wakest likes your bugs ⁂Mar 23

Firefox just updated their TOS to let us know they will sell all our browsing history with advertisers. If this isn't the final nail in the coffin I don't know what else is.

Thanks to @javi (https://goblin.band/notes/ak78rax5htqlh5qo) for posting about this situation.

@javi

<p>Firefox updated their <a target="_blank" href="https://www.mozilla.org/en-US/privacy/firefox/#notice">Terms of Use</a>? Let's see!</p><blockquote><p>As you type a search query within Firefox, Firefox offers <a target="_blank" href="https://support.mozilla.org/kb/search-suggestions-firefox">search suggestions</a> to provide you with faster and more direct access to what you’re looking for. Some of the search suggestions come from your search provider (“Search Suggestions”). Others come from Firefox, and are based on information stored on your local device (including recent search terms, open tabs, and previously visited URLs), or content from Mozilla and Mozilla’s partners, including paid sponsors and internet resources like Wikipedia (“Suggestions from Firefox”).</p></blockquote><p></p><p>Here chat. Here. This is where Firefox dies. </p><p>"information stored in your local device" and "content from mozilla's parners" and "paid sponsors".</p><p>This is a very convoluted way of saying "we use your personal data to segment you into something we can sell to advertisers".</p><p>This is EXACTLY what chrome does, this is exactly why a lot of us stopped using Chrome and moved back to Firefox. </p><blockquote><p>In some circumstances Mozilla’s partners will receive de-identified search and interaction data, in order to serve relevant suggestions and measure user engagement with suggested content.</p></blockquote><p>This is making me really mad. THIS IS JUST CORPO-SPEAK TO DESCRIBE HOW THE ENTIRE INTERNET ADVERTISEMENT INDUSTRY WORKS. This is HOW FACEBOOK WORK. This is how GOOGLE WORK. This is how the entire programmatic advertisement industry work. This is what we call "sell your personal data". No, no one sells your address, no one sells your name. BECAUSE IT'S ILLEGAL IN A SIGNIFICANT PART OF THE WORLD. </p><p></p><blockquote><p>We also work with advertising providers to deliver relevant sponsored content using programmatic technologies. To support this, we may share limited, non-identifying information — such as device type, IP-derived location information, and category of content viewed — to help determine which ads to display. We don’t share any information that identifies you. You can turn off sponsored content in your New Tab settings at any time.</p></blockquote><p>Oh it's so nice of you Mozilla, to do THE MINIMUM LEGAL REQUIREMENTS when selling our data. You don't share information that identify me? so nice of you! you know how else does that? Meta! Google! Tiktok! Somehow big tech mega corporations are willing to comply with the minimum legal requirements as you do, mozilla!</p><blockquote><p>In some cases, we may share or publish aggregated and anonymized data to facilitate research or as part of the lawful business purposes outlined above (such as sharing aggregated insights with advertising partners).</p></blockquote><p>This is called "advertisement segmentation" and it's what it paid for Zuckenberg fortress in Hawaii!! Going places, Moz, you are operating exactly as how Facebook used to do in 2016!</p><blockquote><p>To provide our services as described above, we may disclose personal data to: Partners, service providers, suppliers and contractors</p></blockquote><p>"We never disclose your personal data!!! well, unless it's one of our partners who pays us for it, of course!"</p><p>oh wait! they include a table of what kind of data they share with partners!</p><blockquote><ul><li><p>Technical data</p></li><li><p>Location</p></li><li><p>Language preference</p></li><li><p>Settings data</p></li><li><p>Unique identifiers</p></li><li><p>System performance data</p></li><li><p>Interaction data</p></li><li><p>Search data</p></li><li><p>Browsing data</p></li></ul></blockquote><p>The SHARE FUCKING EVERYTHING. THEY ARE SELLING EVERYTHING. "Unique identifiers" is the closest to personal identifiable data they can sell. That's what advertisers can use to make a profile of you: They may not know your name, but they will know everything else about you.</p><p>This is the same information that google collects and sells from you. THE SAME.</p><p>Fucking ghouls. This is where Firefox died, folks. </p><p></p>

goblin.band
Show threadSibrosan

@liaizon @javi

Fake news.

That *definitely doesn't* say Firefox will sell your browsing history with advertisers.

I wonder whether your interpretation is due to lack of understanding or to bad intentions 🤔

Mar 24 at 12:04pmWeb
Show threadwakest likes your bugs ⁂6d ago
@sibrosan @javi fuck off
Show threadSibrosan6d ago

@liaizon @javi

That's not very polite.

Show threadwakest likes your bugs ⁂6d ago
@sibrosan @javi and your questioning my intelligence or intentions is very "polite"
Show threadSibrosan6d ago

@liaizon @javi

OK sorry.

On second thought, you do have a point.

However, in first instance I hadn't read further than "This is where Firefox dies". And in the quoted text above that I don't recognize at all that Firefox/Mozilla would upload locally stored data or share it with partners.

But the next sections such as "In some circumstances Mozilla’s partners will receive de-identified search and interaction data" are indeed something to be worried about.

#Firefox #Privacy

Show threadjavi6d ago
ok, seriously, I think this is something people don't understand. No one (who doesn't want to risk legal troubles) sell your personal data. That's illegal in lots of countries. Google, Meta, whoever you can think of, don't sell you personal data.
What they do is take that personal data and create an ANONYMIZED PROFILE of you. And then, they sell that profile. So when an advertiser wants to target someone like you, they can go to google and pay them to make sure their ads are shown to you and other people that fits the advertiser's specifications. They use your personal data to target you, but they don't sell your personal data to their customers: Their customers don't need it, because Google et al already do the data processing for them.
Mozilla, now, is doing EXACTLY THE SAME. The only meaningful difference between them and google/facebook is that facebook stores your personal data (unsellable) and process it to create your (sellable) anonymized profile on their servers. Mozilla, instead, use your own computer to store and process that anonymized profile that then is sent to mozilla servers for selling. The way they use your data, the purpose, and the outcome are exactly the same.
The fact they are doing it locally in your laptop instead of in their remote servers is just privacy-washing, a way to convince people who don't know better that their advertisement technology is different and more ethical. But if you are an advertiser? you get exactly the same from Mozilla than from google (actually, since they have introduced programmatic ads and google runs the biggest programmatic ad exchange, I would bet that you are getting exactly the same ads, feed by exactly the same personal-data-sourced anonymous profile, than when you use chrome)
Show threadjavi6d ago
it's literally saying that they use your browsing history to serve you targeted ads. That's what 'selling your browser history' means. Advertisers couldn't care less about which pages you visit: what they care about is about your anonymized profile, so they can accurately target you with custom campaigns. And mozilla uses your personal data on firefox to sell advertisers those profiles. This is EXACTLY the same way Google or Facebook works. Google doesn't sell anyone your browser or search history. Facebook doesn't sell anyone which profiles you follow on instagram or who you message on whatsapp. They use that data to make a profile of you, and that's what they sell to advertisers, that's how they profit from your personal data.
And that's exactly what mozilla is doing with firefox.
Show threadjavi6d ago
also, as a personal note, I would advice you that when you don't understand the topic someone is talking about, avoid questioning the intentions of those who actually know the field.