Folks are moving away from Firefox as Mozilla updates new ToS that could violate your privacy
Big, if true
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Key notes
- Mozilla updated Firefox’s terms, granting broad data usage rights, sparking privacy concerns.
- The “Do Not Track” feature was removed in favor of recommending the Global Privacy Control (GPC).
- The community criticized the vague language, fearing AI harvesting implications.
Mozilla, the non-profit behind Firefox, has recently updated the popular browser’s terms of service (ToS). And it’s safe to say that not everyone’s happy about it.
The new updated ToS explicitly mentions how your data will be handled. On its GitHub, there are at least seven files that were changed with one of them being the removal of the strings, “Unlike other companies, we donโt sell access to your data.”
“When you upload or input information through Firefox, you hereby grant us a nonexclusive, royalty-free, worldwide license to use that information to help you navigate, experience, and interact with online content as you indicate with your use of Firefox,” the new terms read.
But what does that mean, though?
The community’s response is telling everything you need to know about the change. There are a lot of worries about those vague clauses that grant Mozilla extensive rights over your personal data, and folks argue that the terms need to be cleared and more focused especially about data collection and usage.
“It also sounds like boilerplate AI harvesting language. If this is intended specifically for the AI chatbot, that needs to be clearly carved out, and not included in the general terms,” one user says.
Though, Mozilla later confirmed that it needs “a license to allow us to make some of the basic functionality of Firefox possible.”
Back in December 2024, Mozilla Firefox removed the “Do Not Track” (DNT) feature starting with version 135, citing its ineffectiveness as many websites do not honor the request. Instead, Mozilla recommends using the Global Privacy Control (GPC) for better privacy protection.
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