this post was submitted on 26 Feb 2025
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Hot off the back of its recent leadership rejig, Mozilla has announced users of Firefox will soon be subject to a ‘Terms of Use’ policy — a first for the iconic open source web browser.

This official Terms of Use will, Mozilla argues, offer users ‘more transparency’ over their ‘rights and permissions’ as they use Firefox to browse the information superhighway — as well well as Mozilla’s “rights” to help them do it, as this excerpt makes clear:

You give Mozilla all rights necessary to operate Firefox, including processing data as we describe in the Firefox Privacy Notice, as well as acting on your behalf to help you navigate the internet.

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.

Also about to go into effect is an updated privacy notice (aka privacy policy). This adds a crop of cushy caveats to cover the company’s planned AI chatbot integrations, cloud-based service features, and more ads and sponsored content on Firefox New Tab page.

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[–] reiterationstation@lemm.ee 35 points 1 week ago (1 children)
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[–] phoenixz@lemmy.ca 32 points 1 week ago (5 children)

So now what the hell do we have to use to not be spied upon?

[–] Bogasse@lemmy.ml 13 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (2 children)

Well I suppose LibreWolf (or some other de-branded Firefox) will become more mainstream. Similar to what chromium is to chrome 🤷

[–] kilgore_trout@feddit.it 10 points 1 week ago (1 children)

That's not a real equivalence.

Chromium is the basis for Google Chrome, while Librewolf is nothing more than a leech to Firefox. It's just Firefox, rebranded.

[–] cley_faye@lemmy.world 11 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Rebranded, pre-cleaned of all the forced stuff from mozilla, with the built-in integration of more privacy-enhancing features.

So, not "just firefox, rebranded" at all.

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[–] DominicJ@lemmy.world 7 points 1 week ago (3 children)

Soon other web engine will coming, first LadyBird browser and two is Servo Browser. But they're still along way to go

[–] adub@programming.dev 6 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Am I missing something on Servo Browser? Because when I went to check it out and seems more like next-gen browser engine that looks to be an improvement on Firefox's Gecko. If so then we will need to wait for a browser team to adopt it.

[–] kilgore_trout@feddit.it 6 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Servo is also building a web browser UI.

[–] tias@discuss.tchncs.de 3 points 1 week ago (1 children)

But isn't Servo funded by Mozilla

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[–] mostlikelyaperson@lemmy.world 3 points 1 week ago

I am still waiting desperately for a servo based browser, mozilla kicking it out was one of the reasons I lost all hope in Mozilla a while back.

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[–] theherk@lemmy.world 17 points 1 week ago

This comment under the article gave me a chuckle.

[–] Carmakazi@lemmy.world 14 points 1 week ago (9 children)

Yeesh. So what's an alternative?

[–] ISOmorph@feddit.org 29 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (1 children)

I'm very happy with librewolf on desktop and ironfox on mobile

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[–] masterofn001@lemmy.ca 5 points 1 week ago

To add to the list:

Mullvad browser (pc only) (removes blobs,proprietary crap, telemetry, and is otherwise hardened and was developed in partnership with the tor org. Some prefs are fine to change but you're best off by leaving as is.

Tor browser - nuff said. If you want anonymity use this. Don't change any prefs.

Arkenfox has a nodded user.is file you can simply drop into your current ff profile dir. It includes many hidden prefs and settings and allows you to customize for your needs/threat model.

Arkenfox's mods are used by other privacy friendly browsers. As are some tor mods.

If you can find your way around about:config and don't mind some learning, you can achieve most of the results of hardened broswers.

There are guides to further harden your ff. Search for Hardened Firefox.

[–] DFX4509B_2@lemmy.org 5 points 1 week ago

LibreWolf, or if you can tolerate some breakage, PaleMoon or Basilisk (I say 'if you can tolerate some breakage' because Goanna is hard-forked from old ESR code, and PaleMoon and Basilisk are both Goanna-based).

[–] garretble@lemmy.world 4 points 1 week ago

As I understand it, these changes don't affect browsers that use FF as a base, so Zen Browser might not be affected.

I've been trying it out this week, and it's good. And can still use all the FF extensions.

https://zen-browser.app/

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[–] mesamunefire@lemmy.world 11 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (1 children)

Man all this makes me want to just use Links2 for everything and being a luddite. Complete with cabin in the woods. So frustrating.

[–] SynopsisTantilize@lemm.ee 4 points 1 week ago

There's a links2!?!?!?

[–] pyre@lemmy.world 5 points 1 week ago

does this affect forks?

[–] Fedizen@lemmy.world 5 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

Where's the gofundme for the firefox fork project?

Was this from google turning off the funding tap?

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