Mozilla has introduced a Terms of Use agreement for Firefox, alongside an updated Privacy Notice. This marks the first time the browser has included such a legally binding document, but it doesn’t seem like there’s anything to get upset about yet.
Previously, Mozilla depended on its open-source license and public promises. Starting in early March 2024, new users will have to follow the updated terms, and existing users will need to adopt them later. The new terms give Mozilla a worldwide license to use information that users upload or enter through Firefox, but this license doesn’t mean Mozilla owns user data or can use it in ways not explained in the company’s privacy policies.
Mozilla claims the company is changing the Terms of Use because of how technology is evolving. It states the need to be more open and accessible about their commitments to users. Essentially, the claim is that it uses data to ensure that Firefox works well, improves the user experience, and keeps users safe. Some optional features might need to collect more data, but Mozilla promises to prioritize privacy in those cases. Users can manage their data through adjustable settings.
Not everyone is happy about this change, as indicated by discussion threads on Reddit and other platforms, but a lot of the arguments seem to be misunderstandings of how legal terms and software works. Before now, it was not clear at all how Mozilla handled your data, but now there are more clear legally-binding documents explaining just that.
Following the controversy, Mozilla explained, “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.”
It probably would have helped Mozilla to explain more examples of how Firefox uses your data, but there are many legitimate use cases. This presumably covers articles you save in Firefox’s Pocket integration, for example, as well as bookmarks and history synchronized with Firefox’s servers. Much of that data collection is critical for Firefox to continue working.
Software licenses are necessary because software needs to copy and change data to work properly. It’s surprising that Firefox lasted this long without needing a software agreement, but now it has one, so everyone is more clear (but probably not clear enough) about possible data collection. It’s also worth mentioning here that Google Chrome and Microsoft Edge have similar licenses, while Safari, Brave Browser, and Opera don’t appear to specifically mention how it handles or owns user data.
Mozilla also said in its announcement, “Firefox will always continue to add new features, improve existing ones, and test new ideas. We remain dedicated to making Firefox open source, but we believe that doing so along with an official Terms of Use will give you more transparency over your rights and permissions as you use Firefox. And actually asking you to acknowledge it is an important step, so we’re making it a part of the standard product experience starting in early March for new users and later this year for existing ones.”
