Privacy

Some counter-points for those of you who want to dig further:

• Louis Rossmann video - goes over Mozilla's likely motivation, California's CCPA
• Louis Rossmann's wiki page about it - very in-depth, more-so than the video

So there are two explanations here:

• Mozilla is in CYA mode due to potential violations of the CCPA (details on the bill)
• Mozilla decided to turn evil

Both are certainly possible, but given that the vast majority of Mozilla's funding is from the Google search partnership, I think the former is more likely.

Regardless, I believe Mozilla is scummy, especially since Rossmann points out that Firefox development could be sustained on only investment returns of the org. Here's the relevant portion of the above video where he discusses that (specifically this timestamp, where he goes over their 2022 and 2023 returns, but the earlier bit is instructive as well).

Mozilla have been slowly but steadily turning to shit for years now. Long ago already, they became the kind of company that lays off workers in order to pay the CEO an unreasonable amount.

I think that the moment people should've seen as a turning point where Mozilla stopped giving a shit about the users was when they did all of those unpopular UI changes a while back (like removing compact mode). They used telemetry to justify these changes, while I'm sure they must've been aware that their "privacy focused browser" schtick probably attracts a lot of people who switch telemetry off. And even if they were that stupid, the over all reaction online to the changes should've been enough of a clue for them. But they still did it anyway.

UI changes might be small in the greater scheme of things but the UI is also what 90% of users base their experience on. So it just means that they do not give a flying fuck about the user base. And they're going to be slowly but surely enshitifying the browser whether anyone likes it or not.

I hope, in the end, Firefox and Thunderbird survive...

If Firefox is gone, the clones/forks will probably die as well. And the complexity of a web browser makes it hard to just give the project to some new people...

This is why it’s hard getting people to like you, Firefox. Please don’t give more reasons for them to stay on Chrome.

Here's where they quietly removed the promise from their FAQ:

https://github.com/mozilla/bedrock/commit/d459addab846d8144b61939b7f4310eb80c5470e#diff-a24e74e4595fa85440a2f4e7e5dcfe68aba6e1e593aef05a2d35581a91423847

Very, very long-time Firefox user here, now open to suggestions for a replacement. Windows, desktop, and it absolutely must have adblocker capabilities.

It's not hard to define "sell," Varma, and I'm sure you don't want to do it, because the definitions aren't flattering. Here's the Miriam Webster definition:

1: to deliver or give up in violation of duty, trust, or loyalty and especially for personal gain : betray —often used with out

sell out their country

2a(1): to give up (property) to another for something of value (such as money)

2a(2): to offer for sale

2b: to give up in return for something else especially foolishly or dishonorably

sold his birthright for a mess of pottage

2c: to exact a price for

sold their lives dearly

3a: to deliver into slavery for money

3b: to give into the power of another

sold his soul to the devil

3c: to deliver the personal services of for money

4: to dispose of or manage for profit instead of in accordance with conscience, justice, or duty

sold their votes