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.

[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.

[Anonymous]

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.

[JSSM]

Good luck making all those forks coalesce against chromium.

[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)

[JSSM]

Hater that much?

[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 ...

[areyouinsane]

Too late:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-8bTquKjzos&t=236s&pp=ygUQcm9zc21hbm4gZmlyZWZveA%3D%3D

Title:

Mozilla lost touch with reality; how becoming rich through failure stunts mental & emotional growth

[Anonymous]

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.

[JSSM]

Hater that much?

(additional whatever because of some flood limit thing)

[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.

[Anonymous]

@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.

[rdavidatwell]

*My* email inbox has blown up since last week. I can't imagine how bad yours is. Surely that shows that this isn't *confusion.* We understand the TOU perfectly well. We don't like it. If we're confused about anything, it's about *why* such a thing is necessary.

[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..