- cross-posted to:
- [email protected]
- cross-posted to:
- [email protected]
This is a link to a diff of Firefox where the FAQ are stored in a structured way. In the diff it can be seen that the question “Does Firefox sell your personal data?” has been removed:
{
"@type": "Question",
"name": "Does Firefox sell your personal data?",
"acceptedAnswer": {
"@type": "Answer",
"text": "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. "
}
},
People in the comments are asking if the definition of the word “neven” has been changed or what’s going on.
Mozilla FakeSpot promises that the following “is Sold and/or Shared [with] Advertising partners”:
- “browsing history, search history”
- “Geolocation data”
- “a profile about a consumer”
Instead of aligning FakeSpot (which they bought in 2023) with their pro-privacy stance, it seems they are realigning their stance with their actual activity.
Brownie points for being honest, I guess.
Fakespot and Firefox are different products. They should stay that way.
It’s fine that Fakespot needs to collect some data from users to do the thing it does, and probably necessary for it to monetize that data to have a sustainable funding model. I don’t want it to sell a profile about me to advertising partners, so I don’t use it.
Firefox can function as a web browser without transferring any information about me off my local machine except that which I explicitly tell it to send to specific websites.
I swear that, at one point, the Mozilla websites said that every company under the MoCo banner would uphold the same ethical values as the Foundation, its parent, espoused. If that’s still the case, it seems Mozilla is still sort of upholding their consistency, but it’s eroding the base product.
Personally, I don’t see any reason to sell any of that data to advertisement corporations. Not browsing history, not physical location, not compiled profiles of its users! (Up until December 2024, Mozilla’s other in-house AI product, Orbit, also gave FakeSpot a shout-out for unknown reasons…)
I don’t see any reason to sell any of that data to advertisement corporations
You don’t see the reason? I see the reason. I just don’t like it.
I liked Mozilla better when it was a pure nonprofit narrowly focused on its core competency.
Damn, time to look for new browsers
I keep seeing librewolf mentioned, so I’ve begun making the switch.
Is it possible to copy a profile over so sessions/tabs continue? Just curious. I am a tab hoarder.
Question for those in the know: does it make sense to use LibreWolf if you don’t want to operate in private browsing by default? In my primary browser, I want my logins and settings and browser history to persist.
I’ve always heard that as one of the big differentiating features of LibreWolf, but I’ve never really played around with it. Can you change those settings, and if you do, is it any different from stock Firefox at that point?
You can dial back security and privacy in LibreWolf until it matches stock Firefox if you want. Still worth switching since LibreWolf dispenses with all of Mozilla’s telemetry.
Is there any way to actually have an effect of Firefox strategy? If they were a public company you could buy shares etc?
Well that sucks…
Here is someone trying to explain why they’re doing it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aw-XYrMFb0A
Well shit. Guess I really have to ditch Mozilla. They make a great product and had a great mission - also generated a heap of revenue. But I guess why settle for good money when you could sell out your principles (and our data) in the pursuit of More Money🤦♂️
Trust is extremely fragile and fleeting. Looks like Mozilla dropped it on the ground and it shattered into million pieces. Oh well, it was nice while it lasted. So long and thanks for all the fish.
The beginning of the end?