Mozilla Revises Firefox Terms of Use After Inflaming Users Over Data Usage

Mozilla wants to set the record straight: The company needs a license “to make some of the basic functionality” of its Firefox open source browser possible, but that does not give it ownership of a user’s data.

The clarification comes days after the company introduced Terms of Use (TOU) for Firefox, along with an updated Privacy Notice, explaining that while it has historically relied on its open source license for Firefox, “we are building a much different technology landscape today.”

Firefox TOU: A ‘nonexclusive, royalty-free worldwide license’

The Firefox TOU caused some confusion because initially it read, as quoted in The Register:

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.

That phrasing set off a firestorm, and Mozilla subsequently removed that language. “Our intent was just to be as clear as possible about how we make Firefox work, but in doing so we also created some confusion and concern,” wrote Ajit Varma, vice president of Firefox product management, in a blog post on the company website Friday.

The new language will now read:

You give Mozilla the rights necessary to operate Firefox. This includes processing your data as we describe in the Firefox Privacy Notice. It also includes a nonexclusive, royalty-free, worldwide license for the purpose of doing as you request with the content you input in Firefox. This does not give Mozilla any ownership in that content.

Varma said Mozilla also removed the reference to the Acceptable Use Policy, explaining that it, too, “seems to be causing more confusion than clarify.”

Privacy FAQ has also been updated

The company has also updated its Privacy FAQ “to better address legal minutia around terms like ‘sells,’” wrote Varma. Mozilla decided to provide more detail about why it made the change in the first place, he said.

“The reason we’ve stepped away from making blanket claims that ‘We never sell your data’ is because, in some places, the LEGAL definition of ‘sale of data’ is broad and evolving,’’ Varma explained.

He added that to make Firefox commercially viable, Mozilla does collect and share data with partners in “a number of places,’’ including the optional ads on New Tab and providing sponsored suggestions in the search bar. This is set out in the Privacy Notice, Varma said.

But the company strives to ensure that the data it shares is “stripped of potentially identifying information, or shared only in the aggregate,’’ he noted.