Mozilla has updated the Terms of Use for Firefox, alongside an update to its Privacy Notice. This move comes as the organization wants to provide transparency about its commitment to user privacy.
Among the new stipulations, users are required to grant Mozilla a “nonexclusive, royalty-free, worldwide license” to use information entered through the browser. This vague terminology has triggered alarm bells, as it leaves ambiguous the nature of the data Mozilla may access, potentially including personal information, saved passwords, or browsing history.
Here is the clause in question:
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.
Users were puzzled by the new terms, as they believed Mozilla could modify these Terms of Use at any time, while they continue to use the browser. Some called it reminiscent of practices commonly associated with big tech companies, starkly contrasting with the ideals of openness that Mozilla professes to uphold. These accusations were further compounded by Mozilla’s right to reserve the ability to terminate user access to Firefox at its discretion. Several people in the community wanted the organization to consider revising its recent Terms of Use to avoid losing the confidence of its user base altogether.
However, the situation is not as alarming as some users might have perceived it. An updated statement from Mozilla clarified the issue. The organization insists that Firefox remains open-source software, these new terms only apply to the official version of the browser, arguably establishing a disconnect between the source code and user experience.
Here’s what it said:
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.
The new policy merely allows Firefox to function as it always did, to help users visit web pages, allow the browser permission to store your personal information such as form data, or to access a file that you wanted to upload to a website.
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