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.

[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.

[Chris-Winters]

@AshleyTI just want to point out your original post got 6 "Kudos" and 244 replies... if you weren't aware this is called "getting ratioed". It means the content of the post was quite unpopular and whoever instructed you to say this should rethink their strategy here, and then begin training their replacement because this is a colossal failure. But I'm certain Mozilla will just call us all bigots, spend another $10 Million on another conference for 7 blue haired they/thems and a disabled xe/xir with a buzzword salad for a name and keep chugging along ignoring the massive fire burning the whole building down around them.

You're not dealing with gullible and impressionable first graders. A lot of us were building the foundations of the internet before you were even born. If you think this move will lead to success for Mozilla you've all become delusional. Snap out of it. 3% browser market share and falling. If that were a stock price the shareholders would be jumping ship before you inevitably filed Chapter 11 and declared bankruptcy, and then they'd be discussing options for lawsuits with their attorneys.

Let me rephrase that in case my meaning isn't completely understood;

MOZILLA. IS. NO. LONGER. POPULAR. ENOUGH. TO. GET. AWAY. WITH. THIS! Mozilla simply doesn't have enough good will left over to recover from this.

EDIT: As a reminder. Firefox is completely open source, which means a hard fork is just a few clicks away. We don't need Mozilla for Firefox to continue... but Mozilla certainly needs Firefox.

[AshleyT]

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.

[flake_]

"Confusion" - oh God, my sides.

[yumcimil]

Mozilla keep trying to educate us on the selling of data thing. Please stop. It's not complicated. You want to sell our aggregated data. We absolutely do not want you to do this. We additionally do not care about a nonprofit that pays its CEO $6m a year complaining about money.

[yolo1]

This is due to IA.
Please put this in a plugin first before deploying these features. If your plugin becomes popular, integrate it into your core software. Stop using your core userbase to capitalize on it.

[HaleyHalcyon]

If Mozilla doesn’t plan to collect and sell my data, they would say loudly and proudly that they don’t.

In fact, the fact that Mozilla used to declare that they won’t, was one of my deciding factors on switching to Firefox.

Now that the text is gone from the FAQ and the representatives make no attempt to reaffirm that principle, I will take my business elsewhere.

[1doodah1]

This is a shocking violation of privacy. I've been using Firefox for years on all my devices but I will be uninstalling now.

[isaacryu]

> 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.

This is a total cop-out. Don't sell user data; it's as simple as that. Even the definition the blog post provides as "overreaching" is more than fair.

> In order to make Firefox commercially viable, there are a number of places where we collect and share some data with our partners, including our optional ads on New Tab and providing sponsored suggestions in the search bar.

All I can really say is tough **bleep**? You made a promise; why must Firefox be "commercially viable"? Mozilla has other projects and sources of revenue, add other optional paid services, don't break your promise and make it worse for everyone because you made a short-sighted decision.

> Whenever we share data with our partners, we put a lot of work into making sure that the data that we share is stripped of potentially identifying information, or shared only in the aggregate, or is put through our privacy preserving technologies (like OHTTP).

This is a bare minimum expectation. Truly the bar is in hell.

[sadtimes]

disapointed and sad.. being using firefox since day 1 (and before that mozilla browser) and never changed, not even once. on linux macos and android. 24/7 for 2 decades.

always advised my family, friends and co workers to use firefox, because for all its flaws compared to others at least it wasn botnet and "respected its users", i must have said that hundreds of times in the last 20 years.

sad sad times.. and all because money? after you wasted thousands if not millions in activism that changed *nothing*! i always wondered how you had the extra money for such wasting but whatever you had a good browser.

i cant believe this.. you were the good ones!

i wont be updating the browser and probably will change to librewolf.

an end of an era, mozilla. such a shame, what a waste of a good thing..

[sadtimes]

😞

[FormerUser]

Between Netscape Navigator and Firefox, I've been a user for 30 years.  I left for a while after the insane treatment of Brendan Eich, but I came back and have stuck around.  But this is the end, I guess.

I do have a parting request: Please continue as an open-source project so that we can all use IceCat and LibreWolf.  Thanks in advance!

[Tourfaint]

Some clarification on a blogpost doesn't legally mean anything, either the TOS changes or it doesn't.

The amount of weasel words and pretending "its too complicated to say what data we're selling" is a clear sign something shady is going on. If it was legit you would have no problems just enumerating what data, if any, you are selling and to who. I've been using firefox since 2006, non-stop. Way to break a combo before a round number anniversary. The moment i manage to migrate all my settings to a fork, i'm not looking back. It's sad, its tiresome, but you made us all do it.

[gamer191]

I have 2 major concerns with the acceptable use policy that I don’t think anyone’s brought up:

1. “You also may not sell, resell, or duplicate any Mozilla product or service without written permission from Mozilla.” this seems to contradict with Firefox’s open source license. Perhaps those licenses are taken as “written permission”, but this seems vague and confusing

2. ”Violate any person’s rights of privacy or publicity” this seems to ban most journalism. Do criminals have a right to not have their identities public? This seems to imply so

[gwozniak]

I'm not one to pile on, but honestly, I've had it. I've been using Firefox since its inception and used Netscape Navigator before that. It's been 30 years of Mozilla for me.

No longer. I'm done.

This Terms of Use/Terms of Service debacle shows me that I cannot continue to support this foundation. I will no longer recommend Firefox to my friends, family, or coworkers. I consider Mozilla to be a toxic brand. I will now actively dissuade them from using it. The trust you built is gone.

I deepy desire Firefox to succeed. Unfortunately, the Mozilla Foundation and the Mozilla are its worst enemy. I haven't seen a good decision from them in years. I'm just frustrated right now to the point of intense anger. And judging by the comments here, I am far from alone.

I will happily come back to using Firefox and advocating for it if these terms are fixed (even with the recent changes) and the leadership resigns. Keep the workers, though: they are competent.