Last year I struggled to choose a browser after declaring Firefox dead. I was accused of being a tad dramatic, which held truth, but if anyone was following Mozilla’s actions they’d have seen what we all saw this week.

Mozilla execs have been floundering for a long time. In December Mozilla decided that an expanded executive team was the solution to their downward trajectory. When no one cared they decided to expand the board too.

Inspiring stuff.

Mozilla finally got the attention they craved this week by pulling the ol’ “don’t be evil” switcheroo. Mozilla’s new Firefox terms of use announcement and subsequent attempt to clarify drew the ire of the entire tech world. The relevant GitHub commit is a thing of beauty. Mozilla straight up removed the FAQ question:

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.

Why did Mozilla remove this? Because they’re going to sell your personal data. They are now the advertiser.

When the inevitable backlash flooded in, Mozilla doubled down with an attempt to clarify which was in fact a guilty admission:

Mozilla doesn’t sell data about you (in the way that most people think about “selling data”)

Oh thank god! We were concerned!

So how do you define “selling data”, Mozilla?

As an example, the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) defines “sale” as the “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 [a] business to another business or a third party” in exchange for “monetary” or “other valuable consideration.”

Um…, that is exactly how most people ‘think about “selling data”’…

In the same blog update Mozilla threw in a bit of “privacy preserving” doublespeak for good measure.

And yes, this is Google’s business model, and that’s why I don’t give Google my data. Doing the opposite — respecting privacy — was kinda Mozilla’s whole deal; “That’s a promise.” — well that promise just died with a legendary git commit.

Maybe a few more executives can fix this mess?

Always have, always will

I watched Theo’s reaction video “Firefox just gave up on privacy”. Obviously I use a VPN to watch YouTube and then microwave my laptop to avoid giving Google data.

Theo poses a “sympathetic” explanation for Mozilla’s new policies (7:20 mins in) noting tools like Sentry and Posthog. Theo’s hypothesis is wrong, this has nothing to do with collecting data to improve Firefox. Firefox has had on-by-default telemetry for years. Mozilla need a new revenue stream and personal data is money. They want the good stuff. 💰

On the subject of blocking ads and tracking, I do believe Theo when he says he uses these tools to simply fix his products and not to track users. I don’t trust Sentry or Posthog with what they’re doing with the data. But that’s not the point. The point is that the web is so unrelentingly hostile to privacy — due to the despicable actions of companies like Google and now Mozilla — that a blanket block of all and every type of tracking is the only sane way to retain a modicum of privacy. Probably does no good, but what else can we do, just submit?

I aggressively block ads, tracking, and data collection. Always have, always will. Sorry if that doesn’t fit your business model but don’t blame ad block users, they’re victims too. We tried the ad-driven web and they ruined it.