Last week, Mozilla was trapped between a rock and a hard place after making a controversial update to its developer’s Terms of Use (via PCGamer).
The update received backlash from Firefox users, especially because of a section indicating that Mozilla had the right to leverage user data, including “a nonexclusive, royalty-free, worldwide license for the purpose of doing as you request with the content you input in Firefox.”
Perhaps more concerning, the company scrapped a section of its Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) that highlighted its promise to keep user data safe and private, away from third-party vendors.
The highlighted changes enraged users, prompting the company to update its documentation once again as an attempt to mitigate the arising issues and concerns about its dramatic data privacy shift.
Consequently, Mozilla issued an update addressing the issue. The company seemingly shifted blamed to a “confusion about the language regarding licenses.”
We’ve seen a little confusion about the language regarding licenses, so we want to clear that up. We need a license to allow us to make some of the basic functionality of Firefox possible. Without it, we couldn’t use information typed into Firefox, for example. It does NOT give us ownership of your data or a right to use it for anything other than what is described in the Privacy Notice.
Mozilla
Ajit Varma, VP of Firefox Product, indicated that the update was designed to introduce a new Terms of Use (TOU) and Privacy Notice for Firefox. However, the update seemingly brewed confusion among users about the company’s Terms of Use, specifically on licensing.
According to Varma:
“Our intent was just to be as clear as possible about how we make Firefox work, but in doing so we also created some confusion and concern.”
The new update to Mozilla’s documentation seemingly addressed the privacy concerns raised by users, but it might be a little for the company to salvage the situation.
While the controversial changes to Mozilla’s documentation can be attributed to miscommunication on the company’s part and misunderstanding on the user’s end, the wording on some of the changes made was highly alarming.
For instance, the answer to “What is Firefox?” in Mozilla’s FAQ section previously indicated:
“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.”
But the section has since been updated and now reads:
“The Firefox Browser, the only major browser backed by a not-for-profit, helps you protect your personal information.”
While it might be an assumption and misinterpretation of the updated terms, it seems Mozilla is no longer committed to not sell personal user data to third-party advertisers.
A thorough look and analysis of Mozilla’s updated documentation, reveals that the company is seemingly shying away from affirming its stance on data privacy.
However, Firefox’s VP claims the omission of “sell” is a result of the fluid definition of the term when it comes to data sharing and privacy.
According to the VP:
“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. We changed our language because some jurisdictions define ‘sell’ more broadly than most people would usually understand that word.”
Users are less-than-pleased with Firefox
While Firefox has seemingly attempted to address the recent changes made to its documentation and affirm its data privacy and sharing stances, users are throwing a deaf year to its plea.
“People aren’t upset about how transparent they’re being, they just want to use a browser that doesn’t collect and distribute their data,” an enraged Reddit user indicated. “I’m no lawyer, but for example, it sounds like they have license to distribute the data below without contest.”
Some used the opportunity to throw jabs at Microsoft, branding Windows as “the biggest data-mining operating system.”
it blows my mind that firefox users are complaining about mozilla’s new terms of use and privacy notice whilst using the biggest data-mining operating system in the world (aka microsoft windows).p.s: zen browser seems really decent.March 2, 2025
On the other hand, some users speculate that the controversial changes might be an attempt to bolster Mozilla’s, and by extension, Firefox’s AI efforts.
According to another Reddit user:
“Yes. Crazy stuff. I read recently that the new CEO wants to get into AI and ads. They’ll no doubt claim that they’re going to do it differently and “respectfully”. Personally, I have mozzilla.org, net and com in my Acrylic HOSTS file. If you go to about:config and search for “url” you may be surprised at all the ways that Firefox claims the right to call home without asking.”
It will be interesting to see how the controversial changes affect Firefox’s user base, and whether Mozilla will be dabbling its foot deeper into the AI landscape.
Elsewhere, Mozilla has placed Microsoft under fire for using harmful designs and deceptive tactics to give Edge a competitive edge over other browsers in Windows 11.
