Mozilla responds after terms of usage, privacy policy change
www.theregister.com
Open source browser maker ties itself up in legalese and explanations

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/26244492

The answer to “what is Firefox?” on Mozilla’s FAQ page about its browser used to read:

The Firefox Browser is the only major browser backed by a not-for-profit that doesn’t sell your personal data to advertisers while helping you protect your personal information.

Now it just says:

The Firefox Browser, the only major browser backed by a not-for-profit, helps you protect your personal information.

In other words, Mozilla is no longer willing to commit to not selling your personal data to advertisers.

A related change was also highlighted by mozilla.org commenter jkaelin, who linked direct to the source code for that FAQ page. To answer the question, “is Firefox free?” Moz used to say:

Yep! The Firefox Browser is free. Super free, actually. No hidden costs or anything. You don’t pay anything to use it, and we don’t sell your personal data.

Now it simply reads:

Yep! The Firefox Browser is free. Super free, actually. No hidden costs or anything. You don’t pay anything to use it.

Again, a pledge to not sell people’s data has disappeared. Varma insisted this is the result of the fluid definition of “sell” in the context of data sharing and privacy.

  • Telorand@reddthat.com
    18·
    22 hours ago

    It’s not hard to define “sell,” Varma, and I’m sure you don’t want to do it, because the definitions aren’t flattering. Here’s the Miriam Webster definition:

    1: to deliver or give up in violation of duty, trust, or loyalty and especially for personal gain : betray —often used with out

    sell out their country

    2a(1): to give up (property) to another for something of value (such as money)

    2a(2): to offer for sale

    2b: to give up in return for something else especially foolishly or dishonorably

    sold his birthright for a mess of pottage

    2c: to exact a price for

    sold their lives dearly

    3a: to deliver into slavery for money

    3b: to give into the power of another

    sold his soul to the devil

    3c: to deliver the personal services of for money

    4: to dispose of or manage for profit instead of in accordance with conscience, justice, or duty

    sold their votes

    • sugar_in_your_tea@sh.itjust.works
      1·
      27 minutes ago

      Louis Rossmann went over this in a video recently, and has a big wiki article about it here. Here’s a relevant snippet from that wiki page:

      The CCPA defines “selling data” as:

      “Sell,” “selling,” “sale,” or “sold,” means 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 the business to another business or a third party for monetary or other valuable consideration.[16]

      Search Engine Partnerships (Google, Bing, Yandex, etc.): Mozilla’s largest revenue source comes from deals with search engines like Google, which pay Mozilla to be Firefox’s default search provider.[17]

      These deals involve sending search query data to search partners. Under the CCPA, if Mozilla transmitted search data in exchange for financial compensation, this could be classified as a “sale of data.” This is a practice that Mozilla had already been openly taking part in.

      Make of that what you will, but that sounds like reasonable justification to make the language more vague to CYA.