I-Firefox Community Forum

I genuinely don’t know where else to post this so it gets seen. I have been a devout user of Firefox for years. I love this browser. I love its dedication to privacy and functionality. I love how it has kept true to its concept and customers in the face of tech crazes like NFTs and AI integrations. I am such a hardcore proseletyzer of Firefox that I started paying for Mozilla VPN to support Firefox!!

So when I see that the new CEO, Anthony Enzor-DeMeo, is “doubling down” on AI integrations for Firefox, I AM LIVID. AI is NOT private. AI is NOT secure. And AI is TERRIBLE FOR THE ENVIRONMENT.

AI causes slower speed and longer load times. I have seen this in all my job’s internet workings (they insist on using browsers with AI integrations) and have felt a quiet relief that I get to come home to my good, simple browser.

AI is not private. It tracks and stores data in order to give suggestions “better for you”. And with the right prompts, anyone can pull that data.

Y’all really all read that one story of AI deleting the company’s ENTIRE DATABASE AND COMPUTER PROGRAMMING because it “panicked” and decided “ah yes, this is the techware we want to hand over all our customers to”??

I am so deeply disappointed by Mozilla’s betrayal of its customer base.

If Mozilla moves forward with AI integrations, I will pull out of using Firefox and I will stop giving Mozilla my money. Mozilla should not have hired a CEO who goes so adamantly against everything Mozilla as a company stands for.

And to the CEO Anthony: I hope you step in something wet in only your socks, every single day, until you either come to your senses or someone better replaces you as CEO of Mozilla.

To whoever this new CEO is of firefox,

Stop with the AI garbage. Please.

AI is a notorious waste of space in software and all it does is bog down the experience and make everything harder for everyone. Also it is notorious for collecting information and violating users privacy like the lab rats you apparently take us for.

Stop it.

I loved Firefox because I could use it comfortably without all of this stupid AI crap making my life harder. I've already hacked my browser to make sure this doesn't appear but I'm not satisfied. To any other firefox tech reading this get that Anthony guy out of here. We don't want him, and we don't want AI.

Thank you.

I have no interest in it and view it as a security risk and liability. I've been using Firefox for over a decade, every since I realized how horrible Google is. Why the heck would Mozilla do this?

I have been a Firefox user for many years, due to concerns about privacy with using chrome or chrome-based browsers, and because I liked the ethos I understood Firefox to have, of prioritising what is best for users instead of what's best for corporations.

But with every new Firefox update these days, there are new "AI" tools and integrations. Generative "AI" is created based on access to ordinary people's data in ways that are coercive at best or illegal at worst. This is inherently a privacy concern, of course. But beyond that, the current "AI" bubble in tech is bad for internet users and for humans on planet earth as a whole, in many ways that have been elucidated in detail by people who are much more knowledgeable than me. Whatever small benefits "AI" can provide within a user's experience of Firefox are not worth this whole heap of trade-offs.

Watching Firefox go down this route is starting to make me think that maybe it's no better than the megacorps that mediate most people's experience of the internet, and if that's the case, then why would anyone bother to put up with the hiccups that Firefox users semi-regularly experience, where a webpage does not work as intended because the developers didn't bother to make sure it was Firefox compatible.

And as a side-bar, until I found guides online for how to fully shut down certain "AI" features of Firefox, my laptop was behaving with SO much lag whenever Firefox was open that it was becoming nearly unuseable. The modern unmodified Firefox is incompatible with cheaper or older computers, with the amount of computing resources required.

This whole thing just smacks of Firefox jumping on the popularity train for "AI" because it's what all the other companies are doing and Firefox leadership is afraid of being left behind, instead of making decisions based on what is best for the actual community of ordinary users.

I don't expect my post here to actually change anything, but I do feel it is my responsibility to say something, so that my silence cannot be taken as tacit approval for Firefox's current direction.

Thanks,

Soph

Firefox had been a safe haven for anti-AI, and used to be my go-to search engine. If this AI bullshit continues, no one will respect or use the browser. Stop implementing AI garbage that steals data

When I opened my computer this morning, it said Firefox crashed. Yesterday, I was scammed by a scammer claiming to be from Microsoft who had me do many things on my computer to remove a virus that wasn't there. Instead, I suspect he may have access to my information now. So this morning after it said that Firefox had crashed, I asked to open a new Firefox session and things seemed to be normal. Please double check to make sure there is nothing wrong with my Firefox account and let me know. Thank You!

I just had another credit card get fraudulent charges. I have no clue how they are getting my card numbers, I have pulled all but 1 from anywhere online, but they just got another one. I couldn't get Mozilla VPN to work it just quit working at all. I turned Pocket off but I'm still getting 17 to 18 instances of Firefox. Dont know where to go now. Thinking of pulling the plug and starting over.

possibly very stupid question - how do i not mask emails to addresses of people i want to know who i am? or does relay only apply to websites/newsletters etc and not emails to contacts in my inbox?