Ajit Varma, Vice President of Mozilla for Firefox, tried to explain the changes in the terms of use to companies following community backlash. Varma highlighted that the misunderstandings arose due to the vague wording in the Mozilla rights and the removal of the clause regarding the non-sale of user data was due to legal complexities around the term “sales of data.”
The latest updates to the agreements now clarify that users grant Mozilla necessary rights for Firefox. Data processing is done in compliance with the privacy notice. Users provide Mozilla with a non-exclusive, worldwide license to use transmitted content within Firefox to fulfill user requests, without acquiring ownership rights to user content.
Prior to the amendments, the agreement mentioned the transfer of rights for improving navigation and interaction with online content, leading to various interpretations of data usage.
The confusion was reinforced when Mozilla removed the statement from the Firefox FAQ page that explicitly denied selling user data:
No. I never sold and never will. And we protect you from many advertisers who do this. Firefox products are designed to protect your privacy. Our promise.
Furthermore, references to the impossibility of selling user data were also removed from other sources, such as answers to questions about Firefox being a free browser that does not sell user data:
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