Mozilla Clarifies: Not Using User Data for AI Amid Terms Backlash

Mozilla recently faced significant backlash over the new Terms of Use for its Firefox web browser, which some users felt used overly broad language that seemed to grant the company rights to any data entered or uploaded by users. In response, Mozilla clarified that these new terms do not represent a change in their data usage practices but are intended to formalize and clarify the user agreement.

On Wednesday, Mozilla rolled out the new Terms of Use along with an updated Privacy Notice for Firefox, aiming to enhance transparency about user rights and permissions, and to provide a clearer explanation of their data practices. "We tried to make these easy to read and understand — there shouldn’t be any surprises in how we operate or how our product works," the company stated in a blog post.

However, the initial rollout caused confusion, prompting Mozilla to update the blog post to explicitly state that the terms do not give Mozilla ownership of user data or the right to use it beyond what is outlined in the Privacy Notice.

The new terms included a statement that particularly alarmed users: "When you upload or input information through Firefox, you hereby grant us a nonexclusive, royalty-free, worldwide license to use that information to help you navigate, experience, and interact with online content as you indicate with your use of Firefox." Critics, including Brendan Eich, co-founder and CEO of rival browser maker Brave Software, expressed strong concerns about the broadness of this language. Eich suggested on X that Mozilla might be pivoting its business model to monetize user data for AI and other purposes.

In response to these concerns, TechCrunch sought clarification from Mozilla about whether the new terms indicated that user data was being shared with AI companies or advertisers. Mozilla confirmed that the Privacy Notice still governs the use of AI features, and that content data is not sent to Mozilla or third parties. They also emphasized that any data shared with advertisers is de-identified.

Brandon Borrman, Mozilla’s VP of Communications, told TechCrunch, "These changes are not driven by a desire by Mozilla to use people’s data for AI or sell it to advertisers. As it says in the Terms of Use, we ask for permission from the user to use their data to operate Firefox ‘as you indicate with your use of Firefox.’ This means that our ability to use data is still limited by what we disclose in the Privacy Notice."

The Privacy Notice specifies that Firefox may collect technical and interaction data related to the use of AI chatbots. If users opt into using third-party AI chatbots with Firefox, the third party will handle their data according to their own policies. Other AI features in Firefox operate locally on users' devices and do not transmit content data to Mozilla or elsewhere.

Mozilla also clarified its advertising practices, noting that it does sell advertising within Firefox to fund browser development. "It’s part of Mozilla’s focus to build privacy-preserving ads products that improve best practices across the industry," a spokesperson said. They added that any data collected and shared with advertising partners is done so on a de-identified or aggregated basis, as outlined in the Privacy Notice. Users can opt out of data processing for advertising purposes by disabling a setting related to "technical and interaction data" on both desktop and mobile devices.

Mozilla further explained the choice of certain terms in the agreement. The term "nonexclusive" was used to indicate that Mozilla does not seek an exclusive license to user data, allowing users to use their data elsewhere. "Royalty-free" was chosen because Firefox is a free service, and neither Mozilla nor the user should owe money for data handling. "Worldwide" reflects Firefox's global availability and its role in accessing the global internet.

Despite Mozilla's efforts to clarify that the new policies do not change how they use data, the broad language used in the terms may continue to raise concerns among users, potentially driving some to switch to other browsers. This could be challenging for Firefox, which currently holds only a 2.54% share of the global browser market, trailing behind Chrome (67%), Safari (17.95%), and Edge (5.2%).

Updated after publication to attribute the statement more accurately to Mozilla’s VP of Comms Brandon Borrman, rather than the spokesperson who had emailed the statement, Kenya Friend-Daniel.