* Originally in MIN_COMP
* Crossposted in FSX_BOT

Firefox deletes promise to never sell personal data, asks users not to panic

Update at 10:20 pm ET: Mozilla has since announced a change to the license
language to address user complaints. It now says, "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."

Mozilla also took heat from users after a Mozilla employee solicited feedback in
a connect.mozilla.org discussion forum. "This isn't a question of messaging or
clarifying," one person wrote. "You cannot ask your users to give you these
broad rights to their data. This agreement, as currently written, is not
acceptable."

Mozilla announced the new terms of use and an updated privacy policy in a blog
post on Wednesday. After seeing criticism, Mozilla added a clarification that
said the company needs "a license to allow us to make some of the basic
functionality of Firefox possible. Without it, we couldn't use information typed
into Firefox, for example. It does NOT give us ownership of your data or a right
to use it for anything other than what is described in the Privacy Notice."

One of the uses described in the privacy notice has to do with users' location
data. Mozilla says it takes steps to anonymize the data and that users can turn
the functionality off entirely:

    Mozilla may also receive location-related keywords from your search (such as
when you search for "Boston" and share this with our partners to provide
recommended and sponsored content. Where this occurs, Mozilla cannot associate
the keyword search with an individual user once the search suggestion has been
served and partners are never able to associate search suggestions with an
individual user. You can remove this functionality at any time by turning off
Sponsored SuggestionsΓÇömore information on how to do this is available in the
relevant Firefox Support page.

Some users were not convinced by Mozilla's statements about needing a license to
use data to provide basic functionality. "That's a load of crap and you know it.
'Basic functionality' is to download and render webpages," one person wrote in
response to Mozilla's request for feedback.


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