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Mozilla (Firefox browser and Thunderbird e-mail client) facing backlash over new T&Cs
various | 3/2/25 | ol' marty

Posted on 03/02/2025 8:05:21 PM PST by martin_fierro

As noted a few months ago, Mozilla -- maker of the Firefox browser and Thunderbird e-mail client -- is facing an 80% revenue drop due to investigations into its “revenue-sharing” deals with Google.

That revenue drop is apparently prompting Mozilla's all-out search for alternate revenue streams. Mozilla's changes last week to the Firefox browser's privacy notice and usage terms indicate that users' privacy may be sold out.

Specifically, Mozilla's new use terms provide:

“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 changed language, in conjunction with deletion of the following from Mozilla's Firefox FAQ page...

Does Firefox sell your personal data?

Nope. Never have, never will. And we protect you from many of the advertisers who do. Firefox products are designed to protect your privacy. That’s a promise.

... leads to the inescapable conclusion that Firefox users' personal data is now very much up for sale.

Mozilla tried later last week to quell the resulting firestorm, including providing the following "clarification":

"You give Mozilla the rights necessary to operate Firefox. This includes processing your data as we describe in the Firefox Privacy Notice. It also includes a nonexclusive, royalty-free, worldwide license for the purpose of doing as you request with the content you input in Firefox. This does not give Mozilla any ownership in that content."

This inelegant and heavy-handed legalese strikes me as an attempt to appear to be backtracking, without actually doing that.

Plenty of others are commenting on Mozilla's New Way Forward, and it's not being well received. See for yourself, and consider adopting another browser.


TOPICS: Computers/Internet
KEYWORDS: alphabet; brendaneich; dei; dontbeevil; eich; firefox; gaymarriage; genderdysphoria; homosexualagenda; mozilla; poeticjustice; privacy; thunderbirdemail; vanity; windowspinglist
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To: martin_fierro

I quit FF years ago. BRAVE is now my browser.................


41 posted on 03/03/2025 6:01:03 AM PST by Red Badger (Homeless veterans camp in the streets while illegals are put up in 5 Star hotels....................)
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To: dayglored

And thanks for the info about thorium- I won’t bother looking at them further then- sounds like it might be not very secure.


42 posted on 03/03/2025 6:39:49 AM PST by Bob434 (...Time flies like an arrow, fruit flies like a banana)
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To: martin_fierro

Bookmark


43 posted on 03/03/2025 7:22:35 AM PST by Cats1
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To: martin_fierro

Thx...I have new computer with Ubuntu that came with Firefox. Have not even been online yet, so I will disable those first.


44 posted on 03/03/2025 7:42:09 AM PST by goodnesswins (Democracy to Democrats is stealing other peoples money for their use, no matter how idiotic)
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To: martin_fierro

I quit using Firefox many years ago as it became a memory hog and was never fixed.

Don’t know if that is still the case now, as I didn’t even know anyone still used it.


45 posted on 03/03/2025 10:45:33 AM PST by packrat35 (Pureblood! No clot shot for me!)
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To: martin_fierro

Thank you.


46 posted on 03/03/2025 1:25:21 PM PST by Silentgypsy (In my defense, I was left unsupervised.)
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To: martin_fierro

“Let’s not even get started on the TV.”

Your smart TV is tracking you, and sending your viewing habits back home? To LG, Samsung, google, Amazon, whoever?


47 posted on 03/03/2025 3:36:17 PM PST by dennisw (DËMÔNràts - Truth is hate to people who hate truth.)
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To: martin_fierro

In Amerika, Television Watches You!


48 posted on 03/03/2025 3:37:12 PM PST by dfwgator (Endut! Hoch Hech!)
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To: Bob434

Re: Claws-Mail limits

Yes, we have several email accounts on a total of 3 Dovecot logical servers (at 3 different IP ports on the local server machine) and each Claws-Mail instance also has several accounts. Basically, you can have as many as you want (and have disk space for).


49 posted on 03/03/2025 4:03:49 PM PST by powerset
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To: LegendHasIt

“I hate IMAP, and don’t allow the people who have email accounts on my server to use it either. I suppose it has value to government entities, and for businesses that are legally required to keep such records, but to me, it is like buying gold and then letting the seller store it for you.”

That’s why I run our Dovecot IMAP server on our own *local* machine. None of our mail *stays* on our Postfix server at our rented virtual machine for more than a minute or so. It is transferred immediately to our local Dovecot and removed from the non-local Postfix machine. Thus there is no record of the mail contents there. (We don’t run the Postfix locally because we’d need a static IPv4 address, on fiber, with port 25 etc. unblocked, and that would get expensive, or maybe even impossible.)

So, do you “hate IMAP” because mail would be stored non-locally (in the traditional setup), analogous to “having the seller store the gold”? If so, you might consider our approach. It not only provides easier access, it also allows other important files to be backed up from a single, multi-purpose server which is *local* and, in our case, runs Samba for general file serving.


50 posted on 03/03/2025 4:05:45 PM PST by powerset
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To: WildHighlander57

yes but you can change it.


51 posted on 03/03/2025 4:07:21 PM PST by SPDSHDW (Execute Order 66....)
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To: powerset

Thanks, but POP works fine for my purposes.


52 posted on 03/03/2025 4:09:09 PM PST by LegendHasIt
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To: GOPJ

Thoughts on Opera?


53 posted on 03/03/2025 4:14:16 PM PST by The Duke (Not without incident.)
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To: powerset

thanks for the info- I’ve gotta switch from thunderbird- i htink-


54 posted on 03/03/2025 5:40:04 PM PST by Bob434 (...Time flies like an arrow, fruit flies like a banana)
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To: Bikkuri

Ditto. He launched the Brave browser which I’ve used since beta. Best browser I’ve ever used.


55 posted on 03/03/2025 5:50:22 PM PST by Skooz (Gabba Gabba accept you we accept you one of us Gabba Gabba we accept you we accept you one of us )
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To: trebb

I use Protonmail now.
It comes with its own email import (and calendar.. and file/folder backup).. all encrypted.

I never even have to log in to my old gmail accounts anymore (thankfully).


56 posted on 03/03/2025 9:51:09 PM PST by Bikkuri (I am proud to be a PureBlood.)
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To: Skooz

Yup, same here.. Brave browser (with chromium, just in case).


57 posted on 03/03/2025 9:51:50 PM PST by Bikkuri (I am proud to be a PureBlood.)
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To: dagunk


"Way try ungoogled-chromium again.
Google hooks removed."


Actually, Chromium is BEFORE Google puts its hooks in. (It is the bare-bones before the pollution)
58 posted on 03/03/2025 10:04:32 PM PST by Bikkuri (I am proud to be a PureBlood.)
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To: Bikkuri

I’ll have to look it up - I have way too much crap tied to my Gmail and it would be nice to wean off it...


59 posted on 03/04/2025 3:50:32 AM PST by trebb (So many fools - so little time...)
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To: trebb
I pay for my account, but there is a free version too.



They also have a service (I think it is included in the free version too) where you can get a temporary email address for filling out forms and other stuff. You can delete it at any time, and it is no longer existent, so anything went there (after deletion) will bounce back.
It also has filters you can easily set up to redirect spam and unwanted mail to the spam folder. I may get 1 or 2 spam mails that slip through a month.

I think the free version gives you 10, while I think I get 50. I use about 20 at any given time. It will automatically redirect back to your main email account.

(That service, off the top of my head, is called SimpleLogin)
60 posted on 03/04/2025 4:09:07 AM PST by Bikkuri (I am proud to be a PureBlood.)
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