Please Stop Compromising User Trust and Utilizing AI - Anthony Enzor-Demeo's New CEO Role and How Mozilla Has Changed

Hi there! I'm a long time user of Firefox, on and off since roughly 2004. I just saw the Mozilla blog post about Anthony Enzor-Demeo taking over as Mozilla's CEO this m… (read more)

Hi there!

I'm a long time user of Firefox, on and off since roughly 2004.

I just saw the Mozilla blog post about Anthony Enzor-Demeo taking over as Mozilla's CEO this morning and am writing here in an attempt to find a way to reach out to anyone within the Mozilla Foundation regarding the direction the Firefox application has been headed, and try to make myself and similar minds within the Firefox community heard about the changes that Mozilla has made to its policies and direction.

In February 27th of this year, Mozilla changed Firefox's ToS and Privacy Notices to incorporate legally binding policies for the application and strip it of its original privacy-first, open-source nature. This, while not a deterministic factor in how the application operates; illustrates a sudden, outward and hostile stance towards its existing user-base who is most commonly comprised of users dissatisfied with the lack of secure and private browser options available. Personally, I refuse to use Chromium-based web engines wherever possible and Firefox has been my one and only way to break from this "monopoly" of web engines.

Beginning to harvest user data for use by Mozilla and claiming ownership of any user content is immediately a massive breach of trust and contradicts what Mozilla as an organization has stood for since its inception. Going a step further to utilize this data to either be sold to advertisers as an asset, or to be used to train LLM's is exactly what I DON'T want to have happen with my data. I hate that this change happened and it massively reduced my trust in Mozilla and Firefox as a platform.

I never asked for this, Mozilla promised that it would never happen, and now I'm left betrayed by broken promises made with the express intent to turn a profit on my behalf as a user.

In Anthony's blog post, he mentions how AI has reshaped how people search, shop and make decisions in ways that were hard to see or understand. I outwardly disagree with this statement and feel as though AI has "infected" its way through society by brute force, being put in front of every user and shoved in every application. LLM's are not a catchall solution, do not help resolve issues in new and innovative ways, and are massively misused, causing excessive resource usage, gutting consumer markets, and decimating the tech industry by causing excessive amounts of data centers and global tech inventories to be purchased and built with no promise of delivery.

While I may want a fast, modern browser that is honest about what it does- I want that with no obscurity. I want a web engine that is open source, as lightweight and minimal in its design and coding as possible; and with no bureaucracy. I want to know how the engine works, to have the option to review its codebase front to back, to have my data stay as my data on my own local machine without providing it to a third party simply by using an application. Mozilla with its changes since February of this year have removed this as a possibility from their entire application suite.

I don't want AI in my browser- AT ALL. I have disabled it in every capacity that I can (frustratingly too, as these are all enabled by default and FORCE me to provide you my data without express consent.) and with every advancement Mozilla makes towards calling it "the future" and "the focal point", I lose trust. I don't want AI, I want the old privacy policy put back, and I really, well and truly and wholly, DO NOT WANT AI.

I NEVER ASKED FOR THIS, IT'S RUINING OUR LIVES, OUR SOCIETY, OUR PLANET, AND I WANT IT GONE.

Unless Mozilla stops this direction today, I will be seeking out new options, disallowing Firefox usage in any corporate environments within my jurisdiction, and actively informing friends, family and acquaintances of Mozilla and Firefox's fall from grace, and to utilize other user-centric options.

Thank you for your attention, have a great day, and I hope Mozilla can create action that will allow its users to trust it once again.

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Windows 11 crashes whenever I do a search with FF on a certain homepage. Doesn't happen in Opera.

I tried several things, but nothing helped so far. I did an offline-scan with Windows Defender, I opened FF in troubleshoot mode, cleared cache etc. I got the following c… (read more)

I tried several things, but nothing helped so far. I did an offline-scan with Windows Defender, I opened FF in troubleshoot mode, cleared cache etc. I got the following crash-ID:

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Maybe someone here is able to help me. Thanks in advance.

Asked by oranglucky 1 week ago

On the topic of "AI" and Privacy

Firefox is already a product that works and is probably the best alternative to any of the other major browsers out there. It's a product that I've been happy to use for … (read more)

Firefox is already a product that works and is probably the best alternative to any of the other major browsers out there. It's a product that I've been happy to use for many, many years. So why is it being ruined by this needless push to add in "AI"? I don't want it. I don't want any part of it to touch my experience using this browser. I want either an easy way to completely turn it off so it can't suck up my data and expose my private information, or not have it be included at all. I will actively be looking for alternative browsers if these plans continue.

Asked by supersonic-811 4 hours ago

Forward my distaste for AI features to the CEO.

I hope this goes somewhere, like a representative email or something. But I use firefox because it's user and cpu friendly, and it isn't spying on me like Google. I can d… (read more)

I hope this goes somewhere, like a representative email or something. But I use firefox because it's user and cpu friendly, and it isn't spying on me like Google. I can disable so many analytics and have privacy extensions. Re: your new CEO's intro article, I find it infringing upon my privacy to force AI features on my browser like this. Your primary userbase does not want this.

Asked by spectrecowboy 10 hours ago

Firefox with AI

I am looking for confirmation that Mozilla is moving to an 'AI browser'. Will there be an option to not use this data harvesting LLM garbage or will mozilla be abandon… (read more)

I am looking for confirmation that Mozilla is moving to an 'AI browser'.

Will there be an option to not use this data harvesting LLM garbage or will mozilla be abandoning their core values?

Asked by mail1756 8 hours ago

  • Solved

I have no ''About Firefox'' anymore! HELP!

(If any relevance, I'm on Macos 12 Monterey) 'Installation and updates' seemed the nearest topic due to the 'update' part of it, since this seems to only have been happen… (read more)

(If any relevance, I'm on Macos 12 Monterey) 'Installation and updates' seemed the nearest topic due to the 'update' part of it, since this seems to only have been happening since this version, or I have simply not noticed due to not having needed to know. But if you look at my two screenshots, you will see the issue. There simply is no About Firefox on my firefox. Neither directly listed on the menu, nor as part of the 'help' sub menu.

Is there, for the sake of learning, a simple fix, so that I donlt have to uninstall/re-install? or an 'about config' type fix? Screenshot 1 shows the menu Screenshot 2 shows help sub-menu As you can see, absolutely no About Firefox

And, only potential issue may be, as you'll see from the share data upload is that I've a lot of tabs open, as I've got a lot to get through toniught, and tomorrow. So, maybe, t=though doubtfully, it is because it isn't handling the tabs and this caused a menu entry to be missing? Surely not likely.

Asked by Villainous Chillinous 1 month ago

Answered by Villainous Chillinous 1 month ago

Please don't ruin Firefox

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The entire appeal of this browser is that it has NOT been ruined with AI slop. I will stop using Firefox if this incredibly out of touch new CEO gets his way and destroys everything I like about it. Please reconsider betraying everyone who chooses to use your product.

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Last reply by Ranko 2 hours ago

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Last reply by Konstantina Papadea 1 month ago

Why do we need to have AI slop forcibly put into our browser?

I did not ask for to have intrusive AI slop put in our browsers. I literally switched over to Firefox for very specific reasons. I stopped using other browsers, such as … (read more)

I did not ask for to have intrusive AI slop put in our browsers.

I literally switched over to Firefox for very specific reasons. I stopped using other browsers, such as chrome and other chromium based browsers, because they eventually got filled with AI bloatware slop that didn't really add anything to how we use the internet browsers

Firefox literally had something going on that stood out from rest of the market, and now you're willing enough to throw it all away for short-term gains to be made off the AI bubble? Firefox could've been the market leader in having a simple browser with no AI slop or general bloat added.

Not to mention the fact that AI is just straight up invasive as its basically just thinly veiled attempt to get more sensitive data harvested off users, to produce more money without paying compensation for the time used on the browser. In addition to opening up vectors for identity theft and fraud.

Once again, why is it absolutely necessary to have AI in the browser?

Asked by mydefaultaccount 10 hours ago