• TWeaK@lemm.ee
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    2
    ·
    edit-2
    7 days ago

    Mozilla is not selling your data, yet, but they have removed their pledge to never sell data.

    It’s an intentional gradual change, and they’re playing a sleight of hand trick getting you to talk about whether they actually are selling data right now rather than the canary dying.

    • BentiGorlich@gehirneimer.deOP
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      2
      ·
      7 days ago

      If what they have been doing for a while, is now legally “selling your data” in California they just cannot state “we will never sell your data”, as the definition of what is meant by “selling data” exactly is not the same everywhere…

      They should not have deleted that statement and just clarify it instead of their absolutely messy changes…

      • vapeloki@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        0
        arrow-down
        1
        ·
        7 days ago

        Of course you can craft a lm EULA that makes clear their never sell your data. If they want to…

        I am fed up. If google does something; google baaaaaaad, if Mozilla does something: poooor Mozilla.

        Maybe you want to hold both to the same standards? Yes?

        • BentiGorlich@gehirneimer.deOP
          link
          fedilink
          arrow-up
          0
          arrow-down
          1
          ·
          7 days ago

          Actually no, I don’t want to hold both to the same standard. Google is a for profit company. I expect them to do shady shit. I expect more out of Mozilla. Doesn’t mean that they screwed this up the way the media says they did. They screwed up the communication big time

            • BentiGorlich@gehirneimer.deOP
              link
              fedilink
              arrow-up
              0
              arrow-down
              1
              ·
              7 days ago

              The company itself is not for profit. The CEO gets payed way too much, but a for-profit company would return money to the owners (mostly shareholders/investors), which Mozilla is not

              • vaguerant@fedia.io
                link
                fedilink
                arrow-up
                1
                ·
                7 days ago

                Before continuing, I want to specify that I’m agreeing with you but clarifying the situation because there is a business interest involved here.

                The Mozilla Foundation is a non-profit with several wholly-owned, for-profit business subsidiaries, most notably the Mozilla Corporation. The Corporation markets and distributes several Mozilla products, including the Firefox browser, as well as its other commercial ventures like Pocket. The corporate subsidiaries’ profits do get returned to the owner of those businesses, which is the Foundation.

              • vapeloki@lemmy.world
                link
                fedilink
                arrow-up
                1
                ·
                7 days ago

                That is a very American definition of for profit.

                Here in Germany, a non-profit is not allowed to do any profit. They are allowed to cover their costs, that’s it. (Of course it is more complicated but that is the essence).

                For years and years, Mozilla is doing shady stuff.

                Let’s for example look the way how they enabled DoH. Or their decision to let themselves pay by google for making google the default search engine. Or now, spinning up their own ad network.

                And on the other hand, if google does something like their new ad auction stuff (that is run completely in your browser and the api is open btw) than there are only bad intentions, according to some folks.

                If we keep argumenting this way, Mozilla will make itself the very thing we hate, and we are loosing a very important alternative to chrome

                So, now, I am not willing to give them any more slag. They have to change

                • acockworkorange@mander.xyz
                  link
                  fedilink
                  arrow-up
                  1
                  ·
                  6 days ago

                  Google the company only has bad intentions, despite what many working for Google might want to achieve. It’s proven time and time again that it couldn’t care less about anything other than profit, and if you don’t think profit over everything isn’t nefarious, then we just disagree.

                  That said, I agree with everything else you said.

                • BentiGorlich@gehirneimer.deOP
                  link
                  fedilink
                  arrow-up
                  0
                  ·
                  7 days ago

                  Here in Germany, a non-profit is not allowed to do any profit

                  That is just not true… You are not allowed to pay your profits to anyone, but investing it or building reserves is absolutely permitted and a really important thing to do especially if you’re dependent on donations…

                  So, now, I am not willing to give them any more slag. They have to change

                  I agree, but that will never make me use Chrome or any Chromium based browser. Like probably a lot of people here I do not use vanilla Firefox, but rather LibreWolf and the like

  • Zier@fedia.io
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    1
    ·
    7 days ago

    Firefox routinely ignores it’s users wants & needs. The CEO is paid way too much. Take $5 million away from his annual salary to pay developers to create the best browser there ever was.

  • astro_ray@piefed.social
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    0
    ·
    7 days ago

    If folks are still this confused about the new changes, maybe Mozilla is still doing something wrong with their communication.

    • troed@fedia.io
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      0
      ·
      7 days ago

      Nah. Those of us who tried explaning legalese here the last few days have been heavily downvoted.

      Maybe sometimes people really just need to chill and accept that their gut feelings aren’t facts.

      • BentiGorlich@gehirneimer.deOP
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        1
        ·
        7 days ago

        You should not need legal people explaining the change of mission statements or FAQs… Imo Mozilla just really sucks at PR (it not just this time)

  • zecg@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    0
    arrow-down
    1
    ·
    7 days ago

    Mozilla is NOT SELLING your DATA, but they are collecting it and sharing it with select partners in order to “stay comercially viable”.

    • TWeaK@lemm.ee
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      1
      ·
      7 days ago

      They’re not claiming a right to sell data right now, but they have removed the promise to not sell data.

      That promise is a canary statement. When the canary dies it’s an indication of something, usually that it’s time to stop using the product/service.

      More specifically, they aren’t claiming the right to sell data however they want. However, they do have to follow all legal requests, and they can bill for this provision. If a government compells them to sell they have to oblige.

      • A_Union_of_Kobolds@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        0
        ·
        edit-2
        7 days ago

        Right, that’s the claim I saw from the Foundation over the weekend (yesterday?) - “selling data” is SUCH a nebulous legal concept that’s different in many jurisdictions that it’s borderline impossible to keep that language anymore.

        …I’m not sure how completely I buy that, but I can see where they’re coming from. I hope that the Mozilla Foundation will clarify what data is being harvested and sold to whom, but I’ve studied enough history to know that transparency fading isn’t a good sign.

        • TWeaK@lemm.ee
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          1
          ·
          6 days ago

          Yeah I mean I feel like they’re just being overly cautious here (as lawyers often are) when in fact there is no real precedent to support that position. The law perhaps could be interpreted to stretch the definition of sale broadly, but in practice it isn’t right now.

          Frankly, I find it offensive that businesses would choose to pass that minute risk onto the customer by weakening consumer rights.

      • splendoruranium@infosec.pub
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        1
        ·
        edit-2
        7 days ago

        In an aggregated and anonymized manner

        Phew, what a relief, that puts my concerns about powerful actors abusing that aggregated data fully to rest!

      • vaguerant@fedia.io
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        1
        ·
        7 days ago

        I would replace that “aggregated and anonymized” with an and/or, as that is consistent with the language in Mozilla’s privacy policy. The distinction is fairly important because de-anonymizing user data is a practice of its own and exactly what it sounds like.

        Now, is the data which Mozilla “shares with” (sells to) its partners anonymized reliably enough that the identity of the person it relates to can never be rediscovered? Granting Mozilla the benefit of the doubt, if it is sufficiently anonymous today, could future developments lead to de-anonymization of that data at a later date? This could include leaks, cyber-attacks directed at Mozilla, AI-assisted statistical analysis of bulk data, etc.

    • TWeaK@lemm.ee
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      0
      ·
      7 days ago

      I don’t think that’s the case. This article says that an overly generalised definition of “sale” was proposed in California law, but that language was removed before the law came into effect.

      • solrize@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        1
        ·
        7 days ago

        Instead of quibbling over the exact demarcation of selling data, they should stop whatever it is they are doing that could possibly be construed that way. Really, why are they even collecting the data? They have to collect it before they can sell it, and they shouldn’t collect it in the first place.

        Then there is that TOU gives an insane picture of what they think their role is when you use a browser. I don’t feel like finding and pasting the words, but really their role in the process is they supply the browser and you use it. They should acknowledge that instead of pretending otherwise.

        • BentiGorlich@gehirneimer.deOP
          link
          fedilink
          arrow-up
          0
          ·
          7 days ago

          I think the fault lies in their online stuff. Things like their VPN, Pocket, FF Sync, etc… Also they collect the aggregated and anonymized ad click thing in the new tab page

          • TWeaK@lemm.ee
            link
            fedilink
            English
            arrow-up
            1
            ·
            7 days ago

            I think you’re both right here. Mozilla has been hunting for money (to keep the lights on), and in doing so diversified into many things. However, when it has come to light that some of these things are grey or even black towards their morals, the right thing to do is to stop doing it. Instead of keeping their actions in line with their morals, they’re trying to change their morals to maintain their income.