this post was submitted on 28 Feb 2025

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Firefox deletes promise to never sell personal data, asks users not to panic | Mozilla says it deleted promise because "sale of data" is defined broadly (arstechnica.com)

submitted 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago) by ForgottenFlux@lemmy.world to c/technology@lemmy.world

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Firefox maker Mozilla deleted a promise to never sell its users' personal data and is trying to assure worried users that its approach to privacy hasn't fundamentally changed. Until recently, a Firefox FAQ promised that the browser maker never has and never will sell its users' personal data. An archived version from January 30 says:

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.

That promise is removed from the current version. There's also a notable change in a data privacy FAQ that used to say, "Mozilla doesn't sell data about you, and we don't buy data about you."

The data privacy FAQ now explains that Mozilla is no longer making blanket promises about not selling data because some legal jurisdictions define "sale" in a very broad way:

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. 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. 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).

Mozilla didn't say which legal jurisdictions have these broad definitions.

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[–] zer0bitz@lemmy.world 4 points 1 day ago (1 children)

So sad. I have used Firefox since 2006. Today I removed it for good from all of my devices. So long old friend. I cant wait for Ladybird to release.

[–] MeThisGuy@feddit.nl 3 points 1 day ago (1 children)

what is your current open source / FOSS alternative?

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[–] TankovayaDiviziya@lemmy.world 35 points 1 day ago (6 children)

This is why I am an advocate for publicly-funded Internet, like how people fund NPR and BBC.

I don't blame Firefox because at the end of the day, they are still a business and need to cover the operating cost. I blame the system that we're in and the elites will tell you there is no other alternative.

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[–] HexadecimalSky@lemmy.world 253 points 2 days ago (33 children)

I see it said agian and agian. because its true. Firefox is one of, if not the best of the mainstream browsers. (Not included its many forks) but Mozilla is a horrible caretaker of it. Mozilla does not focus on firefox and they dont care/believe in it nearly as much as its users or devs who fork it.

The motivations of a company are extremely important, and has Mozilla does not care for a lightweight, good, privacy centric browser, the enshitification will and has corrupt firefox.

It's only a matter of time until it is as bad as chromium or flat out joins it.

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[–] wall_panel_96@lemmy.world 11 points 1 day ago (5 children)

I use brave and librewolf, anybody know if those are still safe from this dort of thing? (Probably not I guess, so what browsers are left?)

[–] Ibaudia@lemmy.world 11 points 1 day ago

Librewolf is privacy-hardened so it's probably the best option. Brave is Chromium-based. Realistically though, all web browsers come with compromises, and internet anonymity is virtually impossible without unrealistic amounts of effort.

[–] vinay_clubsall@lemmy.world 10 points 1 day ago (3 children)

Someone earlier said that brave was based on chrome and when google blocked ublock origin on Chrome, it would stop working on brave too.

[–] cultsuperstar@lemmy.world 8 points 1 day ago (1 children)

People don't like Brave because they believe it's a crypto scam, and the CEO is a douchebag. But Brave has said they'll continue to support extensions regardless of Google's change.

[–] gamer@lemm.ee 8 points 1 day ago (5 children)

Don't forget the CEO's worst crime: he's the inventor of javascript

[–] AnUnusualRelic@lemmy.world 6 points 1 day ago

Clearly not someone you can trust.

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[–] grue@lemmy.world 151 points 2 days ago (3 children)

Mozilla needs to understand that I don't want it to have my data to sell or not in the first place.

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[–] squire3@lemmy.world 5 points 1 day ago (3 children)

If Firefox is losing its footing as a privacy focused browser then where do we go? If your on Mac maybe Safari?

[–] global__warning@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2 points 22 hours ago

zen, ladybird, waterfox are some that i've heard of before. zen is out now. idk about the others. one of my friends uses zen and it's pretty neat.

[–] ___@lemmy.blahaj.zone 5 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

Perhaps Ladybird once it's released?

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[–] nthavoc@lemmy.today 37 points 1 day ago (2 children)

I remember a time when Google wrote "Don't be evil" all over their stuff.....

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[–] Blackmist@feddit.uk 18 points 1 day ago (3 children)

I mean you could argue that them defaulting to Google search is already them selling your data. Google definitely pay them for that.

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[–] Pyr_Pressure@lemmy.ca 41 points 1 day ago

They can't just promise they "never will" and then get rid of it. People who used the service under the original agreement should still be able to claim that benefit since it was promising to never sell it.

[–] slaacaa@lemmy.world 10 points 1 day ago

~~Don’t~~ be evil

[–] betanumerus@lemmy.ca 5 points 1 day ago

At least Ecosia plants trees, and the way those trees produce oxygen and absorb CO2 is a benefit to me.

[–] bizzle@lemmy.world 53 points 1 day ago (7 children)

I'm about to get my tattoo removed wtf

[–] KrapKake@lemmy.world 37 points 1 day ago

Just get "RIP" tattooed under it.

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[–] Clinicallydepressedpoochie@lemmy.world -1 points 16 hours ago* (last edited 16 hours ago) (3 children)

Yeah, these guys were late participants in the browser wars. They aren't your friends.

With all things the same i just use duckduckgo because.... ducks!

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[–] HipsterTenZero@dormi.zone 50 points 1 day ago (3 children)

promises don't count if you delete them. everyone knows that

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[–] Feathercrown@lemmy.world 42 points 1 day ago

That clarification is not making me calm

[–] cley_faye@lemmy.world 8 points 1 day ago

Don't collect anything on your own and don't sell the things you don't collect. Bam, problem solved.

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