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.

[LeonDerBaertige]

Couple of things come to mind:

• These ToS are very broad and hand over essentially everything, for a websearch feature (which I doubt you would need a license for)? What are the other cases to warrant that much?
• If data is collected. Does the collecting include potentially highly protected information (e.g. medical, access tokens, ...)? And what is done to secure such information properly (in case it is collected) or prevent the collection?
• And could you please stop shooting yourself in the foot while we still have a chance at going up against chrome?

[seva]

I think you should have done something different. You have a lot of users who trust you, and you should have trusted those users.

You should have written openly:

"
Due to new EU laws, Mozilla will cease to exist unless it finds another source of funding. We want to make our own advertising service the source of funding. During the next Firefox update, you can agree or refuse to support Firefox.

If you choose "agree to support Firefox", Firefox will run our advertising service. Please read how our advertising service takes care of your anonymity.

If you click "decline to support Firefox", our advertising service will not run.

Please note: there are many services on the Internet that collect your information. Information about you will be collected, but it will not help save Mozilla.
"

[saphkey]

Yeah, this kind of transparency seems just too obvious.
Do they know know why they are doing what they are doing?? Why would they want us to speculate.
That just leads to speculative doomposting, which is not a good image.

[kittyd]

This level of transparency and honesty in a popup (and it being clearly opt in, not having support checked in by default) would have been all it took for all of the bad faith Mozilla created in recent years to be resolved. Add a link to: Please Donate, with options for one time or per month/year, and we are talking!

Unfortunately, instead the move was to ruin the already stretched very thin legacy of Firefox 😕 They need to handle it as what it is, not with corporate bs, but a clear "We Messed Up" that honestly owns to the issues. I will not keep my hopes up.

[pg_78]

And Mozilla could have asked the "decliners" to consider making a donation. I certainly would have donated.

[strongthany]

I have been a Mozilla fan for a while, and as such often been a apologist for decisions made. I can not see in the phrasing of this update how the new ToS are anything but concerning.

I am imploring Mozilla to not implement these changes, to keep privacy as a core Tennant, and to not implement manifest V3. Please, you're one of the last gold browsers, don't hurt the good will you have held for so long.

[qamodi]

Considering that the definition of "Free Software" contains the right to use the software for whatever purpose and your new policy puts quite some limitations on how Firefox can be used, you should modify all documents claiming that Firefox is Free Software as well.

[asdfjklö]

I'm so angry I made an account.

I would've been fine with a subscription model, where I pay so that Mozilla keeps its privacy promises.

Instead we got sponsored search engine default - the apparently main business model of Mozilla.
Then we got some sponsored suggestions, pages, and what not. Now, Mozilla simply reserves the right to restrict served (as in: browsed) content and abuse (as in: use for AI training) user content. It doesn't matter if someone at Mozilla says this might be a big misunderstanding and it's only meant for such and such purpose:

Legally, anything that is not explicitly excluded or forbidden - is simply allowed.


I will switch to an open-source fork of Firefox like LibreWolf. The damage in my confidence in the Mozilla foundation has been shattered.

[Hissssst]

I will stop using Firefox as of now. And I will make sure that every person who uses it knows that Firefox has a clear intent to collect user data and sell it to advertisers. I will write blog posts, I will create pull requests, I will promote free branches and forks.

I loved Firefox and it is really sad that the software which was a role model for most of other free and opensource projects becomes the thing it was fighting from the very beginning

[BenCos18]

I've been using Firefox for years now and even recommended it to people 

this is the final straw 

either fix your vauge and unethical sneaky tos update or I'm done....the two reasons I use Firefox are manifest v2 and privacy.... those two are non negotiable 

[milet]

What you wrote violates new ToS 😉

[Hissssst]

👎

[bites0411]

Look like its time to pull out , was a good ride but goodbye

[fixmestevie]

Here is what I think of your decision--hi ho, hi ho, its off to another browser I go.

[whyyoudoodis]

[whyyoudoodis]

Shooting your shot ey.

Firstly ,you spaz your sexist rant is unhinged crazy. Mitchell Baker IS NO LONGER THE CEO you peanut.

[eschatos]

You deleted my constructive and critical comment, claiming it to be spam. For over an hour, you haven't as much as responded to my report. Is this how you deal with people asking you if you're going to abuse their data? Reinstate my comment and answer my questions or I'll be gone.

[whyyoudoodis]

YOU ARE ALL MISSING THE OBVIOUS!

Clearly what has happened since Mitchell Baker left Mozzilla is that the new CEO and the fresh oversight have either
A) Looked at current operative layout and NOTICED that they are ALREADY selling user data and are quickly changing policy in retrospect / ASAP for LEGAL reasons and Firefox is already kaput

B) Firefox CEO changes direction from baker in terms of user policy because they figure income from FUTURE sales can bolster revenue and maybe they can change course > choosing a quick and dirty / stupid mechanism and hoping users wont notice.

C) New CEO takes advantage of Manifest V3 fallout and is has revenue kickback in his pay -  a kunt.

and the least likely

D) They are BROKE and this is agonal gasp.  

I think its ALL OF THE ABOVE

I mean did anybody expect anything different after reading this

[j0s]

When watching closely which replies here are deleted without comment and which are not, it becomes very clear what the agenda behind those changes is.

[whyyoudoodis]

screencap proof and post the elsewhere. Firefox clearly needs the heat. Scrutiny is crucial. 

[salix-triandra]

I am also curious about the removal of the statement about no longer selling user data:

Does Firefox sell your personal data?

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.

This has been removed from the FAQs. Does this removal indicate that user data is now on the market to advertisers?

[nopwrinh0uze]

"when you upload or input information through Firefox, you hereby grant us a nonexclusive, royalty-free, worldwide license to use that information"

Need I say more?

[rdavidatwell]

Please note that most of the comments here have not been racist or misogynist conspiracy theories. But now because of the ones that have, Mozilla, the temptation is going to be to dismiss us all in the same bucket.

Don't.

We have very real concerns about this product and organization. Don't ignore our concerns.

[Atreides]

Please revert these changes. Your position as a leader in data privacy and security means people look to your browser vs Edge/Chrome. If you lose that unique position, people will be sent to fragmented collection of other browsers that might have Cryptomining or some other BS built in. 

Please consider your role and stature as being a long lasting and known quantity in the browser space. That cannot be replicated by another browser nor can it be quantified by earnings reports. 

I hate Chrome but have to use it at work. I love Firefox and use it on my home computer.  

[Emaro]

I have to say this looks really bad, Mozilla. You add ToS to your browser, which is an open source application and not a service (having ToS for your services is legit). And you also remove the promise to not sell users data. Then, when users rightfully complain (since Firefox is advertised as a private browser), you just restate the same things you announced with different words, not really acknowledging users concerns or actually addressing them. Your generic 'we value your privacy' has no value at all, since everyone would say that. Your actions matter, not you claiming to care about privacy.

If you sell user data in the future, I will tell everyone I recommended Firefox in the past to move away from Firefox. Most likely to a privacy-respecting soft-fork of Firefox. I know this is not a sustainable path in the long term. I'd be happy to pay or donate to Firefox development directly. I'm not doing that currently because I don't want to support your AI and advertisement initiatives and it's not possible to directly fund Firefox. I'm not happy at all with the direction you're taking. Please reconsider. Please focus on your core product, your browser. You're the bastion against Chrome's monopoly, but it looks like your on your way to make the distinction irrelevant.

[jaysax]

Seconding all the fantastic points other users have already made here and I just want to state that I don't want AI anywhere near being built into my browser, now or ever.

[whyyoudoodis]

Why do i feel like these are sock/bot accounts designed to pigeonhole everybody that is pissed off about this.

[rdavidatwell]

The thought had certainly occurred to me. It's borderline parody. Even people who march in literal far-right rallies aren't this racist.

[FreeHeadspace]

I've started moving things to and tweaking my setup of Vivaldi.  I'll be weaning myself from FF other than work requirements.

[SniperFox]

Removing the FAQ entry about selling user data is very telling.  Firefox had a real chance to come back from the dead by defending user freedoms to continue using Ublock Origin, etc in the face of Chromium removing Manifest V2.

Instead they made an extremely user unfriendly decision to start selling user data.

I'll be recommending for everyone I know to move over to Zen Browser (or similar) ASAP!

This change has the potential to end Mozilla as a company, sadly.

[matiu_bidule]

Plain and simple : you have 3% of user left and you have been pooping on our head for too long.

Time to pull yourself together and stop runing behind Google & co, stop the advertising and ai madness. Please run the other way toward a ad-free ai-free spy-free web, and we will follow you.

[nobody2]

Just a short Question: Why is one of the Headlines in the initial Post "You stay in control" (see https://connect.mozilla.org/t5/discussions/information-about-the-new-terms-of-use-and-updated-privac... ) instead of "You stay responsible" ?

Reading the ToS, every user would effectively (and legally) pass their control to the Mozilla Corporation, while still being fully liable for the consequences.

Relevant Parts of the ToS:

You give Mozilla all rights necessary [....] acting on your behalf to help you navigate the internet.
You Are Responsible for the Consequences of Your Use of Firefox
You Won’t Claim Mozilla is Responsible for Your Use of Firefox (Indemnification)

Just to be clear: I strongly prefer Firefox as a great Open-Source Project (or maybe even Product) but not a Service. Executing Software donated by volunteers on the hardware owed by users, with the energy and internet connection they pay for is not a service provided by Mozilla.

[Dextro]

This is completely unacceptable and a level of privacy abuse that not even other competing browsers have managed to achieve.

A web browser running on a user's device is not and never was a "service" provided by a corporation. It's a piece of software provided by a corporation but that doesn't mean that Mozilla is required to provide any services in order for the browser to function. Mozilla could disappear tomorrow and shutdown all their servers and Firefox would still operate with minor issues.

I understand that Mozilla wants to apply TOS to the services it provides but it's imperative that they do so clearly and not in such an overbroad way. It is very likely that there are GDPR implications surrounding the wording in this agreement given that none of the info Mozilla is requesting is required for Mozilla to function (this already assuming that "Firefox" can be a service, which it isn't).

So the answer here is clear. Either Mozilla does not want to provide firefox to users they can't monetize, or Mozilla needs to provide a big button on the browser to effectively disable every single Mozilla provided service.

Even if Mozilla decides to back-pedal on this baffling decision, just the fact that this happened means that, as of today, Mozilla cannot be trusted and there is effectively no difference between using Firefox or one of it's competitors. I will no longer be advocating for people to use Firefox since I cannot, in good conscience, continue to do so.

[seva]

People have reasons to react to the phrase "Transparency matters" because all politicians talk about transparency, yet true transparency is nowhere to be found. People have reasons to react to the phrase "Privacy remains a priority" because countless corporations say the same while blatantly disregarding privacy. People have reasons to react to the phrase "You stay in control" because they have always been told this while having no control at all.

If you were to conduct a survey now, the majority would vote against Mozilla’s advertising service, and most people would oppose the new changes. You created this outcome yourselves.

None of your loyal fans want Mozilla to collapse.

If you honestly asked the community, "Do you allow Mozilla's advertising service as a temporary measure to prevent Mozilla from going bankrupt?" you would receive overwhelming support.

If you gave the community a choice to enable or disable Mozilla’s advertising service, you would see that a huge number of Firefox users would turn it on to help their favorite browser.

But you chose a path that was based on DISTRUST towards the community. You chose a path that shows you FEAR the community. You are afraid that the community will HAVE A VOICE. You are afraid that the community will HAVE THE RIGHT TO CHOOSE. Like thousands of corporate executives before you, you decided to take away the community’s CHOICE.

The core idea behind Firefox was choice. When Microsoft stripped users of their RIGHT TO CHOOSE a browser by forcing Internet Explorer on them, Firefox rose to the top of popularity. Because Firefox was a CHOICE, while Internet Explorer was the ABSENCE OF CHOICE.

Now, Firefox has become the ABSENCE OF CHOICE.

I don’t know how you will solve this problem. By taking a path built on DISTRUST towards the community, you have received DISTRUST in return. And you have no way to restore trust—you are on the brink of bankruptcy. And you have mistreated your community, the very people who were supposed to save you from bankruptcy.

[ffft]

Check what firefox users are saying. You are making people go away for some time now. We absolutely do not want IA. Removing the Does Firefox sell your personal data? from the FAQ is the last straw for a LOT of people. 

We used to choose FF because it was the best browser. Now, it's the least crappy. So sad.

[kallisti5]

This is extremely disappointing.  One major reason people use Firefox is privacy.

I've switched over to LibreWolf for now until Ladybird is more stable

[kittyd]

I'm here to express my disappointment regarding how low Mozilla has fallen, as an organization I have looked up to for many years, accepted with pain in my heart for many more, and in recent times only seen fail me.

I will point to two things. One, in the Acceptable Use Policy there is this statement:

- Upload, download, transmit, display, or grant access to content that includes graphic depictions of sexuality or violence,

Very short response from me: What the actual **bleep**? So porn is banned? Talk about police brutality or government abuse of citizens or protests is banned? How does Mozilla, the freedom and privacy nonprofit, thing this aligns with their mission? Obv. that was not a priority...

Two, the change of the Terms of Use are clearly written as an organization who wants to cover their ass for behavior they will be undertaking, and not written from an organization that puts their users and community above all else.

I am sorry, I don't know what to say... This is completely out of touch. Firefox has lost and consistently kept declining in the browser wars, but I support it BECAUSE it is a browser for made for the users and developers. Not because I care one bit about business ventures undertaken through it. The fact that it is keeping Manifest V2 support is expected, not an incredible achievement. All the conflict and distrust that has been sown in recent years with opt-in by default privacy violations have only been destructive to the legacy of Firefox. I can't believe such a catastrophe has happened that can top all the self destruction Mozilla has been going through.

This is unacceptable. This has destroyed any faith in Mozilla and Firefox kept by people on a basis of principle such as myself.

I am deeply saddened by these news.

Mozilla has one choice, take everything back, and come back to the table with a promise ("never has, never will" was removed, hah), that is clear cut, and 100% on the side of their users. If anything less than this happens, if a compromise is proposed... I'm sorry, too much damage has been done already and such moves have been pulled by Mozilla many times in the last years. There is no more compromise.

Thank you.

[CrankyRaccoon]

I am extremely disappointed in how Mozilla has handled their business, especially in terms of Firefox, over the last 10 year. I stopped using Firefox a couple years ago and I do not regret it. What shame.

[Cabbage]

Using firefox is an objectively worse experience than using chrome. If I'm not getting privacy benefits out of it, why on earth would I keep using firefox?

[smb8]

This is all so incredibly sad. Please Mozilla, you need to move fast to fix this.