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.

Update

Thank you all for taking the time to share your questions and reactions. We’ve been listening and made some updates to address areas of concern. I’ve started a new discussion topic covering what’s changed in the Terms of Use based on your feedback, and clearing up a few points of confusion.

[Kind9]

Grow up.

[Kind9]

Well I've used this browser for about as long as it has existed. And now I'm out. This is a no-brainer decision. Clearly NONE of your users want these changes, but you are nevertheless determined to push ahead with them. All respect I ever had for Mozilla, gone just like that.

[pg_78]

Trying to be constructive: I'm not a lawyer, but it seems to me that this paragraph:

You give Mozilla all rights necessary to operate Firefox, including processing data as we describe in the Firefox Privacy Notice, as well as acting on your behalf to help you navigate the internet. When you upload or input information through Firefox, you hereby grant us a nonexclusive, royalty-free, worldwide license to use that information to help you navigate, experience, and interact with online content as you indicate with your use of Firefox.

should be replaced simply with:

You give Mozilla the right to process data as we describe in the Firefox Privacy Notice.

Personally, I'm happy to sign up to the Privacy Notice itself, which is clear and specific about what data is collected under what circumstances. The problem is that accepting the Terms Of Use in their current form means not only signing up to the Privacy Notice, but signing an additional blank check on top of that.

[sunth1ef]

Long time user. I love Firefox. Switched back to @mozilla.org Firefox from Chrome on all my devices and felt good about it. This is a total abuse of trust and needs to be reversed: there will be a mass exodus. I was close to making a donation or purchasing a Mozilla product to support and now certainly will not. Change it!

[yumcimil]

Dear Mozilla management, even assuming your intentions are good, this is *precisely* the ToS change that I would make if I were going to sell all the user data and gaslight people about it. Fire the MBA who had this idea, and do it publicly.

[bendodge]

Why on earth is the only real competitor to Chromium lighting itself on fire? Are you all taking crazy pills?

[MegaT]

Honestly this is super disappointing and speaks to just how disconnected the leadership is from the core user base.

This change serves only to alienate the core user base at a moment when the deprecation of manifest V2 in Chrome put Firefox in the best possible position to gain market share. If this change is required because of some funding shortfall please be open and honest about the shortfall provide numbers and calls to action.

- Does Firefox sell your data? Never have never will.
+ Does Firefox sell your data? We currently do not sell your data and through generous donations we hope to never have to. In the event we find data collection is required we commit to working with the community to insure data collection is opt in and done in a way that respects privacy.

[masterspace]

If Sales of Data is defined as overly broad in "some jurisdictions" then you need to explain what jurisdictions those are, what the wording of the laws are that you think are overbroad, and what Firefox functionality would be impacted by them.

Literally anything less than that is not an explanation. Full stop. 

[edge-effects]

This is absolutely not it, Mozilla. Back off our data.

[godzsa]

I have been using Firefox before it was called Firefox... I liked this browser and I could not accept other browsers policies: the way they handle my data and sell it for marketing or other purposes and so on. I'd be happy to PAY to keep using the browser as is, but the new Terms of Use are unacceptable.

Firefox has been losing market share for a decade now, it has so many hiccups, behind on implementing features and web standards that major browsers have. I think the only people who still stick with it are here because of the privacy they get and the TRUST. With this update I think Firefox will be a dead project in a year, trust lost. You can sugarcoat and "explain" each change, but the people who still stick to Firefox are exactly sticking to it because other browsers have this approach Firefoxt is adapting now.

If anyone at Firefox reading this, please consider this: Either you say this was a mistake and go back and find another way to make money or you can say goodby to your user base.

[EtherealVeil]

The company I work for requires the use of a browser, and there are almost as much FF users as the heavily neutered Chromium we use. But we also deal with sensitive information that is not for us to disclose or share to third parties unless strictly necessary. As the "clarifying" details given are quite condescending and this mirrors the worst offenders that collect information to sell and use for training AI, I will inform my peers to consider it hostile and to no longer use FF. It will promptly be uninstalled and blocked on every instance. You have no idea what legality hell you've brought upon the usage in the corporate sphere by introducing this into a browser of all things.

[HomerSparkle]

I've been using Firefox for 20 years.

Today is my last day.

You have just betrayed your entire userbase, which is about to drop from 3% market share to zero.

Goodbye Mozilla.

[bethekind]

Wow, way to throw your users under the bus. Everyone would recommened FF over Chrome or Edge cause FF respected data and the users.

Where's the "why would they do this meme", with FF ruining their reputation

[rdavidatwell]

Well, there you go, Mozilla; two work days down, and you have 200+ comments on mozconnect, dozens on GitHub, hundreds on Reddit; dozens each on Lemmy, Mastodon, and Bluesky; blog posts, videos, and news stories all asking "what are they doing?"; and competitors pouncing at the opportunity you've created. This nonsense has completely torpedoed your good name in a way that may be completely unrecoverable, made a lot of people uninstall, and turned even the ones who stay against recommending Firefox to others. The remarkable thing is, you've angered the only people who care enough about your product to keep you going, the ones who care enough about Firefox to beg you to change course. The ones who don't just deleted the browser and didn't look back.

The clock is ticking, and the amount of work you're going to have to do to get out of this mess is only getting higher the longer you stay silent. Yesterday, you might've been able to save face with a mea culpa and a complete reversion of all repos; at this point, you're probably going to have to fire an executive. If you let it go over the weekend, I don't think anything could save your (formerly) good name, and the best case scenario for the browser will be to spin Firefox off to its own unaffiliated nonprofit.

The internet doesn't forget; if you think this will all blow over, you're horribly mistaken.

Please. Do a complete 180 now, while you still can.

[Vxnsup]

One of the main reasons people use Firefox is for its privacy, and now you pull this **bleep**? vague statements that meant nothing, a complete rug pull, and for what? Sell our data? AI training? Is the money really worth it? It doesn't take a genius to realize most of the user base will leave, so good luck with that, you leeches.

[flake_]

Is this a secret mission to annihilate your remaining market share? Smart, it's gonna be effective!

[jmicz3d]

To me this is an unacceptable breach of the trust I've given Firefox for the past few decades. I will be uninstalling today.

[disgruntledusr4]

I have been a lifelong user of Firefox. That ends this weekend. Remarkable that the higher-ups could think this is the right move with an already non-existent market-share.

[RipFirefox2]

Yes, this is just betrayal. The reason I used Firefox was because it put me as a user and my privacy at the fore front of the app (or application as it used to be called in the old school days ). Reading through all these replies  reminisences me of how long ago it alreday was that Firefox 1.0  came by... Sad!!!

[Esna]

You became the very thing you were born to fight against.

It was a nice journey, but I guess you either die young or grow to be a villain applies to browsers as well.

[usuallypresent]

Absolutely not. This is a giant mistake, and we know it and we're telling you so now you know it. DO NOT DO THIS. Unless you're just tired of making Firefox, in which case completely open-source it and let people who actually care about it take it over from you. I will never agree to this, and I will remove it from each of my family's systems.

[kevinevans]

Since you're stating that "transparency matters," I would like to ask: WHO is leading these changes at Mozilla? Who specifically called for Mozilla to renege their promises of not selling user data? The current CEO?

It truly is a shame to see what Mozilla has become after all these years. But it's clear that the folks at Mozilla today are only seeming to care about making money by exploiting their users, unfortunately.

I wonder what promises Mozilla will renege next. Perhaps they'll go back on the promises they're making in the comments today.

[Nicram]

Privacy was the main reason for me using Firefox browser. And i think, most of the userbase of Firefox, are aware users, that choose it because that reason. And now You destroing it. Good bye Firefox. At least there are some alternatives like Floorp or LibreWolf.

[Taureon]

The geriatric, forever declining "underdog" of the internet is dead.

Long live the forks, and long live privacy-centered chromium forks.

They are our only hope now.

At least google chrome is now a full-on monopoly, can only hope they are forced to give up ownership of the project.

[ByronGriggs]

I want to believe you, but you're making it difficult. You really need to explicitly state what has changed or will change about your software or business practices that warranted this infamous commit. https://github.com/mozilla/bedrock/commit/d459addab846d8144b61939b7f4310eb80c5470e

I understand that your reasons may be complicated, and they may be numerous. Perhaps you haven't had time to prepare a technical explanation that you're willing to commit to.

But please understand that if the devil is in the details, you need to give a technical explanation. Surely you must understand that with the information you have given us, we cannot be assured of your good intentions. 

For example, (and this isn't the ONLY thing you should address) how specifically are licenses used? Have you changed or will you change how you use them? Do other browsers use them in the same way? Why is it not possible to operate Firefox without them? We need the details.

[krausmariaraus]

are you guys insane? if you don’t remove the AI clause within a week, I’m uninstalling forever

[Tired_of_slop]

I'm so sick of you corporate scum bags ruining everything, hope the person who was pushing this croaks painfully

[UName]

It's time to test something else from the top privacy oriented browser list.

[Coleisforrobot]

What do I think? I think this is suicide. I think Mozilla just committed corporate suicide. Who's gonna donate to the privacy focused non-profit which doesn't value privacy? There are alternatives opening up, Firefox forks are moving quick and Ladybird is looking to take up Firefox's spot.

How dare Mozilla justify changes to Firefox's ToU with blog posts? Do you really think Firefox users are going to fall for that? You're lying and deceiving us.

Time bombs on all mentions of not selling data on your website? You actually had the audacity to do that? You're not even pretending to really care about privacy.

RIP Mozilla. 1998-2025.
I hope this move destroys you. (Mozilla, the company)

[soletan]

Bye bye firefox ...

[Vatuhuh]

I have used Firefox since 2013 on all devices. Over time, I have switched my entire family over to using it as well. I remained using it despite it's worse peformance for the (Turns out, only aesthetical) design for privacy in an internet dominated by harvesting personal data. These changes are obviously not actually neccesary, only can serve to facilitate the capture of personal data that isn't needed on your servers, and is extremely demotivating.

If it isn't changed, I will gladly take the steps to move both myself and my family off of Firefox and onto alternatives whether they be Librewolf, Ladybug, Brave or suchlike.

[Vatuhuh]

>Comment removed by myself due to accidental duplication.

[Lajask]

I can't say anything here that hasn't been said by literally hundreds of others before - so I'll keep it short. I made this account purely to express my displeasure with this ToS update. I don't usually bother with these sorts of things and I've used this browser for the better part of two decades and championed it to my friends constantly, especially more recently as Chrome made blocking ads much more onerous. And now! Now! When you could strike upon that as a unique selling point, that privacy and control over the browsing experience, you turn around and make it clear you want to be just as bad as them - with substantially worse market share to start with. If your goal is to drive the foundation into the firt, congratulations, I guess? You've certainly found a perfect strategy for strangling Mozilla. Google itself couldn't have done it better. Unless this changes I'll definitely be looking into switching all my **bleep** over to a fork and honestly I might on principle anyways even if it did. "We need a license for your searches" is so patently untrue. It worked for decades without that, why the change now? Should we then, extrapolating from that, be forming a class-action suit about how everything prior must've been unlicensed use of our information?

Absolutely moronic.

[semtact]

I donated to Mozilla for years. I even signed up for Mozilla Monitor out of trust and gratitude. What a betrayal.

If this situation isn't rectified soon, I'm cancelling my Mozilla Monitor subscription and moving on to another browser.

[Blanket]

I went through some of the changes in the github repo and this is absolutely vile. I have promoted and used many of mozilla's services and products over the years, and no matter what kind of PR stunt is used to cover it up or how you recover from this, I'm done using anything mozilla-related. This reply is the last thing I'm writing on my firefox developer edition before I wipe it from my home and work PCs. Better luck with the userbase that remains, because most of us are disgusted by this move.

[areyouinsane]

Are you insane?

Just pack up your bull**bleep** and make things back as they were.

Don't wait until Louis Rossmann gets wind of this and rips you a new one ...

[welyr]

Dear Mozilla Corporation,

People have previously installed FireFox on their devices with the understanding that they were installing free open source software, not signing up for a “service”.  They believed that installation of software was installed under a STATIC license. 

These new Terms of Use clearly state “These Terms are a binding agreement between Mozilla Corporation (“Mozilla”) and You.” This implies these terms of Use are intended to be a contract.

From my lay-person’s understanding, forming a contract requires informed consent. 

I note that the date which these terms state they were “Effective February 25, 2025”.  The date of the public announcement on Mozilla Connect was 2/26/2025.  Most FireFox users out there probably are STILL unaware of this document, meaning it is impossible that they could actually have consented.  What's more, because the effective date was retroactive and had no period of time for existing users to read and consider the contract, existing FireFox users were basically under duress because they might currently be dependent on that software, even just to access the terms of use over the internet.

Please explain the legal theory which permits Mozilla to unilaterally create new contractual terms and declare that they have gone into effect prior to users even having seen them simply by posting some random place on the internet that these terms of use exist or by telling existing users they have agreed to them? 

What happens if an existing FireFox user does NOT wish to give our “consent” to this new contractual agreement with Mozilla Corporation?  What if someone wishes to simply retain the copy of open source software they already have and do not wish to have any "service" with Mozilla at all that would collect data without accepting any new contract?  Do they have any option to merely opt out of any new upgrades or roll back to an extended support release in order to avoid agreeing to this new contract?

Thank you

[JohnSmith3]

The lack of TOS and transparency of data privacy is the reason I have used Firefox for my entire adult life. With this change, I am forced to leave it behind and spend my time moving to a new browser from what was once the last remaining mainstream browser that respected their users. Goodbye Firefox, it was nice knowing you but this is unacceptable in every way.

[Genuineparts]

"We expected this to create interest." I feel this is really not going the way you think this would go. I just switched to Librewolf and Betterbird and threw 20 bucks to Betterbird on top. I really hope you rapidly change course and if you don't I'll happily watch you be sued into oblivion and sink.

[Cretec]

When your TOU is on par with Adobe, that is quite an accomplishment and not a good one. My company's legal team reviewed this, and in their opinion, it is pretty bad, a full of loopholes. They literally laughed out loud over how bad it was written. That along with the privacy changes, and it is actually worse in a lot of ways as Google's Chrome.

What is worse is the explanation in the blog post is not helpful or making anything better or more clear. 

I have used Firefox since it was in beta. Now I am finding it hard to see why I should continue.