this post was submitted on 12 Nov 2025
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Not in all cases.
As an example, Firefox has the option of sponsored results, which send anonymized technical data when a link is clicked, essentially just saying "hey, this got an ad click, add it to the total." It doesn't send info about you, your identity, or your other browsing habits.
This counts as a "sale" even though no actual identifying information about you was exchanged. They mention this in the paragraphs I attached, when they talk about data sent via OHTTP.
I don't think any reasonable person would consider a packet being sent saying "some unknown user, somewhere in the world clicked your sponsored post" as "selling your personal information", but that's how the CCPA could be used to classify it, so to avoid getting in legal trouble, Firefox can't technically say that they "never sell your data", even if that's the extent of it.
I mean... it should count as a sale, because it's a sale. They are selling information about browsing habits for money. Regardless of whether they include identifying information, it is still personal data that they are selling. They removed that line from their FAQs because they changed their minds about selling personal data. It has fuck all to do with weird legal definitions. They promised they wouldn't ever sell personal data, and then they were like "wellll......"
"Selling personal data" and "selling ads that we can tell if they are clicked by an anonymous user" are completely different, in my eyes at least.
"Selling personal data" sounds like someone taking your personally identifiable information and giving it to someone for money. What they're doing isn't that, so they're not "selling personal data"
They're selling ad views, not your information.
Ok, but it's providing information to advertisers about your activity, right? When I click on something, Firefox sells that information. Whether you consider it "personal data" is irrelevant; it is data about me: my actions.
You seem to be pretty hell-bent on defending Mozilla here. You work for them or something? It really is very simple. They started out more idealistic, but then they realized that things are expensive and there's money to be made, so they sold out a little. It happens.
They're selling "someone, somewhere clicked your ad". That's it. No other data about you is ever sent.
Nope. (though for transparency, I have briefly talked to someone who does currently work for them) I just want my browser to continue being funded, and if they can do something that is extremely privacy-preserving that doesn't rely on Google (who gives them the majority of their money) for revenue, then I will be in favor of that existing as an option, and I won't justify acting as though "ping that says someone somewhere clicked this ad" is the same as "we have received money in exchange for giving up your browsing history"
Which is unfortunate. I wish they didn't have to do things like this, because at the end of the day, ads are still ads. I just think that it's silly to say that they are selling your information, when the information being sold is in no way identifying, which is why I think I'm coming off as defensive here. (sorry for that, I'm bad at doing tone in replies online)
The alternative is just Mozilla paywalling features, heavily pushing other in-house ones like their VPN (which is just Mullvad but more expensive), or having to be more dependent on Google, and I don't want that. This just feels incredibly reasonable to me in comparison.