So what does Mozilla collect?
Anybody who claims that Firefox protects their privacy probably hasn't actually looked at Firefox's privacy policy.
Below are some excerpts from the Firefox privacy policy that is dated July 31, 2017.
Be sure to notice the type of information being collected and possibly even transmitted to third parties (including Google, some "Leanplum" company, a "mobile analytics vendor", and "certain developers"). We see terms like:
- "IP address"
- "browser version"
- "operating system"
- "locale"
- "language preference"
- "list of add-ons you have installed"
- "phone number"
- "email address"
- "URLs associated with the downloaded file"
- "hardware configuration"
- "commonly visited domains"
- "location"
- "the active URL"
- "Google advertising ID"
- "personal information"
- "key word searches"
- "Wi-Fi networks"
- "cell phone towers"
Here are the excerpts:
Once per day, Firefox sends the following info to Mozilla when it checks for browser updates: your Firefox version information, language preference, operating system, and version.
Firefox contacts Mozilla once per day to check for add-on information to check for malicious add-ons. This includes, for example: browser version, OS and version, locale, total number of requests, time of last request, time of day, IP address, and the list of add-ons you have installed.
About once per day, Firefox connects to Mozilla and provides you with new snippets, if available. Mozilla may collect how often snippets are clicked, snippet name, browser locale, and which version of Firefox you're using.
Firefox sends Mozilla a monthly request to look up your location at a country level using your IP address.
Some Mozilla sponsored snippets are interactive and allow you to optionally share your phone number or email address.
This data includes, for example: device hardware, operating system, Firefox version, add-ons (count and type), timing of browser events, rendering, session restores, length of session, interaction with search access points and use of Firefox search partner codes, how old a profile is, basic information about errors and crashes, and count of pages.
Firefox sends to this third-party information identifying the site's certificate.
About twice per hour, Firefox downloads Google's SafeBrowsing lists to help block access to sites and downloads that are malicious or forged (Google's privacy policy is at https://www.google.com/policies/privacy/).
Firefox may send metadata, including URLs associated with the downloaded file, to the SafeBrowsing service.
Usage statistics or "Telemetry" is a feature in Firefox that sends Mozilla usage, performance, and responsiveness statistics about user interface features, memory, and hardware configuration. Your IP address is also collected as a part of a standard web log.
Firefox sends to Mozilla data relating to the tiles such as number of clicks, impressions, your IP address, locale information, and tile specific data (e.g., position and size of grid).
In Firefox Beta, certain short-term Telemetry experiments (see above) for Tiles may collect information about commonly visited domains.
Firefox sends Mozilla a request once to look up your location at a country level using your IP address.
Firefox may send the terms you type in the Awesome Bar or Search Bar to your Default Search Engine to retrieve suggestions, and is governed by the applicable Privacy Policy from your Default Search Engine.
To help us understand and improve our marketing campaigns, Firefox sends certain information by default. This includes “Referral Data” such as the website domain or advertising campaign that referred you to download and install Firefox, as well as “Interaction Data” about what features you use in Firefox.
On Android and iOS, Firefox sends Referral Data to our mobile analytics vendor, and also includes a Google advertising ID, IP address, timestamp, country, locale, operating system, and app version.
On desktop, Firefox records and sends Referral Data to Mozilla as part of Firefox Health Report.
On iOS, Firefox sends Interaction Data to Leanplum, our mobile marketing vendor, which has its own privacy policy.
When you ask it to, Firefox also connects to Mozilla to provide you with features such as Sync, location services, crash reporting, and add-ons.
Firefox may use several pieces of data to determine your location, including your operating systems geolocation features, Wi-Fi networks, cell phone towers, or IP address.
Estimating your location involves sending some of this information to Google's geolocation service, which has its own privacy policy.
This includes technical information such as why Firefox crashed, the active URL and the state of Firefox's memory usage at the time of the crash, which may include personal information.
To display the personalized recommendations, Firefox sends information to Mozilla, including the list of add-ons you have installed, Firefox version information, and your IP address.
Mozilla collects these key word searches, as well as your Firefox version information, locale, and OS to show you recommendations.
Firefox sends information to Mozilla about what sites you have agreed to receive Push Notification from.
Mozilla may share aggregated information with certain developers including the number of visitors to their site that have subscribed or unsubscribed to their Push Notifications.
We receive data such as the average size and number of your uploaded screenshots, your Firefox browser version, device operating system, and errors. The IP address accessing the Firefox Screenshots website is temporarily collected as part of a standard server log.
Some people will try to justify this nonsense by saying, "It's ok, they disclose what they're collecting and sharing!" or the even more idiotic, "It's ok, you can disable some of this data collection and sharing!".
None of that matters!
If you're using Firefox because you think it gives you "privacy", well, you really ought to reconsider why you're using it.
As its very own privacy policy indicates, Firefox collects a lot of information and readily shares it with Mozilla and others.
https://m.slashdot.org/story/330335