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.

[rdavidatwell]

---

@AshleyT wrote:

Thank you for raising the concern and let me clarify. Mozilla doesn’t sell data about you (in the way that most people think about “selling data“), and we don’t buy data about you.

Then why does the policy say that you can? "We promise not to" in a blog post is not legally actionable. "We're carving out these rights, but we're never going to use them, honest" is not convincing.

Since we strive for transparency, and the LEGAL definition of “sale of data“ is extremely broad in some places, we’ve had to step back from making the definitive statements you know and love.

Why is Mozilla using the browser to do anything that could run afoul of "sale of data" laws anywhere?!? Honestly this makes me more concerned, not less.

We still put a lot of work into making sure that the data that we share with our partners (which we need to do to make Firefox commercially viable)...

Once more, this should be applied at opt-in for the features affected, not imposed globally on download.

Anyway, how commercially viable is Firefox going to be if all of the users who were here because of the legally-protected privacy you offered jump ship for browsers that continue to offer the protections you once promised? "Commercial viability" is never going to happen if you abandon your last remaining distinctive.

Once again, you're not going to be able to clarify your way out of this. You're going to have to change course if you want to stop the bleeding.

[ericmc2]

Who says that Mozilla NEEDS to do these things to make Firefox commercially viable. People have previously offered to PAY/DONATE to support Firefox countless of times and nobody at Mozilla cared.

To this day, it's only possible to donate to the Mozilla Foundation and not towards developing Firefox. In fact, many people only donate to the foundation because they falsely believe that it's going towards developing Firefox.

I would also like to support Firefox through other ways, like offering bounties for fixing longstanding bugs (some bugs are over 20 years old) or maintaining beloved features like the compact mode that got deprecated or PWAs.

Firefox had so much love and goodwill from people who promoted it for free, helped friends and family members installing and using it, who put little Firefox buttons on their websites to promote it.

Over the years, Mozilla threw all that away with a complete lack of care by telling these exact "power users" that they're not the target demographic, that it doesn't matter what they think about changes and that Firefox isn't a democracy. The planned changes might be the last straw to completely destroy the relationship with these users.

And at no point did Mozilla think about working with the millions of loyal users and Firefox fans when it comes to making Firefox independent from Google and ready for the future. They'd rather feed these loyal users to the lions that they promised to protect them from for over twenty years. It honestly blows my mind.

[Cvh-123]

OK, I know how I read this.  

Firefox sends my data to Mozilla who then, perhaps with some anonymisation or aggregation (which might or might not work), sell [edit: or share] it on to their ‘partners’ for Mozilla’s commercial benefit. So, you now cannot legally say you’re not selling our data from FireFox because you are selling our data.

All that about honesty and transparency now feels even more false, because you won’t say ‘yes, we do sell your data’ to the question.

[Kuroichi_Neko]

---

@AshleyT wrote:

Mozilla doesn’t sell data about you (in the way that most people think about “selling data“), and we don’t buy data about you.

---

Yet. Looking over Firefox Privacy Notice provided in the blog post, there's interesting bit i might point at the fact, it's explicitly discloses that you have intention (as I going to interpret) to serve us advertisements, so data you collect on us within said ToS might be used for advertisement within browser on "New Tab" page:

---

To serve relevant content and advertising on Firefox New Tab

We use technical data, language preference, and location to serve content and advertising on the Firefox New Tab page in the correct format (i.e. for mobile vs desktop), language, and relevant location. Mozilla collects technical and interaction data, such as the position, size, views and clicks on New Tab content or ads, to understand how people are interacting with our content and to personalize future content, including sponsored content. This data may be shared with our advertising partners on a de-identified or aggregated basis.

In some instances, when ads are enabled on New Tab, additional browsing data may also be processed locally on your device to measure the effectiveness of those ads; such data will only be shared with Mozilla and/or our advertising partners via our privacy-preserving technologies on an aggregated and/or de-identified basis.

---

And I'm honestly in a big doubt that privacy-preserving tech, that quote is mentioning will help to protect it. In this day and age of technology, it's very easy to identify and track on person, within anonymized pool of data from multiple sources advertising companies have on hand, which they sourced from other companies. Like with a freedom, if you give even a small bit of privacy, you will give it all. I'm not convinced with your motives, Firefox. Not a chance. You lost a bit of my trust with AI stuff, now this. I might jump ship if this continues.

[nouckey]

killing your product and angering your userbase is not commercially viable, overpaying incompetent CEOs is not commercially viable, making everyone hate mozilla and stop donating doesn't seem to be so commercially viable either !

[MegaT]

Its a non profit its not supposed to be "commercially viable".  How about you just tell the community how much money exactly you hope this massive breach of trust and good will earns you.

[Coleisforrobot]

Why did you (Mozilla) put a time bomb on all references to not selling data on the website? What does Mozilla have planned for 25-04-2025?

[pg_78]

---

We still put a lot of work into making sure that the data that we share with our partners (which we need to do to make Firefox commercially viable) is stripped of any identifying information, or shared only in the aggregate, or is put through our privacy preserving technologies (like OHTTP).

---

OK, but do you realise that privacy isn't the only reason that people object to the online advertising economy?

Online ads don't just compromise our privacy - they steal our attention and ens---tify the web.

I don't want my data to contribute to that malevolent "ecosystem", regardless of how anonymised and aggregated it is. Looks like Mozilla no longer shares my values.

---

Mozilla doesn’t sell data about you (in the way that most people think about “selling data“)

---

I don't know about "most people". But it certainly sounds Mozilla is planning to do what I think of as "selling data about me".

[GACO]

You're still selling data, what is so hard to understand about that? People use this sluggish browser because you used to be transparent and honest and NOT SELL THE DATA.

"which we need to do to make Firefox commercially viable"

Want to make firefox commercially viable? Here's some advice:

Cut the crappy organization it is attached to.

No one wants the political lobby group

No one wants the foundation

No one wants the AI crap you're dumping money into.

Let people put money towards the browser. I won't give a cent to this because of all the crap it is attached to and I know my money will be wasted and not one cent will go towards the browser.

You already bring in millions of dollars a year, cut all the overhead and have just a company of programmers that actually work on fixing this browser, have more than 3 people working on it.

You are doing the exact same thing Google and Microsoft does. Grow a spine and admit it.

Firefox has two reasons to exist: the security and privacy, and Ublock. Now you have 1 reason, and you've already tried to pull that as well.

Firefox has no other advantages. It is slow, resource intensive, and buggy. You have bugs that have been open since Mozilla started and marked as high severity for crying out loud.

[kalib_tweli]

Why not just have a paid subscription option? Why do we have just straight to selling our data?

[Anonymous]

Firefox, I still rmember when you where the promising new kid on the block. Sad to see you go over to the dark side. RIP.

You will be uninstalled from my and my families devices.

[nfg]

I have been using Firefox since the early days, and before that the Mozilla Suite. It saddens me, but it is now clear that it is time to move on. I cannot accept this Terms of Use. You have decided to become an advertising and activist organization. Thank God for Capitalism and Free Software, I can choose to use another browser that will not collect my data or force their politics on me.

I hope the browser lives on in another form, but Mozilla Foundation and Corporation are defunct if this is the way you choose to go.

[pva]

Privacy is not a concept with shades of gray. Just as it is impossible to be "a little pregnant," it is impossible to be "a little private." Firefox’s decision to stop protecting users from ads puts it on the same level as browsers that gradually restrict users' rights over time. This is unacceptable. If this decision is not reversed soon, I will stop all donations and start looking for an alternative browser. I hope a fork will emerge because the technology itself was developed by those who are not the ones making such decisions now.

[k102]

Well, it makes my, as a web dev, life easier.

I think after this "move", quite a lot of people, me included, are going to switch to something else, which will most likely be based on chromium, therefore I won't need to check my work in ff as well, so... Thank you?

[pva]

I hope someone forks Firefox and rebuilds the community on principles that were there at the moment of growth. Otherwise, I hope https://ladybird.org/posts/announcement/ will come with the solution. They probably need to take advantage of the situation and start a funding campaign 🙂

[pva]

https://github.com/mozilla/bedrock/commit/d459addab846d8144b61939b7f4310eb80c5470e

If Firefox is no better than Chrome, why should users choose Firefox? Please revert this commit! Vague policies don't make situation look better.

[artfulrobot]

I've been a Firefox user since the first release, have deployed it in companies as a policy. I'm really sad to see this happening now. The blatant removal of We won't sell your data and things previously called "promises ... ever" alongside the complete lack of response from Mozilla to people exposing this just makes me think the worst: that Mozilla is now a puppet of big tech and its policies are no longer its own.

I realise the elephant in the room might be the naivety of people like me who have merrily ignored the fact that the browser exists because Google pays for it (I understand Mozilla got just under $1bn from Google last year).

Perhaps Mozilla are just saying: wake up and smell the coffee: we're compromised and have been for years and now we're just trying to keep our funding/jobs by selling out our community to big tech.

Anyway, really disappointed by (a) this move and (b) the silence from Mozilla.

[loriwew]

I started using Firefox with version 0.7 -- when it was still called Firebird -- over 20 years ago, and since then I've used it consistently and without fail on all my computers, across all operating systems, and as a sysadmin and general computer guy, always recommended it to all friends. But this is it. I'm done. I'm out. You truly have lost sight of why you have made it this far, who your users are and what they want, and at this point I'm out of sympathy, and out of patience with the endless boneheaded and tonedeaf moves. You deserve your inevitable slide into total irrelevance.

[scopecreep]

This is corporate suicide. You've literally just killed Mozilla and theres nothing you can do to save it now.

You've broken our trust. Even if this is retracted the damage you have done to your reputation is irreversible. 

Better update those resumes.

[Polle]

Point me in the direction of Firefox Users that want AI-Chatbots in their Browser. People that want "a browser that meets all the needs of a modern internet user" have switched to Chromium Browsers a decade ago when Firefox lagged behind some years. The only ones that returned are users that valued their privacy and other promises of FOSS more than any of that "modern internet user" bs.

I have multiple browsers for different tasks and needs; the only reason Firefox is the "main" browser is, that I always trusted it to have a somewhat better policy regarding my data and privacy and the low-threshold ability to block third parties. I honestly won't need Firefox anymore after those changes. And I certainly don't need any sort of AI bull as part of my browser.

[Polle]

Even created an account just because I am mad enough to express my disappointment

[Syntaxerror]

Same here.

And if people want an AI chatbot in their browser, then that's EXACTLY what AddOns are good for!

[pva]

And even if browser wants to integrate that, they don't need to lie us that such privacy changes are required for that. Chat bot are no different from Google.

Broken trust and deception—that's what's happening.

[Ponda]

The only clear part of this situation is that Mozilla has to rewrite ToS and Privacy Policy to be unambiguos, direct and detailed while explaining precisely why the changes are needed and how the data is processed. Any avoidance or further passiveness in this matter will undoubtly result in significant and irrevocable loss of trust and support from the community, which is essential for Firefox to continue operations.

I hope Mozilla can see this is "make it or break it" moment for the future of Firefox and the foundation.

[zur13]

Wow, what a phenomenal decision! According to the new license, they’ve apparently granted themselves the right to even sell off your login credentials. So if I type my username and password anywhere, Mozilla can legally pass that information on to the highest bidder! How remarkably convenient - nothing says “privacy” like the right to peddle personal data!

[whyyoudoodis]

Log in is encrypted so they can see them.... I hope.

[artfulrobot]

@whyyoudoodisIf you can type it into a browser the browser has the unencrypted value. If the browser can show you on screen the unencrypted content, then the browser has the unencrypted content. Simple as that.

[Anonymous5]

An interesting fact is that if you don't log into Google, Chrome collects significantly less personal information than the updated Firefox ToS allows for data collection. If you care about privacy, use an Ungoogled Chrome variant like Thorium. The only reason we ever loved a browser that couldn't even implement web standard APIs from over two years ago and lagged behind Blink in performance—even after creating a whole new language like Rust—was its respect for privacy. Regardless of whether the ToS revision is withdrawn, the fact that a responsible person made such a statement is proof that the Firefox project has already failed.

[s-m-e]

Not wanting to trigger any filters with adequately strong language, that's an impressively "stupid" thing to do. There is little I can add to the discussion other than that I'll now have to burn some time on finding a suitable replacement.

Firefox user since 0.8, 21 yeas and a few weeks it has been.

[pva]

We need privacy. Privacy is enough DEI.

[otto]

Couldn't this have waited until Servo was more mature? Please revise and consider changing leadership that is acting against user interest.
Also: how can users opt-out? Oh they can't 🥴

[nsa]

Any complaint I have about this has undoubtedly already been said multiple times, but I am just sad Mozilla has decided to shoot themselves in the foot like this. I have recommended Firefox to many of my friends, and have used it on every computer I own, however that stops today unless these changes are reverted. It is simply moronic to assume users who chose Firefox for its privacy benefits will simply accept these changes and move on. For anyone in my situation looking to jump ship, forks like Waterfox & LibreWolf could be an alternative if they do not contain these privacy-disrespecting features, or an independent browser like Palemoon or Ladybird could be more suitable.

[Anonymous]

If you would allow me to descend from mere distrust into wild dystopian paranoia….

The Terms of Use say this:

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.

And the FireFox Privacy Notice includes the following:

To comply with applicable laws, and identify and prevent harmful, unauthorized or illegal activity

We may also be required to process your personal data to comply with applicable laws and protection purposes, such as:

• Responding to lawful requests and complying with legal processes, such as responding to subpoenas, investigations, or requests from government authorities. Mozilla requires a valid Legal Process to compel the disclosure of Specific User data to a government.

[...]

Identifying, investigating and addressing potential fraudulent activities, or other harmful activities such as illegal activities, cyberattacks or intellectual property infringement (including filing or defending legal claims).

Then under “Lawful Bases” it says:

To comply with applicable laws, and identify and prevent harmful, unauthorized or illegal activity.

All data types

Compliance with law in responding to data subject rights requests, responding to law enforcement requests, managing and protecting our (and our users) rights, property and/or safety. Legitimate interest, where compliance is not appropriate, in supporting legal or regulatory processes or requests, preventing fraud and managing and protecting our (and our users’) rights, property and/or safety.

Learn more about how we respond to lawful requests.

"Lawful Requests" appears to include all kinds of requests such as “Wiretap Orders” and “subpoenas”.  And Subpoenas don't just happen in criminal cases, they can happen in civil cases as well.

Since Mozilla is getting a “license” to anything we put into our browser, does this mean Mozilla can be compelled to disclose it upon receipt of a legal request or wiretap order?

In fairness, perhaps whether this is part of the privacy policy or not Mozilla would still need to comply with court orders, warrants, etc no matter what. But isn’t our “agreeing” to a “Terms of Use” policy which gives Mozilla ownership of our data and Mozilla implementing features which involve any type of data collection an open invitation to get dragged into an attempt by the FBI to issue a wiretapping order vs some reporter or a lawsuit by a some evil mega-corporation vs some little nonprofit watchdog dot org?

Isn’t the way to avoid this for FireFox not become a “service” which has rights to data people enter into their browsers in the first place and instead remain a piece of standalone open source software which doesn’t send ANYTHING to Mozilla during the course of normal use?

[rstarkov]

The wording of the licence I supposedly grant to you is extremely bad. I get what you're trying to say (I hope!), but the manufacturer of a hammer does not require me to grant them a licence to hit a nail I own, nor to explicitly list that I'm not supposed to hit people with that hammer.

Why is this stuff necessary? I can only see one reason: you wish to grant yourself a little more than is actually implied by my use of your tools.

Your terms also state that you can terminate and withdraw anyone's access to Firefox. How exactly is that supposed to work?

You've banned the use of Firefox for watching "graphic depictions of sexuality or violence" (so half of Hollywood movies)? For real?

What this looks like, is that you've made a largely unenforceable, but extremely unpleasant ToS. It has no purpose other than to hurt your reputation, and to maybe allow you to snoop on what I input or upload (you pinky promise not to, just yet, but the Terms essentially make it okay).

What a terrible, terrible development for Firefox and Mozilla.

[tpdi]

So some C-suite MBAs figure they're going to get rich by creating an ads system and AI training data from users' data. Vultures eating the dessicated remains of Mozilla's abandoned principles.

[justwinstuff]

rip firefox

[milet]

Go f** yourself, greedy corporate bastards.

I've been loyal Firefox user for 20 years. As a teacher, I recommended The Browser to hundreds of my students. But - no more. Because there is ZERO, ZERO need for "Terms of Service" to use a desktop software. You are idiots for making such a change.

Oh, and my school has about 100 installs of Firefox. Next week, you'll have one hundred less installs.

[loriwew]

I, too, have about 60 managed installs of Firefox in my school. The students usually use Chrome on their own devices, and Chrome is what they want, but I have consistently refused and championed Firefox to avoid Google's excessive surveillance. Now, what's the point? I might as well rip out all the Firefox installs and install Chrome and have happier users.

I don't think you realize the breadth of what you have accomplished here -- you have annihilated the last and only "selling point" of Firefox. If Mozilla surveils and sells user data, you have nothing. Your USP is now "Google Chrome, but worse".

It's people like us -- the nerds, the sysadmins, the people who are "in the know" about privacy issues -- who have kept you afloat. Your single digit market share is basically us, or because of us. You have now permanently burned those bridges. There is no longer any reason for any of us to recommend Firefox to anyone or install it in our orgs.

[NoXPhasma]

---

It's people like us -- the nerds, the sysadmins, the people who are "in the know" about privacy issues -- who have kept you afloat. Your single digit market share is basically us, or because of us. You have now permanently burned those bridges. There is no longer any reason for any of us to recommend Firefox to anyone or install it in our orgs.

---

This ^

I've installed Firefox on countless devices and was holding it up against Chrome and Edge. Explained to people why it is important to have a free alternative to Chrome and it's forks with questionable privacy. Just so, Mozilla would turn 180° and push a knife in our backs.

Mozilla started to turn in the wrong direction, when they stopped allowing to target my donations to a specific project. My fear was, that Mozilla will spend the money on projects I don't support, so I stopped donating, and my fear came true. Buying advertisement and tracking companies lead to the situation we are in now. 

Enough is enough.

[JohnSmith3]

Hey same here! Was just finishing up a software group for hundreds of endpoints which included Firefox. Keyword here is included.