They made a shitty change to their TOS regarding sharing user data with advertisers, then backtracked (appropriately, imho). It’s the same issue as always - Firefox costs Mozilla millions of dollars to develop and maintain, and it’s entirely funded by advertising companies. I personally think Mozilla does a pretty good job of balancing interests, but that is a long term problematic relationship for privacy respecting software. I don’t think any of the forks solve that problem, as they are still dependent on all of Mozilla’s development money to keep going, and Chrome based browsers are even worse. Modern browsers are just too damned expensive! Anyway, the drama: https://techcrunch.com/2025/03/03/mozilla-rewrites-firefoxs-terms-of-use-after-user-backlash/?guccounter=1
IMHO “even worse” it not accurate here. Chrome based browsers are much worse, and they are always developing new technologies to exploit users’ privacy for profit.
I think the only viable option is to leave Chrome ASAP (for everyone). If one is unsatisfied with Firefox’s policy (we should!), then to choose a non-Chromium browser carefully
I’m not sure you are vehemently agreeing with me, or somehow arguing the semantics that “even worse” and “much worse” mean something substantially different.
Indeed, see the context - I’m referring to the fact that Firefox is nearly 100% funded by advertisers, but separated by an arms-reach organization. Chrome is precisely 100% funded by advertisers, and under the complete control of an advertising company. Chrome is clearly worse, but Firefox is long-term problematic because that advertising money is going to whittle away at that separation eventually.
I’m being earnest, how has Firefox caved in and to who?
They made a shitty change to their TOS regarding sharing user data with advertisers, then backtracked (appropriately, imho). It’s the same issue as always - Firefox costs Mozilla millions of dollars to develop and maintain, and it’s entirely funded by advertising companies. I personally think Mozilla does a pretty good job of balancing interests, but that is a long term problematic relationship for privacy respecting software. I don’t think any of the forks solve that problem, as they are still dependent on all of Mozilla’s development money to keep going, and Chrome based browsers are even worse. Modern browsers are just too damned expensive! Anyway, the drama: https://techcrunch.com/2025/03/03/mozilla-rewrites-firefoxs-terms-of-use-after-user-backlash/?guccounter=1
IMHO “even worse” it not accurate here. Chrome based browsers are much worse, and they are always developing new technologies to exploit users’ privacy for profit.
I think the only viable option is to leave Chrome ASAP (for everyone). If one is unsatisfied with Firefox’s policy (we should!), then to choose a non-Chromium browser carefully
Google funds Mozilla quite a bit. It would be good to decouple them but that would require a major change to how they are funded.
I’m not sure you are vehemently agreeing with me, or somehow arguing the semantics that “even worse” and “much worse” mean something substantially different.
Indeed, see the context - I’m referring to the fact that Firefox is nearly 100% funded by advertisers, but separated by an arms-reach organization. Chrome is precisely 100% funded by advertisers, and under the complete control of an advertising company. Chrome is clearly worse, but Firefox is long-term problematic because that advertising money is going to whittle away at that separation eventually.
I apology for my words causing confusion. I’m not arguing “even worse” vs “much worse”. I just want to emphasize Chrome is terrible at privacy.
I think that Mozilla’s Gecko is the only real alternative to Chrome/Safari’s Blink/Webkit. If Firefox falls, everything else is based on Blink/Webkit.