Firefox 139 beta forcing users to accept new TOS and Mozilla Privacy Notice

[andyprough]

From 9to5linux:

Firefox 139 appears to come with a change that (most probably) many of you will not like, namely a pop-up that forces you to accept the Firefox Terms of Use and Mozilla’s Privacy Notice, whether you agree to them or not. And it looks like if you don’t click on the “Confirm and continue” button, you won’t be able to use Firefox anymore.

ff139b1.webp.jpeg

Is Mozilla trying to kill Firefox before the DOJ/Google anti-trust case can kill it?

This pop-up apparently only occurs right now on the binary package download, not on the DEB package download nor on the Arch Linux version. But it looks ominous. If it shows up in the regular release version of Firefox 139 and on all distro versions, I can't imagine that very many GNU/Linux users will be willing to accept this agreement.

[Night Wing]

I've got linux Firefox 138.0 installed by default in the distros of Mint, MX Linux and Debian. Going through Settings > Privacy & Security, then scolling on down the page until I get to the heading, Firefox Data Collection and Use; I've got everything in there "unchecked" when it comes to:

1) Send technical and interaction data to Mozilla
2) Send daily usage ping to Mozilla
3) Automatically send crash reports

Could you see if the settings in linux beta Firefox 139 are checked and if they are, can they be unchecked? Then report back here.

[moonbat]

It's not about 'it can be disabled' but 'why does it exist in the first place'. Applies to everything Mozilla has done to Firefox since 2011. Even the disabling becomes impossible after a couple of versions; just look at their extension signing for an example.

[Bryn89]

Even if it forces people to accept it upon installing it for the first time, really it's no big deal, in relation to what Moonbat has said.

Besides, who even reads the TOS in general? The average person just glances through it and hits "I accept" without ever thinking of anything...

[Moonchild]

Besides, who even reads the TOS in general? The average person just glances through it and hits "I accept" without ever thinking of anything...

You should. These kinds of terms are valid and legally binding, even if it's "just one click". So, it is a big deal.
Has anyone read these terms in detail? And interpreted them with the understanding that Mozilla likely will be sharing some of the vast amounts of collected user data with others? Has anyone asked the question "why now? what has changed that they must now seek consent before further use of their browser?"

[suzyne]

Besides, who even reads the TOS in general? The average person just glances through it and hits "I accept" without ever thinking of anything...

I know I should read each TOS more thoroughly, but the problem is that even when I do, I often find they are worded in a way that raises more questions in my mind about what the terms and conditions actually mean? For example, when I see sections with stuff like partners and share, when the terms don't state who their partners are or how many they have, I am not really being told much am I?

I see TOS and Privacy Policies as a bit like Open Source software. Everybody raves about how important open source is, but no regular user actually reads all the code do they?

Users just take it on faith and reputation that a particular piece of software is legit and safe. For me, it's similar with the TOS of what I install and use.

[Gemmaugr]

Besides, who even reads the TOS in general? The average person just glances through it and hits "I accept" without ever thinking of anything...

I know I should read each TOS more thoroughly, but the problem is that even when I do, I often find they are worded in a way that raises more questions in my mind about what the terms and conditions actually mean? For example, when I see sections with stuff like partners and share, when the terms don't state who their partners are or how many they have, I am not really being told much am I?

I see TOS and Privacy Policies as a bit like Open Source software. Everybody raves about how important open source is, but no regular user actually reads all the code do they?

Users just take it on faith and reputation that a particular piece of software is legit and safe. For me, it's similar with the TOS of what I install and use.

This basically sums it up. Almost no one reads a TOS or similarly "legal" verbiage, and even if they do, they can't understand it. It's not really meant to be understood either. I've used https://tosdr.org/en a few times (a pun on TLDR, too long, didn't read).

[Lucio Chiappetti]

Maybe I'm too naive. I do not like the idea of myself as an identifiable person to be tracked, and use Pale Moon instead of Chrome whenever possible.
But I wonder, what kind of identifiable information could be stored if:

1. [*}I do not log in to a site but just browse it without logging in nor registering with my e-mail (exceptions are public administration or scientific sites or rare cases of commercial sites, like theatre ticketing)
2. I delete cookies at end of session or even earlier (cookies exterminator)
3. when I worked, my machine had a static IP, so they could know that somebody from a given IP did the query, but not who I was; now at home I have dynamic CGNAT IP, which is different each day, so it would be even less associated to my person

Am I too optimistic ?

[back2themoon]

They usually offer a summary, right? And when a policy is changed, they usually indicate those specific, new changes. However, this does not always occur and you are basically forced to:

a) Read everything
b) Accept anyway, whether you like it or not. Sure, you can also stop using the website/service etc. - not always practical.

[suzyne]

Am I too optimistic ?

In terms of the preventing the sites you visit from collecting data directly linked to you, as an individual, this sounds pretty good.

While if you want to protect yourself if (not saying anyone is) doing illegal activities, without a VPN (and maybe some extra DNS safeguards), I think your ISP will still know exactly who you are and have complete logs?