On 2/28/25 5:58 PM, ajz3...@gmail.com wrote:
Is this real? Firefox just introduced the "Terms of Use" document, that
includes some really disturbing entries.
The Worst Firefox Update Ever
https://youtu.be/E4JOnQY_qbo
Info from Mozilla:
https://blog.mozilla.org/en/products/firefox/firefox-news/firefox-terms-of-use/
The "Terms of use" themselves:
https://www.mozilla.org/en-US/about/legal/terms/firefox/
Excerpt from ToS:
You give Mozilla all rights necessary to operate Firefox, including
processing data as we describe in the Firefox Privacy Notice,
as well as acting on your behalf to help you navigate the internet.
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.
Nonexclusive, royalty-free, worldwide license to our uploaded data? Is
this some kind of dystopian EU stuff we're dealing with here? Why
suddenly Mozilla felt the need for introducing this (euphemistically
speaking) controversial document?
What's even worse, is this entry from the second link:
Although we’ve historically relied on our open source license for
Firefox and public commitments to you, we are building in a much
different technology landscape today. We want to make these
commitments abundantly clear and accessible.
What's going on? And most importantly, what is Debian's stance on this?
Best regards,
AJ
If you track what Mozilla has been doing in the last few years, they
profess very little interest in browsers or engineering them. They
recently bought an advertising company, and most of their money has been
spent on political causes. What all this means is that they probably
don't care about whether you do or don't like their terms of service,
because they have an entirely different agenda than making better
browsers or making them more popular. Firefox's market share has
plummeted, despite a multi-million dollar corporation and foundation
behind it. This doesn't happen because people or asleep at the wheel. It
happens because it's made to happen.
I hate Google's web engine being the virtual monopoly, which is why I
favor Firefox. But Mozilla is busy planting firecrackers under
petrol/gasoline cans, trying to destroy their own product. I'm hoping
for a fork (Zen?), but Brave is looking more promising.
As for Debian, I hope they take no position on this. It really isn't
something for Debian to comment on. It would be like if any other major
project decided to take a swan dive. It's not really a Debian issue;
it's a Mozilla issue. Similar or identical things have happened before.
Think MariaDB and MySQL.
Paul
Paul M. Foster
Personal Blog: http://noferblatz.com
Company Site: http://quillandmouse.com
Software Projects: https://gitlab.com/paulmfoster
