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What exactly is the basis of firefox user statistics? Is my firefox account email used to identify my usage of Firefox?

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Tim Richardson
Tim Richardson
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About:telemetry shows an ID value in General Data. Is this the basis for firefox calculating the number of active users? Because the ID value is different for my across different versions of Firefox on the same computer.

In a reddit thread, someone has made this claim:

" MAUs are industry standard KPIs. Usernames, emails, user ids are tied to guids or uuids for the purpose of ensuring that you track unique users. Anyone who has used software like Segment understands this. 

   Mozilla needs to know its platform usage. This comes from device identifiers and os data, and is used in tandem with user data to track the statistics of it’s MAUs. Any software firm or website runner will be able to confirm this.

So when you use Mozilla and create a username, they tie that data to the browser and user info they get from you using their platform. Because that’s what you’re doing: using their software."

I do not believe this statement could be correct, because it seems contradictory to https://wiki.mozilla.org/Security/Anti_tracking_policy

I have spent an hour researching Firefox articles on telemetry, privacy policy and I still do not know what is the basis of the active users statistic. I have read that my IP address is logged in addition to the telemetry data visible in the about:telemetry page, but this does not mean that my log in with Firefox accounts is used as part of telemetry data or in tracking my usage of Firefox.

I have attached troubleshooting data to see what is included.

About:telemetry shows an ID value in General Data. Is this the basis for firefox calculating the number of active users? Because the ID value is different for my across different versions of Firefox on the same computer. In a reddit thread, someone has made this claim: " MAUs are industry standard KPIs. Usernames, emails, user ids are tied to guids or uuids for the purpose of ensuring that you track unique users. Anyone who has used software like Segment understands this. Mozilla needs to know its platform usage. This comes from device identifiers and os data, and is used in tandem with user data to track the statistics of it’s MAUs. Any software firm or website runner will be able to confirm this. So when you use Mozilla and create a username, they tie that data to the browser and user info they get from you using their platform. Because that’s what you’re doing: using their software." I do not believe this statement could be correct, because it seems contradictory to https://wiki.mozilla.org/Security/Anti_tracking_policy I have spent an hour researching Firefox articles on telemetry, privacy policy and I still do not know what is the basis of the active users statistic. I have read that my IP address is logged in addition to the telemetry data visible in the about:telemetry page, but this does not mean that my log in with Firefox accounts is used as part of telemetry data or in tracking my usage of Firefox. I have attached troubleshooting data to see what is included.