The terms were just introduced on Wednesday.

AI Summary:

Overview:

  • Mozilla is updating its new Terms of Use for Firefox due to criticism over unclear language about user data.
  • Original terms seemed to give Mozilla broad ownership of user data, causing concern.
  • Updated terms emphasize limited scope of data interaction, stating Mozilla only needs rights necessary to operate Firefox.
  • Mozilla acknowledges confusion and aims to clarify their intent to make Firefox work without owning user content.
  • Company explains they don’t make blanket claims of “never selling data” due to evolving legal definitions and obligations.
  • Mozilla collects and shares some data with partners to keep Firefox commercially viable, but ensures data is anonymized or shared in aggregate.
    • mleEnglish
      24•4 months ago

      I think this is a reasonable explanation.

      But I also believe a large part of the firefox user base does not want any data about them collected by their browser, no matter if it is for commercial purposes or simply analytics / telemetry. Which is why the original statement “we will never sell any of your data” was just good enough for them, and anything mozilla is now saying is basically not good enough, no matter how much they clarify it to mean “not selling in the colloquial sense”

      • @[email protected]English
        -2•4 months ago

        Which is a ridiculous thing to want for most users and exposes how little so much of the self-identified “techie” crowd actually understands about how this stuff works.

        • mleEnglish
          1•4 months ago

          The first 6 years of Firefox were done without telemetry and after it was implemented it was opt-in for a while.

          While I see the use of telemetry for development purposes, I would not call it aridiculous thing to not want

          • @[email protected]English
            1•4 months ago

            I more meant that the average user actually wants a significant amount of data collection and telemetry, as part of their normal web usage. There are some true privacy geeks who are actually maintaining near-anonymity on the modern internet, but there’s a lot of people who get riled up about things like this while using Android phones, or signing up for loyalty programs, using corporate social media, etc.

    • ObiniceEnglish
      3•4 months ago

      I agree, I don’t want my browser provider to collect any data on me at all, but if they absolutely must gather the absolute minimum system analytics stats or such they should NEVER pass it to a third party for ANY reason.

      You make a desktop browser application, that’s your job, to provide a portal to the world wide web, nothing more. Stay within your bounds and we’ll never have any problem.

    • @[email protected]English
      2•4 months ago

      I mean…if they pay for the service of external analization of data in exchange of money, how is that a sale of goods/data?