Firefox Community Forum

I've been reading about how Firefox is starting to include Google Gemini (along with other AI models like Claude and ChatGPT) into the browser sidebar and experiment with AI features.

To be honest, this feels a bit odd to me. Mozilla has always positioned itself as the independent, privacy-first champion of the open web, while Google is a data-driven tech giant. Isn't integrating Gemini a bit of a contradiction or a conflict of interest for Firefox's privacy mission?

I know Google pays Mozilla to be the default search engine, but does this AI integration mean Firefox is giving up ground on its core privacy values, or is there a different strategy at play here regarding user choice and local/on-device AI?

Would love to get the community's thoughts on how Mozilla balances this partnership without compromising its mission. Thanks!

I have recently discovered that Firefox is constantly sending data at around 3KBytes/S to a variety of Cloudflare servers.

What is the data that is being sent and why is this happening?

This has started to occur in one of the last updates to Firefox.

Currently running 151.0.4 (64-bit) on Windows

Does this constitute a privacy violation, what is the data that is being sent?

Just getting started using Mozilla features after many years absence. So much has changed! I have yet to decide what I need help with. All of it! So let me proceed on my own to figure this out and return for support when I feel I need it most, and more importantly, when I feel I feel I have the time and energy to devote to the learning curve required.

I have all the location settings I can find on my Firefox browser, google, and device turned off, but the new firefox weather widget still had my hometown as the default location, which is is not the same location as my IP address. And when I went to buy a book online through Thriftbooks with a guest account the address line autofilled with addresses in my hometown. I do not have any addresses saved to autofill. Where is this information being stored and how do I get rid of it?? Is there something in about:config I can shut off or disable?

Thank you for your time and assistance.

I just updated Firefox to version 151.0. The release notes say:

"Private Browsing Mode now allows you to instantly clear all data from your current session without closing the entire window. When you select the End Private Session button (the fire icon) to the right of the URL bar, Firefox will ask you to confirm to clear your session. Once confirmed, it will wipe all of your private browsing data and open a fresh new Private Browsing Mode session for you."

There is no "fire icon" in my toolbar in private browsing windows. I have tried resetting my toolbar to defaults, but that didn't help. I re-installed Firefox 151.0, but that didn't help. I re-booted my system, but that didn't help. I have run out of ideas.

Can anyone tell me how to get this button to appear in the toolbar in private browsing sessions?

I'm using Windows 11 25H2 on a Dell XPS 9630 tower computer.

Thanks, Bill