this post was submitted on 17 Jun 2025
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TL;DR: Mozilla is now enforcing data collection as a pre-requisite to access new features in Firefox Labs. This is backed by the Terms of Use that Mozilla introduced a few months ago.

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[โ€“] [email protected] 0 points 1 week ago (1 children)

If you've ever worked in software development, you know that information about how your users use your software is paramount to its success.

The title of the article is extrapolating and rephrasing the statement that Firefox and Mozilla are moving away from the "spirit" of open source. That's completely different from actually moving away from open source. It's deliberate click baiting, sensationalism, and flame instigation.

They have now updated the top of their article to reflect the negative backlash.

I am fine with helping Mozilla collect useful data. But I'm also not interested in testing new features before they're ready, so I'm doubly unaffected by this. ๐Ÿคทโ€โ™‚๏ธ I'm usually very privacy conscious, but this is Mozilla, and I trust them. It's all about trust for me. If it's not for you, then so be it. Then this is warranted FUD.

[โ€“] [email protected] 0 points 1 week ago (1 children)

The title of the article is extrapolating and rephrasing the statement that Firefox and Mozilla are moving away from the "spirit" of open source. That's completely different from actually moving away from open source.

This newly mandatory data collection to use certain Firefox features... Do we have the source code for the server?

I am fine with helping Mozilla collect useful data. But I'm also not interested in testing new features before they're ready, so I'm doubly unaffected by this

Good for you, but since it doesn't affect you, perhaps you can refrain from extrapolating these preferences onto Mozilla's poor behavior.

[โ€“] [email protected] 0 points 1 week ago (1 children)

This newly mandatory data collection to use certain Firefox features...

But it's Firefox Labs, this is to test features before they're ready. If you want to participate in that, you're doing it to help Mozilla with Firefox, and it should thus be imperative that you also help with usage data as well. It just makes sense. Nothing to do with preference.

Do we have the source code for the server?

I don't know maybe? Does it matter? You should be able to inspect what telemetry data Firefox sends with a traffic sniffer of some kind.

perhaps you can refrain from extrapolating these preferences onto Mozilla's poor behavior.

You're stating as if it's a fact that it's "poor behavior". I disagree. I think it's subjective. I trust that they collect non-personal data. But of course I don't know for sure because I haven't investigated it personally. For me though, the trust is enough in this instance.

[โ€“] [email protected] 1 points 1 week ago* (last edited 4 days ago) (1 children)
[โ€“] [email protected] 0 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (1 children)

When I went to Interaction Design class at University? Part of my Master of Science in Interaction Design and Technology programme. One of the very basic things we learned. ๐Ÿคทโ€โ™‚๏ธ Can't really tell you which year it was, sorry. But it was sometime in the 2010s.

Anyway, the reason is to ensure that the functionality works as expected for the user as well as the designer and developers. It's just good practice. Nothing personal should be collected. Just usage data, of course.

Remember, again, this is as far as I know just for features that are in beta (the "Labs" part, right?), and being a part of Firefox Labs is opt-in. If you opt-in, you accept these terms, surely.

[โ€“] [email protected] 1 points 1 week ago* (last edited 4 days ago)

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