, and what is user data, really?” An organization with strong privacy values would be so far from anything “bad” that the phrasing as it was would not be a problem for them.
It’s irrelevant that right now privacy settings and xyz and telmentry is clear and opt in etc. Because the point is that they are gearing up to change that. The settings will be less clear, user data will be separated into shit like “operability assistance”, “personal information”, “experience improvement metrics” with some of it enabled by default because, etc.
The rationalization they have given is that legally, they may have been seeking data all along, as some jurisdictions define it extremely loosely.
For example, if you use their translation feature, they are sending the page your looking at (data) to a third party, which provides a benefit to Mozilla. Thats technically a sale in some laws, but most would agree that is acceptable given the user asked for it to happen.
https://blog.mozilla.org/en/products/firefox/update-on-terms-of-use/
The reason we’ve stepped away from making blanket claims that “We never sell your data” is because, in some places, the LEGAL definition of “sale of data” is broad and evolving. As an example, the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) defines “sale” as the “selling, renting, releasing, disclosing, disseminating, making available, transferring, or otherwise communicating orally, in writing, or by electronic or other means, a consumer’s personal information by [a] business to another business or a third party” in exchange for “monetary” or “other valuable consideration.”
I’m overall concerned with Mozilla, but not sure this is malicious yet. But definitely needs to be closely scrutinized.
The current intention may not be malicious, but it leaves the way open for changes that are to slip in. If they were worried about services like translation being concidered ‘sales’, which is a reasonable concern, they should have split them out of the core browser into an extension and put the ‘might sell your data’ licence on that.
It’s been a few steps in a concerning direction by them recently. As of right now, it’s still OK to use IMO but I’m sincerely hoping this is the extent of it, or even that they row back some of the recent changes.
However, I still want it to exist because its the only viable alternative at the moment to Google’s dominance. Yes there are plenty of forks (two of which I use) but they still rely on Firefox as the core product. I don’t think any are hard forks (or am I wrong?). I’m very uncomfortable at the thought of using a browser thats based on Chromium and/or unable to run the full version of UBO or have Containerised tabs.
The problem is that a reduction in trust correlates to a reduction in users. A reduction in Firefox increases Chromium’s dominance on the web, which is a near monopoly already. A monopoly on web renderers in turn is bad for open web standards.
People worried about Mozilla surely won’t migrate to chrome, will they?
We’re all keyboard warriors with opinions.
I’ll get downvoted to hell for this, but I honestly feel like right now it is a nothingburger.
Will I continue to keep an eye on the things they do? Yes. Does their CEOs work history bother me? Yes. Will I keep using it and just keep tabs on settings and extensions? Yes.
I agree if it gets bad they will just resurrect Icewessle once again.
Librewolf is basically that. It’s pretty good ngl. I don’t have to spend a half hour reconfiguring Firefox like I do in new setups.
I think the rest have explained it better, but I use a Mozilla account and I kinda trusted them, not so much anymore. I dont know if I’m a minority, I found this feature very useful.
I will probably keep using firefox until it goes too bad for my taste and switch to a fork and self-host a sync server
Well, I never used the sync feature, if I ever need to save urls, I’ll just store it in Standard Notes or something. I also uncheck all the telemetry. I guess I’m unaffected by their ToS change.
If all you’re doing is “unchecking” then there’s more you’re missing:
https://github.com/K3V1991/Disable-Firefox-Telemetry-and-Data-Collection
The whole advanced configuration settings in
about:configare probably never seen by the majority of users. Ultimately though, you’re right: for the most part, privacy-focussed forks aren’t offering anything that you couldn’t manually configure for yourself in mainline Firefox, assuming you have the time, energy and interest.Certainly, if you’re in the habit of policing all of these relatively undocumented flags with each update to be sure you haven’t been opted in to any telemetry you don’t know about and assuming that all of it remains optional, you’re absolutely unaffected. However, they now have a license to everything you do within Firefox which they state they will only use to “help” you. Does training their AI model to make targeted suggestions to users count as “helping”?
On another note, taking back a promise not to sell users’ data, even if your personal data is protected because you rigorously police the
about:configpage, is not something many people are enthusiastic about. Just because I’m safe, doesn’t mean everybody else is.Hm I see, I have sync to keep my history and bookmarks synced across devices (also helps easily share urls among devices)😅
the people freaking out are reading social media takes written by other people freaked out over other social media posts written by yet more others who are freaked out after not reading and fully comprehending the full policy documents…
I read the git history changes and while I generally think it’s somewhat of a nothing burger for savvy users, it is a scummy move that alienates their core user base at a moment in time where they were best positioned to expand their user base.
Mozilla just can’t stop taking Ls. This new and unnecessary development is another one.
Putting a local LLM into a product that doesn’t need it, just like other businesses do, is just one step too far for me. I hate this AI trend with a passion.
Good thing that Firefox is open source so that we can just switch forks.
Actually translations are great and they were needed.
you don’t need AI for automated translations though.
Putting a local LLM into a product that doesn’t need it, just like other businesses do, is just one step too far for me. I hate this AI trend with a passion.
Seconded, the pushing AI trend is just off putting and is something that literally no-one asked for. It reminds me of that brief trend of 3D TVs.
How does having an AI-chat feature in a browser diminish it’s quality? No one’s forced to use any feature.
Where does I say that it diminish it’s quality?
Also the you don’t have to use it, is a weak argument not even for or against it.
Also the you don’t have to use it, is a weak argument not even for or against
“Our pizza now comes with a topping of human feces!”
“Ew”
“What? Just scrape it off if you don’t like it”
exactly.
