Important context!
They had to change this because newer laws like the CCPA classify some ways of transferring/processing data as a “sale”, even if no money is exchanged.
See: this Firefox FAQ where they say:
The reason we’ve stepped away from making blanket claims that “We never sell your data” is because, in some places, the LEGAL definition of “sale of data” is broad and evolving. As an example, the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) defines “sale” as the “selling, renting, releasing, disclosing, disseminating, making available, transferring, or otherwise communicating orally, in writing, or by electronic or other means, a consumer’s personal information by [a] business to another business or a third party” in exchange for “monetary” or “other valuable consideration.”
Similar privacy laws exist in other US states, including in Virginia and Colorado. And that’s a good thing — Mozilla has long been a supporter of data privacy laws that empower people — but the competing interpretations of do-not-sell requirements does leave many businesses uncertain about their exact obligations and whether or not they’re considered to be “selling data.”
In order to make Firefox commercially viable, there are a number of places where we collect and share some data with our partners, including our optional ads on New Tab and providing sponsored suggestions in the search bar. We set all of this out in our privacy notice. Whenever we share data with our partners, we put a lot of work into making sure that the data that we share is stripped of potentially identifying information, or shared only in the aggregate, or is put through our privacy preserving technologies (like OHTTP).
We’re continuing to make sure that Firefox provides you with sensible default settings that you can review during onboarding or adjust at any time.
Thank you. I was hoping this would be among the top upvoted comments.
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The text you quoted sounds like a reasonable and normal definition of a sale to me. i.e. transferring to another business in exchange for something else of value.
So yeah, Firefox previously promised not to do this, “not ever”, and now they say they need to do sell your personal data “in order to make Firefox commercially viable”.
But hang on a second… Firefox is not a commercial product. So making it ‘commercially viable’ is highly questionable in itself.
It’s a shame that Mozilla’s current leadership is more interested in self-enrichment than in the past. But Firefox is still the very best option by far. I hope that the Ladybird project becomes strong the future, if for no other reason than pressure Firefox into staying good.
This isn’t reassuring. They’re saying they don’t receive money for my personal data, but they do give it to other businesses in exchange for something valuable. To me, that’s selling my data.
That said, I do appreciate the context.
Edit: I also appreciate the work Mozilla is doing, and in fact I am a monthly donor.
As I understand it using Google as the default search provider counts - Google pay Mozilla to have that as the default option, and your search queries are sent to Google from Firefox when you search, thus Mozilla are benefiting financially from your search query data. That’s been the case for years, it’s just that the privacy legislation has wider definitions now.
All those things they listed I would also consider selling my data. Even if you are offering my info in exchange for peanut butter cookies, you are trading it for something else.
Important context!
They had to change this because newer laws like the CCPA classify some ways of transferring/processing data as a “sale”, even if no money is exchanged.
What? No. Do you really think their “sharing” with “partners” who are “providing sponsored suggestions” doesn’t involve money being exchanged? 🤔
Here is an abridged version of that FAQ entry consisting only of substrings of it:
The reason we’ve stepped away from making blanket claims that “We never sell your data” is because […] to make Firefox commercially viable […] we collect and share some data with our partners, including our optional ads on New Tab and providing sponsored suggestions in the search bar
All of the other words in there implying that they had to stop promising not to sell user data because of some (implied to be unreasonable) “LEGAL definition” of “sale” is imo insulting to the reader.
Yeah sure they did…
Yes we all know mozilla sucks, still ff is the best browser by far
Oh cool unjustified FUD
FUD
Crypto bro detected
What? I am basically the opposite of a crypto bro. The term “FUD” has been around a long time https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fear,_uncertainty,_and_doubt
Lol I’ve literally only seen it used as an excuse to ban people calling out rug pulls
Well now you’ve seen it elsewhere, too.
Thanks
If you care, it’s been around since the 1970’s and was coined by Gene Amdahl after he left IBM. Certainly not just a crypto-bro thing.
Neat, TIL
I most associate it with Slashdot comments in the 2000’s, complaining about Microsoft spreading fear, uncertainty, and doubt about Linux and the GPL to scare companies into thinking that if they used Linux, they’d have to open source all their software, so yeah, definitely not just a cryptocurrency term.
Sounds like you’ve been in crypto communities way more than me (which is 0) lol
Mostly just watched a bunch of coffeezilla
Didn’t Firefox just release a new feature that prevents fingerprinting? Hard to get a reading on Mozilla these days.
Fuck that guy, all he does is make ragebait
i hate that fucking guy and his fucking mustache
True theo, was one of the devs who went against the stop killing games campaign claiming it was to hard for developers to have a basic end of life plan for software and other nonsense to justify game publishers screwing us over.
You don’t like it? Go donate to Servo: https://opencollective.com/servo
Check out Ladybug as well
*Ladybird
Instruction unclear. Please send step 2 at your next convenience.
Reminds me of the time Google decided that “Don’t be evil” wasn’t their vibe any more.
throw std::future_error(std::make_error_code(std::future_errc::broken_promise));
switched to librewolf and ironfox at least a year ago or more.
well… fuck.
The post is just misinformation to act like they removed it. See ricecake’s comment above. https://programming.dev/comment/20479780
I know this is humor lemmy, but is this real?
Yes, but out of context. They refactored their policies to make them legally correct, this was an intermediate step. There is another comment with the current policies linked in it.
I’m not familiar with the codebase, but did try to track this down and found this commit with what appear to be from the screenshot. It seems like english FAQ was moved to a new file around the same time, but the wording of the answer to the question did change:
{ -brand-name-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{ -brand-name-firefox }commercially viable) is stripped of any identifying information, or shared only in the aggregate, or is put through our privacy preserving technologies (like <a{ $attrs }>OHTTP</a>
No
Damn. Shame I need a browser on Windows, Linux, iOS and android. Which is why I’ve been using Firefox for so long.
The post is just misinformation to act like they removed it. See ricecake’s comment above. https://programming.dev/comment/20479780
