FIREFOX CAN NOW USE AND MAYBE SELL YOUR DATA

Kaching999

Galvanizer
Firefox has recently had a change in their privacy policy, wherein they mention:

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.

This has mostly probably been done as a result of the AI integration happening with it.

Also on their FAQ page, there used to be a question regarding the selling of your data by Firefox, and now that has been removed, which is also concerning to say the least.

Even though in their latest post they try to clarify their legal wording and say that they are only going to use the data to run the browser and nothing else it is still only sort of a "trust me bro" guarantee.

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.

They still have the legal defence to save themselves if they do choose to use your data for something such as maybe use it to train say an AI model.

 
A good privacy friendly alternative to Firefox is Librewolf. Librewolf is a fork of Firefox with several privacy features. The only drawback of Librewolf is that some elements of websites wouldn't load properly because it disables some features to enhance protection against fingerprinting/tracking.
 
I don't trust FF even in private mode, I would start getting adds on phone if surfing in private mode on desktop the reason might be the fact that my primary gmail credentials are saved here though I don't login much.
 
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I don't trust FF even in private mode, I would start getting adds on phone if surfing in private mode on desktop the reason might be the fact that my primary gmail credentials are saved here though I don't login much.
Private mode doesn’t save cookies, so hardly any chance of that happening unless you login every time and then surf.

This is of course a bad change from Firefox but it more alarming that people raise this in context of using Google and Microsoft products that are basically data mining the hell out of your device.
 
Chrome is actually the the most invasive browser you can possibly have try using brave it is faster and blocks all ads without getting detected by youtube as it has in built ad block
Brave is probably the worst recommendation you can give. They are by far the sketchiest company of all with a close to scum bag CEO who have been marketing their product on privacy while basically trying to be another Google by restricting users to their ecosystem and ads.
 
restricting users to their ecosystem and ads
How so? It has one of the best privacies provided.

Also how is it restrictive? It provides services which you can completely opt out of and are not turned on by default. It has it's own ad blocking, vpn and crypto wallet but it doesn't "restrict" from using something else. Do you have anything to backup your claim here?

Screenshot_2025-03-01-15-04-06-16_e4424258c8b8649f6e67d283a50a2cbc.jpg


https://privacytests.org/
 
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You will probably find a ton of posts on either side. However, the main thing I remember is an interview I read sometime back from the CEO where basically he mentioned that his way to monetize is to block Google/company ads and force them to pay him to display ads which is why they control the adblocker with their own rules. Then they also integrated a not so secure VPN service to capture more data under a false pretence. Also someone had pointed out a security issue and when reported was instead threatened for making it public rather than sharing it secretly with them. Then there are the crypto shenanigans.

Basically they are trying to be a browser Google and have absolutely zero consumer interests in mind as long as they can fool people on privacy.
 
Saw the news a couple of hours ago. It is really unfortunate and sad as I have been an advocate and daily user of Firefox since like a decade. Shifted to Zen browser, which is a modern fork of Firefox which is more privacy focused. The only other alternative seems to be Librewolf currently, but I would rather try something new for a change if I am forced to.


It being a Firefox fork, the process to switch was pretty seamless, with just moving over my extensions Appdata folder and using the 'Backup and Restore' to move over the passwords and bookmarks.

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You will probably find a ton of posts on either side. However, the main thing I remember is an interview I read sometime back from the CEO where basically he mentioned that his way to monetize is to block Google/company ads and force them to pay him to display ads which is why they control the adblocker with their own rules. Then they also integrated a not so secure VPN service to capture more data under a false pretence. Also someone had pointed out a security issue and when reported was instead threatened for making it public rather than sharing it secretly with them. Then there are the crypto shenanigans.

Basically they are trying to be a browser Google and have absolutely zero consumer interests in mind as long as they can fool people on privacy.
First of all that article is pretty stupid, it first attacks the CEO for his own political views and then goes on to dump on BAT which is an optional service.

Again the VPN is an optional service and is not really recommend by anyone online either.

Then there is the affiliate scandal which is something that happened in the past and has definitely scarred their reputation but is now completely out of the picture. I personally have been using the browser since 2021 and haven't faced any such issues or noticed anything particularly shady. Also again the article which is saying not to use Brave is promoting Vivaldi which is highly ironic as Vivaldi has also been caught out for doing the same affiliate link bs but actually going through your bookmarks to do so.

Also I am not a fan of the crypto stuff either but that is pretty minor and mostly unnoticeable when you think about the sort of customization and privacy the browser provides you, you can individual toggle and block different thing on different websites and save those setting for each website.

Brave has gotten a pretty bad name for it's past but that is it, it is the past and currently if you haven't used Brave in the last year or two I would still seriously recommend trying it out for yourself instead of reading something off the internet and making up your mind about it.
 
Ah.. the fine print changed .. like I give a damn. Can you really trust a browser's privacy policy ?
A good privacy friendly alternative to Firefox is Librewolf. Librewolf is a fork of Firefox with several privacy features. The only drawback of Librewolf is that some elements of websites wouldn't load properly because it disables some features to enhance protection against fingerprinting/tracking.
Another librewolf user here; actually works fine for the 95% of the sites, I browse. For the remaining 5%, I keep a Chrome install.
 
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First of all that article is pretty stupid, it first attacks the CEO for his own political views and then goes on to dump on BAT which is an optional service.

Again the VPN is an optional service and is not really recommend by anyone online either.

Then there is the affiliate scandal which is something that happened in the past and has definitely scarred their reputation but is now completely out of the picture. I personally have been using the browser since 2021 and haven't faced any such issues or noticed anything particularly shady. Also again the article which is saying not to use Brave is promoting Vivaldi which is highly ironic as Vivaldi has also been caught out for doing the same affiliate link bs but actually going through your bookmarks to do so.

Also I am not a fan of the crypto stuff either but that is pretty minor and mostly unnoticeable when you think about the sort of customization and privacy the browser provides you, you can individual toggle and block different thing on different websites and save those setting for each website.

Brave has gotten a pretty bad name for it's past but that is it, it is the past and currently if you haven't used Brave in the last year or two I would still seriously recommend trying it out for yourself instead of reading something off the internet and making up your mind about it.
Brave caught a lot of flak when it was new because of its false marketing and considering the low market share, it seems no one bothers posting as much about it as in the past.

However, it is near impossible to trust a company that sells itself on privacy and has been caught:
1. Implementing their own fork of uBlock Origin with their own whitelist so they can display the ads that they have received payment for
2. Installing VPN service even when not selected, and which has been caught leaking DNS multiple times
3. Tor implementation that simply leaked data to the point that Tor Project specifically mentioned to not use it on Brave
4. The affiliate scandal that you mentioned
5. Entire crypto implementation and the donation thing
6. Not respecting browser flags
7. Brave search selling search data for AI training without informing the users
8. All the bloatware that you can opt in or out of, when people were freaking about a Firefox integration

Maybe they have turned over a new leaf but considering the CEO and investor are the same, I doubt it. It is possibly a good suggestion for those stuck with Chrome and Edge, but definitely not a privacy and security first suggestion to those conscious about it.

Someone tried to create a fork with all the bloatware removed and even though they tout themselves as open-source, they came down heavily on that developer and forced him to close the project. It is a matter of trust that will not change until things change immensely.
 
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You will probably find a ton of posts on either side. However, the main thing I remember is an interview I read sometime back from the CEO where basically he mentioned that his way to monetize is to block Google/company ads and force them to pay him to display ads which is why they control the adblocker with their own rules. Then they also integrated a not so secure VPN service to capture more data under a false pretence. Also someone had pointed out a security issue and when reported was instead threatened for making it public rather than sharing it secretly with them. Then there are the crypto shenanigans.

Basically they are trying to be a browser Google and have absolutely zero consumer interests in mind as long as they can fool people on privacy.
According to the report for Desktop browsers, Librewolf & Mullvad are best while for Android browsers, Focus & Tor are best.
Brave is also not good.
 
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