Mozilla adds a Terms of Use to Firefox, removes passages promising to never sell personal data

Mozilla, the organization behind the Firefox internet browser, has recently come under fire due to rightfully controversial changes they have made including the introduction of a terms of use and the omission of passages from several web pages that said they would never sell your personal data. This has alarmed many in the technology and open source communities because Firefox was always seen as one of the few privacy-respecting browsers more isolated from the politics of the monolithic Chrome browser and Google's influence on it due to its use of a completely separate engine, and the changes represent a betrayal of the values Mozilla claims to stand for.

A Betrayal of Values​

A general rule of thumb when it comes to advocacy is that even if you say you strive for a set of values, your actions will almost always speak louder than your words. Mozilla's actions prove that with a certainty.

The introduction of a Terms of Use with some interesting passages​

On February 26, Mozilla announced on their blog that they were introducing a Terms of Use for the Firefox web browser. The original revision of the Terms of Use (or TOU as I'll refer to it as from this point onward) from before they updated it can be accessed here. For reference, this is what it used to link to, circa May 2023.

While the idea of including a TOU in software is definitely not uncommon, most in the free software community view such a concept as actively undermining their goal of software freedom where anyone can use it however they wish, so they don't do it. Most people wouldn't really see this alone as a big deal, but what makes it controversial even to them is some of the passages proposed in the original revision. I've included some of the more widely-discussed examples.

Mozilla in section 'You Give Mozilla Certain Rights and Permissions' said:

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.

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This passage (specifically, the part I've highlighted in bold) implies that if you accept this terms of use and when you post or upload information with their browser, you agree to give Mozilla a license to use that information to do certain, vaguely described tasks. Some people have theorized that this data may be used to train some AI while others have presented the potential argument that this could be cleared up really easily or that this is being misinterpreted. You can come to your own conclusions on that. This section garnered a lot of backlash from the general public, so Mozilla backpedaled by rewriting the section in a later revision:

Mozilla in section 'You Give Mozilla Certain Rights and Permissions' said:

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.

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Mozilla in section 'Mozilla Can Update or Terminate This Agreement' said:

Mozilla Can Update These Terms​

Every once in a while, Mozilla may decide to update these Terms. We will post the updated Terms online. We will take your continued use of Firefox as acceptance of such changes. We will post an effective date at the top of this page to make it clear when we made our most recent update.

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This section is very clear in saying that Mozilla can and will make changes to their Terms of Use and they consider you still using the browser as meaning you agree to the new changes. A lot of people fucking hate this practice of quietly changing the TOU and obfuscating the terms under the guise of better convenience for the user because it basically means "you agree to allow us to at any time bend you over and buttfuck you in the ass and you can't object to it because you signed the terms, buddy". This section did not change in the latest revision.

Mozilla in section 'Mozilla Can Update or Terminate This Agreement' said:

Termination​

These Terms apply until either you or Mozilla decide to end them. You can choose to end them at any time for any reason by stopping your use of Firefox. Mozilla can suspend or end anyone’s access to Firefox at any time for any reason, including if Mozilla decides not to offer Firefox anymore. If we decide to suspend or end your access, we will try to notify you at the email address associated with your account or the next time you attempt to access your account.

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The free software community utterly loathes this section because it means that your ability to use the browser, which was previously guaranteed by the free software licenses it was founded under, is now governed by a single corporate entity. This is an active betrayal to them as it goes against everything they stand for. As with the section mentioned above, this one also hasn't changed in the latest revision.

Mozilla said:

Your use of Firefox must follow Mozilla’s Acceptable Use Policy, and you agree that you will not use Firefox to infringe anyone’s rights or violate any applicable laws or regulations.
You will not do anything that interferes with or disrupts Mozilla’s services or products (or the servers and networks which are connected to Mozilla’s services).

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While this one is a lot less controversial, the Acceptable Use Policy (established several years ago) was never directly died to the ability to use the Firefox browser until now. This is problematic since "acceptable use" policies for software often go against the spirit of the freedom part of "free software". While many of the terms highlighted in such a policy are agreeable on a moral level, it also means that if you use the Firefox browser to do any of the following less desirable tasks, you are violating their terms of use:

• dox (or as some advocates have started using, "unmask") people by gathering their personal information
• upload or download violent or pornographic content
• say mean things about someone based on the usual protected groups online
• sail the seven seas

Mozilla in section 'There are Some Important Limitations on Mozilla’s Liability' said:

To the extent permitted by applicable law, you agree that Mozilla will not be liable in any way for any inability to use Firefox or for any limitations of Firefox. Mozilla specifically disclaims the following: Indirect, special, incidental, consequential, or exemplary damages, direct or indirect damages for loss of goodwill, business interruption, lost profits, loss of data, or computer malfunction. Any liability for Mozilla under this agreement is limited to $500.

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Ah yes, the "lol, get fucked you can't sue us if you can't use our product" clause. I assume they're trying to cover their ass here in case the software breaks or they straight up kill your access to the browser, but I don't know enough to come to a proper conclusion aside from "this kind of sucks".

Breaking a promise to never sell people's data​

While Mozilla did backtrack the initial statement about how the data uploaded through Firefox is handled to simplify things, their true intentions are made very clear by their actions. On the same day the Terms of Use-related changes went public, a very curious commit was pushed to the Firefox website source code which hid or otherwise completely removed all mentions of the specific phrase "we don't sell your data and never will".



While the existing Terms of Use doesn't specifically say it sells your personal data, the privacy policy page received a massive corporate makeover around the same time the Terms of Use changes went live (as proven with this revision of the page from before the changes compared to this version from afterwards), which also make it very clear that they sell/share data you give them with the following people:

• Advertisers
• "Partners, service providers, suppliers and contractors", with the safeguards in place being simply "just trust me bro"
• Authorities
• Researchers
• Other entities owned by Mozilla Corporation

A promise was broken here, and it was one of the selling points that Firefox had going for it: not fucking selling your data. These are the exact kinds of things that people absolutely fucking hate about Google Chrome and other browsers like it, and led so many of them to switch to Firefox in the first place. Make no mistake, a lot of goodwill was lost here.

Response​

The general response amongst the public has been naturally negative and filled with harsh criticism.

Content Creators​

Tech-adjacent YouTube content creators, especially the ones geared towards those who value their privacy or consumer advocacy, have uploaded videos denouncing and criticizing Mozilla and by extension Firefox for the changes.

Louis Rossmann, the uncouth but well-respected right-to-repair and consumer advocate released a video on March 2, 2025 in which he goes over what happened and recommends that you install a fork of Firefox known as LibreWolf:

If you are part of the Free Software space, Mental Outlaw uploaded a video on February 28, 2025 discussing the changes and declaring it one of the worst updates in the browser's history:

SomeOrdinaryGamers released a video on February 28, 2025 also discussing the changes and also recommended that you switch to forks or other privacy-respecting browsers:

Myself​

You're probably reading this section thinking "oh god, this idiot is going to give his personal opinion in an essay", and you're right. That's exactly what I'm about to do. I think these changes are a complete shitshow and a betrayal of everything the browser stood for. In the past, I previously recommended that people switch to Firefox because of the legitimate privacy concerns in Google Chrome and other such derivatives. While I still personally think that Firefox is still the lesser evil due to the fact that it's not actively owned by an advertising company and thus doesn't have a huge influence on the global web development space to block ad blockers, I can no longer in good faith say I recommend Firefox specifically. In the thread discussing Chromium's Manifest V2 deprecation, I have since updated the original post to mention these recent changes (original revision here).

You should migrate to a fork of Firefox or a fork of Chromium. There are many options you can use, so I'll go through just some of them. In the event I have not had much experience with the browser or know very little about it, I will mention it so that you can research them further.

• Firefox:
  • GNU IceCat is a completely free and open source fork based on version ESR 115 that is founded on the idea of being completely and only free and open source. If you are schizophrenic about ensuring your code is open source, this is an option. I have no experience with it. You can read more about it here.
    
    
  • LibreWolf is a free and open source fork based on the latest version of the browser that focuses on privacy and security. Privacy and consumer advocates do recommend it as one of the saner ways to browse the internet securely and privately. I have used it before and while many of the features are nice, it can break certain websites sometimes. You can read more about it and download it here.
    
    
  • Waterfox is a free and open source fork with a focus on ethics and privacy. What those "ethics" are, I have absolutely no idea. Some TotalFreedom players used it at some point, but I personally have very little experience with it. You can read more about it and download it here.
    
    
  • Mullvad Browser is an open source fork maintained in collaboration by Mullvad VPN and the Tor Project with a strong and heavy focus on privacy and security. You do not need to be subscribed to Mullvad VPN to use it. I have not personally used it, but it has been recommended by many privacy advocates. You can read more about it and download it here.
    
    
  • Tor Browser is a free and open source fork maintained by the Tor Project with a heavy focus on privacy and security. All of your traffic is routed through the Tor Network in layers of encryption before being spat out what is called an exit node. If you don't care about the slower speeds and want maximum security above all else, this is your best bet. I have personally used it before and it works great. You can read more about it and download it here.
• Chromium:
  • Brave is a free and open source fork of Chromium with a focus on privacy. A lot of people who are concerned about their privacy use it and it generally seems to have a good reputation. I have installed and used it before on an occasion or two, but otherwise I have very little experience with it. Some TotalFreedom players use this though and said it has done them well. It also offers the ability to connect to Tor directly within the browser. You can read more about it and download it here.
    
    
  • Ungoogled Chromium is a free and open source fork of Chromium with the main focus being its separation from Google as a whole. It achieves this by removing or blocking most attempts to phone home. The overall experience is very similar to that of regular Chromium, minus any features that rely on Google services such as Google Safe Browsing (not to be confused with Incognito Mode) or certain proprietary bits of code included with the upstream browser. You can read more about it and download it here.
• Outsiders:
  • Ladybird is a free and open source web browser that uses its own engine. The main focus is its complete independence. It is currently in a pre-alpha state with an estimated stable release in 2028. Given that it is a work in progress, you should not expect it to do the things that most browsers offer. I have no experience with it. You can read more about it and download it here.