Information about the New Terms of Use and Updated Privacy Notice for Firefox

[AshleyT]

For the first time, we’re introducing a Terms of Use for Firefox, alongside an updated Privacy Notice.

Earlier today, we published a blog post explaining why we’re making this change and what it means for you.

Now, we want to hear from you.

We’re committed to engaging with our community and keeping you informed about how we build Firefox—and why we make the decisions we do. Firefox wouldn’t be where it is today without the support of our users, and we want to continue working together to build a better internet for all.

To kick off the discussion, here are a few key points from the blog post:

• Transparency matters. We’re introducing a Terms of Use to provide clarity on what users agree to before starting to browse.
• Privacy remains a priority. Our updated Privacy Notice gives a more detailed, easy-to-read explanation of our data practices.
• You stay in control. Firefox is designed to respect user choice, with responsible defaults and simple tools to manage your data.

We’d love to hear your thoughts! Check out the full blog post and share your feedback here. If you have any questions, let us know—we’ll be actively monitoring the discussion and will reply where we can.

[whyyoudoodis]

[whyyoudoodis]

Shooting your shot ey.

Firstly ,you spaz your sexist rant is unhinged crazy. Mitchell Baker IS NO LONGER THE CEO you peanut.

[eschatos]

You deleted my constructive and critical comment, claiming it to be spam. For over an hour, you haven't as much as responded to my report. Is this how you deal with people asking you if you're going to abuse their data? Reinstate my comment and answer my questions or I'll be gone.

[whyyoudoodis]

YOU ARE ALL MISSING THE OBVIOUS!

Clearly what has happened since Mitchell Baker left Mozzilla is that the new CEO and the fresh oversight have either
A) Looked at current operative layout and NOTICED that they are ALREADY selling user data and are quickly changing policy in retrospect / ASAP for LEGAL reasons and Firefox is already kaput

B) Firefox CEO changes direction from baker in terms of user policy because they figure income from FUTURE sales can bolster revenue and maybe they can change course > choosing a quick and dirty / stupid mechanism and hoping users wont notice.

C) New CEO takes advantage of Manifest V3 fallout and is has revenue kickback in his pay -  a kunt.

and the least likely

D) They are BROKE and this is agonal gasp.  

I think its ALL OF THE ABOVE

I mean did anybody expect anything different after reading this

[j0s]

When watching closely which replies here are deleted without comment and which are not, it becomes very clear what the agenda behind those changes is.

[whyyoudoodis]

screencap proof and post the elsewhere. Firefox clearly needs the heat. Scrutiny is crucial. 

[salix-triandra]

I am also curious about the removal of the statement about no longer selling user data:

Does Firefox sell your personal data?

Nope. Never have, never will. And we protect you from many of the advertisers who do. Firefox products are designed to protect your privacy. That’s a promise.

This has been removed from the FAQs. Does this removal indicate that user data is now on the market to advertisers?

[nopwrinh0uze]

"when you upload or input information through Firefox, you hereby grant us a nonexclusive, royalty-free, worldwide license to use that information"

Need I say more?

[rdavidatwell]

Please note that most of the comments here have not been racist or misogynist conspiracy theories. But now because of the ones that have, Mozilla, the temptation is going to be to dismiss us all in the same bucket.

Don't.

We have very real concerns about this product and organization. Don't ignore our concerns.

[Atreides]

Please revert these changes. Your position as a leader in data privacy and security means people look to your browser vs Edge/Chrome. If you lose that unique position, people will be sent to fragmented collection of other browsers that might have Cryptomining or some other BS built in. 

Please consider your role and stature as being a long lasting and known quantity in the browser space. That cannot be replicated by another browser nor can it be quantified by earnings reports. 

I hate Chrome but have to use it at work. I love Firefox and use it on my home computer.  

[Emaro]

I have to say this looks really bad, Mozilla. You add ToS to your browser, which is an open source application and not a service (having ToS for your services is legit). And you also remove the promise to not sell users data. Then, when users rightfully complain (since Firefox is advertised as a private browser), you just restate the same things you announced with different words, not really acknowledging users concerns or actually addressing them. Your generic 'we value your privacy' has no value at all, since everyone would say that. Your actions matter, not you claiming to care about privacy.

If you sell user data in the future, I will tell everyone I recommended Firefox in the past to move away from Firefox. Most likely to a privacy-respecting soft-fork of Firefox. I know this is not a sustainable path in the long term. I'd be happy to pay or donate to Firefox development directly. I'm not doing that currently because I don't want to support your AI and advertisement initiatives and it's not possible to directly fund Firefox. I'm not happy at all with the direction you're taking. Please reconsider. Please focus on your core product, your browser. You're the bastion against Chrome's monopoly, but it looks like your on your way to make the distinction irrelevant.

[jaysax]

Seconding all the fantastic points other users have already made here and I just want to state that I don't want AI anywhere near being built into my browser, now or ever.

[mysse]

ai is evil and jewish, i refuse to have anything jewish on my web browser!

[whyyoudoodis]

Why do i feel like these are sock/bot accounts designed to pigeonhole everybody that is pissed off about this.

[rdavidatwell]

The thought had certainly occurred to me. It's borderline parody. Even people who march in literal far-right rallies aren't this racist.

[FreeHeadspace]

I've started moving things to and tweaking my setup of Vivaldi.  I'll be weaning myself from FF other than work requirements.

[SniperFox]

Removing the FAQ entry about selling user data is very telling.  Firefox had a real chance to come back from the dead by defending user freedoms to continue using Ublock Origin, etc in the face of Chromium removing Manifest V2.

Instead they made an extremely user unfriendly decision to start selling user data.

I'll be recommending for everyone I know to move over to Zen Browser (or similar) ASAP!

This change has the potential to end Mozilla as a company, sadly.

[matiu_bidule]

Plain and simple : you have 3% of user left and you have been pooping on our head for too long.

Time to pull yourself together and stop runing behind Google & co, stop the advertising and ai madness. Please run the other way toward a ad-free ai-free spy-free web, and we will follow you.

[nobody2]

Just a short Question: Why is one of the Headlines in the initial Post "You stay in control" (see https://connect.mozilla.org/t5/discussions/information-about-the-new-terms-of-use-and-updated-privac... ) instead of "You stay responsible" ?

Reading the ToS, every user would effectively (and legally) pass their control to the Mozilla Corporation, while still being fully liable for the consequences.

Relevant Parts of the ToS:

You give Mozilla all rights necessary [....] acting on your behalf to help you navigate the internet.
You Are Responsible for the Consequences of Your Use of Firefox
You Won’t Claim Mozilla is Responsible for Your Use of Firefox (Indemnification)

Just to be clear: I strongly prefer Firefox as a great Open-Source Project (or maybe even Product) but not a Service. Executing Software donated by volunteers on the hardware owed by users, with the energy and internet connection they pay for is not a service provided by Mozilla.

[Dextro]

This is completely unacceptable and a level of privacy abuse that not even other competing browsers have managed to achieve.

A web browser running on a user's device is not and never was a "service" provided by a corporation. It's a piece of software provided by a corporation but that doesn't mean that Mozilla is required to provide any services in order for the browser to function. Mozilla could disappear tomorrow and shutdown all their servers and Firefox would still operate with minor issues.

I understand that Mozilla wants to apply TOS to the services it provides but it's imperative that they do so clearly and not in such an overbroad way. It is very likely that there are GDPR implications surrounding the wording in this agreement given that none of the info Mozilla is requesting is required for Mozilla to function (this already assuming that "Firefox" can be a service, which it isn't).

So the answer here is clear. Either Mozilla does not want to provide firefox to users they can't monetize, or Mozilla needs to provide a big button on the browser to effectively disable every single Mozilla provided service.

Even if Mozilla decides to back-pedal on this baffling decision, just the fact that this happened means that, as of today, Mozilla cannot be trusted and there is effectively no difference between using Firefox or one of it's competitors. I will no longer be advocating for people to use Firefox since I cannot, in good conscience, continue to do so.

[seva]

People have reasons to react to the phrase "Transparency matters" because all politicians talk about transparency, yet true transparency is nowhere to be found. People have reasons to react to the phrase "Privacy remains a priority" because countless corporations say the same while blatantly disregarding privacy. People have reasons to react to the phrase "You stay in control" because they have always been told this while having no control at all.

If you were to conduct a survey now, the majority would vote against Mozilla’s advertising service, and most people would oppose the new changes. You created this outcome yourselves.

None of your loyal fans want Mozilla to collapse.

If you honestly asked the community, "Do you allow Mozilla's advertising service as a temporary measure to prevent Mozilla from going bankrupt?" you would receive overwhelming support.

If you gave the community a choice to enable or disable Mozilla’s advertising service, you would see that a huge number of Firefox users would turn it on to help their favorite browser.

But you chose a path that was based on DISTRUST towards the community. You chose a path that shows you FEAR the community. You are afraid that the community will HAVE A VOICE. You are afraid that the community will HAVE THE RIGHT TO CHOOSE. Like thousands of corporate executives before you, you decided to take away the community’s CHOICE.

The core idea behind Firefox was choice. When Microsoft stripped users of their RIGHT TO CHOOSE a browser by forcing Internet Explorer on them, Firefox rose to the top of popularity. Because Firefox was a CHOICE, while Internet Explorer was the ABSENCE OF CHOICE.

Now, Firefox has become the ABSENCE OF CHOICE.

I don’t know how you will solve this problem. By taking a path built on DISTRUST towards the community, you have received DISTRUST in return. And you have no way to restore trust—you are on the brink of bankruptcy. And you have mistreated your community, the very people who were supposed to save you from bankruptcy.

[ffft]

Check what firefox users are saying. You are making people go away for some time now. We absolutely do not want IA. Removing the Does Firefox sell your personal data? from the FAQ is the last straw for a LOT of people. 

We used to choose FF because it was the best browser. Now, it's the least crappy. So sad.

[kallisti5]

This is extremely disappointing.  One major reason people use Firefox is privacy.

I've switched over to LibreWolf for now until Ladybird is more stable

[kittyd]

I'm here to express my disappointment regarding how low Mozilla has fallen, as an organization I have looked up to for many years, accepted with pain in my heart for many more, and in recent times only seen fail me.

I will point to two things. One, in the Acceptable Use Policy there is this statement:

- Upload, download, transmit, display, or grant access to content that includes graphic depictions of sexuality or violence,

Very short response from me: What the actual **bleep**? So porn is banned? Talk about police brutality or government abuse of citizens or protests is banned? How does Mozilla, the freedom and privacy nonprofit, thing this aligns with their mission? Obv. that was not a priority...

Two, the change of the Terms of Use are clearly written as an organization who wants to cover their ass for behavior they will be undertaking, and not written from an organization that puts their users and community above all else.

I am sorry, I don't know what to say... This is completely out of touch. Firefox has lost and consistently kept declining in the browser wars, but I support it BECAUSE it is a browser for made for the users and developers. Not because I care one bit about business ventures undertaken through it. The fact that it is keeping Manifest V2 support is expected, not an incredible achievement. All the conflict and distrust that has been sown in recent years with opt-in by default privacy violations have only been destructive to the legacy of Firefox. I can't believe such a catastrophe has happened that can top all the self destruction Mozilla has been going through.

This is unacceptable. This has destroyed any faith in Mozilla and Firefox kept by people on a basis of principle such as myself.

I am deeply saddened by these news.

Mozilla has one choice, take everything back, and come back to the table with a promise ("never has, never will" was removed, hah), that is clear cut, and 100% on the side of their users. If anything less than this happens, if a compromise is proposed... I'm sorry, too much damage has been done already and such moves have been pulled by Mozilla many times in the last years. There is no more compromise.

Thank you.

[CrankyRaccoon]

I am extremely disappointed in how Mozilla has handled their business, especially in terms of Firefox, over the last 10 year. I stopped using Firefox a couple years ago and I do not regret it. What shame.

[Cabbage]

Using firefox is an objectively worse experience than using chrome. If I'm not getting privacy benefits out of it, why on earth would I keep using firefox?

[smb8]

This is all so incredibly sad. Please Mozilla, you need to move fast to fix this.

[mysse]

this will keep happening as long as zog forces controls the entire world like the filthy subhumans they are! ℉uck blackrock, vanguard, hollywood, shareholders, silicon valley, and israel. we need to take our rights and our privacy back by force.

[mention]

How about a new organisation that initially forks Firefox and deMozilla it (or use existing stripped versions) with super strong security architecture around it, privacy and adguard built in and then considers migration to https://ladybird.org/ when it matures

[mention]

I would recommend anyone technical to have a look at https://ladybird.org/ and consider contributing.

[pg_78]

I'd suggest the Firefox team looks at Thunderbird's Privacy Notice, which IMO is well written and clear.

Particularly, the Thunderbird Privacy Notice doesn't claim that Mozilla needs a license in order to send out emails! And Firefox no more needs a license to submit searches to a third-party search engine than Thunderbird does to send emails using a third-party SMTP server.

[mysse]

you are spitting facts! these ℉ucking jewish ℉αggots are taking control of the entire world and nobody is man enough to stand against it. ironic that liberals hates israel which 99.999% of jews support, but refuse to hate jews because they don't want to be called nazis. they also claim to be communist, a literal israeli jewish creation. but cuckservatives are no better for they are also complicit in funding the zog forces! then theres "christian zionists" who are actually jews, but they are jews who acknowledge jesus is divine. but they worship satan instead of jesus so they want to please satan and hate jesus themselves! we need to eliminate zionism once and for all and regain control over our lives!

[wefwan]

@AshleyTThis is basically Bambu Lab 2.0

Bambu Lab (3d printer company) changed their privacy policy opening the door to blatant privacy violations and anti consumer practices and justified it by claiming it would 'improve security' and the overall user experience.

When they got backlash they resorted to PR gaslighting by making blog posts suggesting that there has been "some confusion" over the new policy, nitpicking user comments that they could easily spin as a simple misunderstanding of the policy. They also highlighted comments that mentioned some particularly horrible things they COULD do per the new terms and acting almost offended that anyone would even believe that they would betray their beloved user base in such a way. That these commenters are particularly crazy with radical ideas of how to interpret the policy, yet they never provided any guarantees that they wouldn't do such things in the future.

A couple of months have passed and the public outcry against Bambu Lab has basically died down, proving that this PR strategy works.

Unfortunately, I don't think this type of thing will work with Mozilla's user base which is mostly made of people who are very conscious of their rights and protective of their privacy. I assume you think you'll be able to target a new user base with whatever fancy AI powered browser project you're cooking up with AI VC investor money, bolstered by the Firefox name recognition, you'll finally be able to dethrone Google Chrome. Good luck with that

[sylph]

1. Why i choose to use Firefox? Coz I want a stable, private browsing experience. And I've given up many convenience of chromium-based browsers.

2. Just like Google ditching their "Don't be evil" motto, I felt the same way over the new term of use.

3. Considering moving to librewolf if this new term of use is gonna take effect. Period!

[mav]

This was just such a monumentally stupid move. 

While yes, having some kind of EULA for services is a necessary evil, the way this was executed - not clearly delineating what is a service and what is just the browser behaving as expected, primarily - was **catastrophically** done.

Moz has been slowly ceding all the goodwill it had for the last couple of *decades* in a long and well-documented set of impossibly bad decisions, and at this point I really wonder if it wouldn't make the most sense to scrap the organization in its entirety and start over with a core set of contributors. The job really should be to, you know, make a browser. With the focus on speed, portability, and a model that emphasizes that while yes, it is wise to set reasonable defaults for everyone, user choice is paramount.

It seems unlikely that the goodwill lost in this change will ever be regained.

[thephoenixbird]

As a long-time contributor and former Rep and Rep Council Member, I’ve been involved in the Mozilla community for many years. I'm severely concerned and aggravated about Mozilla's attempts to redefine the promise that "Firefox will never sell your personal data." Labeling this issue as merely "little confusion about the language" suggests a misunderstanding of the gravity of the situation.

It's clear to me that when you explicitly remove the statement "we don't sell access to your data" it indicates an intention to do just that, likely for legal reasons.

If a new feature requires violating the Mozilla Manifesto and breaking the promises made to your loyal users over the years, it threatens the very foundation of Firefox. This could be the final blow for a browser we have all worked hard to support over decades.

If this feature comes at such a cost, then it is unnecessary.

The world does not need another profit-driven corporate browser.

https://github.com/mozilla/bedrock/commit/d459addab846d8144b61939b7f4310eb80c5470e#diff-5c93e7e7cbfa...

https://github.com/mozilla/bedrock/commit/d459addab846d8144b61939b7f4310eb80c5470e#diff-a24e74e4595f...

[0x415246]

Regardless of references to the Privacy policy and acknowledgement of "a little confusion," you NEED to address the wording: "When you upload or input information through Firefox, you hereby grant us a nonexclusive, royalty-free, worldwide license to use that information ..."    This wording implies that you ARE collection any and ALL information that is entered in the browser.   So if I fill out my tax form or a bank form you are collecting that data.   If this is NOT true then please FIX that statement in addition to FULLY clarifying EXACTLY what information you are collecting and using.

[pg_78]

---

So if I fill out my tax form or a bank form you are collecting that data.

---

Or, imagine a doctor or lawyer who uploads confidential documents to a secure portal.

They cannot now legally use Firefox to do so, because doing so would license Mozilla to use that information, violating their obligation of confidentiality to their patients / clients!

[GreenFox]

Does any of this apply to Thunderbird email? They say that they "adhere to the Mozilla Privacy Policy for how we receive, handle, and share information."

[previouslyafan]

I am really sad to see this happening;

Until this is properly resolved I will be moving to another browser.

A proper resolution involves:
- No data at is or will be sold by Mozilla at any point of time;
- No data of the users local usage is *ever* uploaded to Mozilla, except the following:
- In Clear-Text Form: Error logs with *direct* prior permission of the user (opt-in, possible at error-time)
- Fully end-to-end encrypted (with no back doors):  Synchronization data as part of an explicitly enabled synchronization feature (with an explicit statement on what exactly is synchronized and how it is encrypted).

This may be achieved in many ways but if monetary concerns are an issue, the focus should be put squarely on firefox and any side projects cut down.

I think many other users think the same.