this post was submitted on 27 Feb 2025
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Firefox

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Thanks everyone for your active participation here. We knew this would have a lot of interest and so we’ve waited to dive into the conversation because we see some themes emerging that I’ll respond to broadly here. The main concerns I’m noting are around the license agreements we declare, our use of data for AI, and our Acceptable Use Policy. Below are a few clarifications to each of these areas.

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[–] DmMacniel@feddit.org 80 points 2 weeks ago (4 children)

We. Don't. Want. AI.

Great, what other good Gecko Engine Browsers are there?

[–] HouseWolf@lemm.ee 31 points 2 weeks ago

Waterfox is the safe bet, it's basically just regular Firefox repacked with better defaults and telemetry turned off, but it isn't harden or has add-ons included.

LibreWolf is what I switched to over a year ago, The team behind it have been pretty thorough in scraping out spyware and it comes pre-hardened out the box (but that can break more invasive websites).

[–] simple@lemm.ee 13 points 2 weeks ago (2 children)

They're opt-in by default, it's not like they're forcing AI on you.

[–] Creat@discuss.tchncs.de 17 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)
[–] TriflingToad@sh.itjust.works 22 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago) (2 children)

idk why people are downvoting, it's exactly what has happened with literally every bad policy online anywhere. They beta test it to gauge how bad backlash would be, then if it's acceptable go ahead with it, if too much backlash just use the "oh it was just a beta! we would never do that 🥺" excuse then in 6 months try again

Edit: the Lemmy hive mind has reversed their decision. It was at +4 | -4 when I replied

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[–] DmMacniel@feddit.org 6 points 2 weeks ago (2 children)

Even the mere existence of AI which usage is opt-in is a so called slippery slope.

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[–] Quill7513@slrpnk.net 7 points 2 weeks ago (2 children)
[–] astro_ray@piefed.social 3 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

Zen is not another browser, it is just reskinned firefox with some tweaks.

[–] Quill7513@slrpnk.net 8 points 2 weeks ago

Well that's kind of all any gecko based browser can ever be. The way gecko's written, it's a lot more locked into the rest of firefox than Chromium's web engine

[–] Flagstaff@programming.dev 3 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

Too recent to trust, I feel like. Have you been using it? What do you make of it?

[–] Quill7513@slrpnk.net 2 points 2 weeks ago

i haven't. i use hardened firefox

[–] Captainautism@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)
[–] astro_ray@piefed.social 3 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

Last I checked it was webkit based, did they change it?

[–] Captainautism@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2 points 2 weeks ago

Hmm, not that I know of.

[–] tiramichu@lemm.ee 33 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago) (26 children)

"It does NOT give us ownership of your data"

Then why did it say that it does?

"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."

If we insist on having terms at all, then GOOD and user-respecting terms are ones which list clearly, precisely and exhaustively exactly what data will be used for what purpose under what circumstance.

BAD and corporate-favouring terms are ones which make broad, sweeping statements which can be interpreted any way the company likes in their favour - and where changes to how and what data is shared and transmitted can be made any time without updating the terms, because the terms are so broad they cover just about anything.

Pretty clear which one of those things the new terms are.

[–] CosmicTurtle0@lemmy.dbzer0.com 10 points 2 weeks ago

This is exactly why I don't believe a single word they say about this new TOS.

Their MPL2 was perfectly fine. Moving their executable to a proprietary license with less freedoms was not going to go well.

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[–] CosmicTurtle0@lemmy.dbzer0.com 14 points 2 weeks ago (2 children)

I feel for Ashley here. She likely had no say in the matter and is being tasked to defend this change.

There is only one way to fix this short term which is to roll back the TOS.

Long term would be to guarantee to keep the MPL as the governing license for both the source code and executable.

Acceptable solution would be severely limit the license users would have to give to Mozilla, both time bound and use bound.

you hereby grant us a ~~nonexclusive, royalty-free, worldwide~~ limited, royalty-free license, used for the duration explicitly necessary to allow Firefox ~~to use that information to help you~~ navigate, experience, and interact with online content as you indicate ~~with your use of Firefox~~, not to exceed execution duration of the browser, or one day, whichever is shorter.

But again, absolutely no license should be necessary. The browser is not a legal entity and I should not need to give Mozilla a license for my data.

[–] Vincent@feddit.nl 7 points 2 weeks ago

The ToS hasn't gone into effect yet, so it would be postponing rather than rolling back. One thing that hasn't been answered yet, though, is why this change is needed now - possibly, there's a legal reason why postponing isn't an option?

[–] acockworkorange@mander.xyz 3 points 2 weeks ago

I feel for all the dollars that will get wet with her tears as she wipes her eyes with them.

[–] tiredofsametab@fedia.io 14 points 2 weeks ago

K. In that case, explicitly guarantee it in your terms and conditions.

[–] Gloria@sh.itjust.works 8 points 2 weeks ago
[–] ugjka@lemmy.world 6 points 2 weeks ago (2 children)

Switched to Waterfox right away. There are other forks i'll consider if waterfox also tries to pull the AI uno card as well. Chromium crap is out of question because of manifest 3

[–] Tangent5280@lemmy.world 3 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

Do you think Librewolf is a valid alternative? I'd like to keep using it but obviously I wouldn't want to if it doesn't live up to it's name.

[–] ugjka@lemmy.world 3 points 2 weeks ago

Yeah it is fine

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[–] vane@lemmy.world 6 points 2 weeks ago

February 19, 2025.

As I have said many times over the last few years, Mozilla is entering a new chapter—one where we need to both defend what is good about the web and steer the technology and business models of the AI era in a better direction.

https://blog.mozilla.org/en/mozilla/mozilla-leadership-growth-planning-updates/

Apparently there is new era.

[–] heavydust@sh.itjust.works 4 points 2 weeks ago (2 children)

It’s clear now that they don’t care, and they will use whatever we type to train their AI.

That’s the end of Firefox for me, it’s disgusting that they don’t care about privacy anymore.

[–] wizardbeard@lemmy.dbzer0.com 8 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)
[–] pelespirit@sh.itjust.works 2 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

What are some of the forks?

[–] helpImTrappedOnline@lemmy.world 11 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

Well you got the cheese fork, oyster fork, crab fork, spaghetti fork, dessert fork, Neptune's fork, carving fork, fish fork, table fork and the fork in the road that leads you to Librewolf, waterfox, pale moon, I just learned about Floorp today. I haven't switched desktop yet, (this weekend project), but I switched my phone over to Ironfox and so far its all good.

[–] Flagstaff@programming.dev 8 points 2 weeks ago

+1 for Waterfox! Water beats fire.

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[–] NegativeLookBehind@lemmy.world 3 points 2 weeks ago

Welp, it was a good run

[–] jupiter2643@lemmy.ml 2 points 2 weeks ago

How are y'all feeling about icecat?

[–] umbrella@lemmy.ml 2 points 2 weeks ago

i guess its finally it.

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