Mozilla now has a full license to all of your data through Firefox

Mozilla has released its Terms of Service for Firefox, which has sparked some outrage from users who noticed broad language such as, "When you upload or input information through Firefox, you hereby grant us a nonexclusive, royalty-free, worldwide license to use that information."

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The official Terms of Service for the Firefox browser have been showcased along with an update to the Privacy Policy, in which Mozilla explains that prior to these updates, it has been using an open-source license paired with public promises, but beginning in March 2025, users will have to agree to the new and more specific license agreement to use the browser.

According to the updated terms, Firefox users will need to agree to give Mozilla a worldwide, royalty-free license to use all information uploaded or inputted into the Firefox browser, as Mozilla claims the data it will be gathering is critical to making Firefox a competitive and feature-rich browser. As you can probably imagine, the language used sparked immediate pushback from Firefox users, some of which noticed Mozilla removed previous statements in its terms of use, such as "Unlike other companies, we don't sell access to your data".

While a lot of users have snapped the worst possible scenario, which would be Mozilla now selling user data to third parties, it appears there has been some confusion with the wording of the Terms of Service paired with a lack of understanding of software licenses. Prior to these changes, it was unclear how Mozilla handled user data, and with the changes, it's now more clear than it was previously.

According to Mozilla, "We've seen a little confusion about the language regarding licenses, so we want to clear that up. We need 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," Mozilla said in an explanation."

Moreover, Mozilla stated that while it's utilizing user data inputted through Firefox to improve its browser, the data it's transferring to third parties isn't personalized. Furthermore, Mozilla states that any data it's transferring to third parties is stripped of any identifying information and that the company has no right of ownership over the collected data -- besides what is stated in its Privacy Notice.

"Mozilla doesn't sell data about you (in the way that most people think about "selling data"), and we don't buy data about you. Since we strive for transparency, and the LEGAL definition of "sale of data" is extremely broad in some places, we've had to step back from making the definitive statements you know and love. We still put a lot of work into making sure that the data that we share with our partners (which we need to do to make Firefox commercially viable) is stripped of any identifying information, or shared only in the aggregate, or is put through our privacy preserving technologies (like OHTTP)," writes Mozilla

Mozilla's new Terms of Service and the stipulations within aren't dissimilar to other commercial web browsers such as Chrome or Edge. Mozilla branded Firefox as the last bastion that doesn't "sell" user data to third parties, and, unfortunately, many users that have caught wind of this change are likely to be concerned about its implications, which may result in a downward spiral of users departing the browser despite the normalcy and effort toward transparency.

Mozilla states it will continue to make Firefox open source and that the new Terms of Use will give users more transparency as to what is happening with user data and user rights. If you are interested in reading more about the recent changes, check out the official post by Mozilla here.