#mozilla foundation

[autolenaphilia]

It's funny how clearly uninformed a lot of criticism of Mozilla and its browser Firefox is. Like people say "it's just another corporation, out to make profit, just like Google." And that ordinary users promoting Firefox are just giving them free advertising.

It's in basically any post criticizing Mozilla, including on this site. Like using tumblr search I quickly found a post that was largely positive, but argued that Mozilla operates "under capitalist incentives" And outside tumblr I found a blog post out on the interwebs that criticized Mozilla and outright wondered "I don't know if Mozilla's business model ever made sense, it makes a lot more sense if it's something closer to a nonprofit rather than a commercial entity."

Well, let's research the Mozilla Corporation, see what that business model actually is. Let's begin that research by going to the wikipedia article, and read the two introductory paragraphs. And it turns out that it's "a wholly owned subsidiary of the Mozilla Foundation", which is a non-profit.

"The Mozilla Foundation will ultimately control the activities of the Mozilla Corporation and will retain its 100 percent ownership of the new subsidiary. Any profits made by the Mozilla Corporation will be invested back into the Mozilla project. There will be no shareholders, no stock options will be issued and no dividends will be paid. The Mozilla Corporation will not be floating on the stock market and it will be impossible for any company to take over or buy a stake in the subsidiary."

Turns out that it is not just "closer to a non-profit", it is literally a non-profit. Turns out you only needed two paragraphs on wikipedia to learn that, the most basic online research possible, which basically every post I found criticizing Mozilla failed to do.

This is entirely different from any other entity calling itself corporation, which is all about creating profit or money for its shareholders, the "capitalist incentives" spoken about earlier.

If you read further into that article, you will learn that the Mozilla corporation literally only exists separate from the foundation for tax and legal purposes, but it's still a non-profit operation.

This makes it reasonably immune from the enshittification process I've written about before. there is no incentive to fuck over the experience for end users for the sake of shareholder profits, like what tumblr is doing right now.

It means that Firefox is an exemption to the rule that "if something is free, you are the product", because there is no product to produce profits for shareholders, it's a charitable endeavour for a free and open internet, as laid out in the Mozilla manifesto.

This doesn't mean non-profits make corruption impossible, there is plenty of corruption in non-profit foundations. But unlike actual capitalist corporations, it doesn't have the greed and corruption built in. And if you are going to criticize Mozilla and Firefox, which it does sometimes deserve, you should have your basic facts straight before doing so, if you expect me to take you seriously.

[brightgnosis]

It’s Official: Cars Are Terrible at Privacy and Security from the Mozilla Foundation

[businessbigwigs]

Data Privacy and Your Drive

Data privacy in the automobile industry is terrible, reveals a recent study by the Mozilla Foundation. The study reveals that cars have poor data privacy, with many major manufacturers admitting they may be selling personal information collected from their vehicles. What’s even more alarming is that half of these manufacturers are willing to share this data with government or law enforcement…

[shadwocomsa]

شرح استخدام ميزة الترجمة المجانية دون اتصال من Mozilla في Firefox

شرح استخدام ميزة الترجمة المجانية دون اتصال من Mozilla في Firefox

شرح استخدام ميزة الترجمة المجانية دون اتصال من Mozilla في Firefox أضافت Mozilla Foundation أداة ترجمة رسمية إلى Firefox لا تعتمد على المعالجة السحابية لإنجاز المهمة، ولكنها بد��اً من ذلك تدير عملية قائمة على التعلم الآلي على جهاز الكمبيوتر الخاص بك. يمثل هذا خطوة كبيرة إلى الأمام لخدمة شعبية مرتبطة ارتباطًا وثيقًا بعمالقة مثل Google و Microsoft. يمكن إضافة أداة ترجمة تسمى ترجمات Firefox إلى…

[freepixelpromotion]

Firefox 100 - After Google Chrome, it's Mozilla's turn to offer us version 100 - Software - Articles

Firefox 100 – After Google Chrome, it’s Mozilla’s turn to offer us version 100 – Software – Articles

The Mozilla Foundation has just put online a new version of its Firefox browser which comes to us in version 100 with a few changes and improvements, but what we will remember above all is the transition to version 100. Everything like Google with Chrome, the Mozilla Foundation has just taken the plunge with a version that goes to 3 digits. A version that will not revolutionize the browser far…

[flying-potato2]

Password Security and Data Breaches, By Mozilla Firefox Monitor:

[odinsblog]

🗣️ This is for all new internet connected cars

A new study has found that your car likely knows more about you than your mom. That is disconcerting, but what’s even more so is what is being done with your information. It’s all about the Benjamins. Our private information is being collected and sold.

The Mozilla Foundation, a non-profit that studies internet and privacy issues, studied 25 car manufacturers. And it found every manufacturer sold in America poses a greater risk to your privacy than any device, app or social media platform.

Our cars are rolling computers, many of which are connected to the internet collecting information about how you drive and where. New cars also have microphones and sensors that give you safety features like automatic braking and drowsy driver detection. Those systems are also providing information. Got GPS or satellite radio? Then your car likely knows your habits, musical and political preferences.

Did you download your car’s app which gives you access to even more features? Well that also gives your car access to your phone and all the information on it.

The study found that of the 25 car brands, 84% say they sell your personal data.

And what they collect is astounding.

One example the study sites is KIA’s privacy policy. It indicates the company collects information about your sexual activity. I initially didn’t believe it until I pulled KIA’s privacy policy and read it. And it’s right there in black and white. It says it collects information about your “ethnicity, religious, philosophical beliefs, sexual orientation, sex life, or political opinions.

And it says it can keep your info for “as long as is necessary for the legitimate business purpose set out in this privacy notice.”

Translation: Nissan can keep your information as long as they want to. And more than half of the manufacturers (56%) say they will share your information with law enforcement if asked.

(continue reading) more ↵

[wamathai]

Seven startups from Uasin Gishu County emerge as winners of Ksh. 1 Million in the Mozilla Mashinani tech-innovation challenge

Seven start-ups from Uasin Gichu County have been awarded Ksh. 1 million through the Mozilla Mashinani tech-innovation challenge launched by Mozilla Africa Mradi and the Gladys Boss Foundation (GBF), during a workshop for tech-startups and students held in Eldoret. The startups will be offered further training and guided on how to improve their ideas and products. They include: Tindo: a video on…

[exeggcute]

it's interesting seeing so much "just install firefox it's better than chrome in every way" sentiment among people with above-average tech literacy but then venturing into the more overtly achingly nerdy corners of the web and seeing people leverage a lot of criticism against the direction the mozilla foundation's taken in recent years. particularly in that the former tends to categorize firefox as an anti-chrome but the latter is unhappy that mozilla is becoming more corporate and basically more google-y, up to and including a reliance on ad revenue and search partnerships with google themselves. which is like, in my opinion just an inevitable result of market forces or whatever, since the endgame for any sufficiently large org under capitalist incentives is to Make Money, but it kind of hammers home the futility of trying to cast any given company as a shining (and unchanging) paragon of good against their decidedly more evil competitors.

and none of this is meant to be a statement on the respective user experience of each browser or the benefits of firefox itself (versus the perceived virtue of its developers), but even that is interesting because until recently chrome was seen as the golden child against the scourge of internet explorer, and then internet explorer had previously muscled its way past netscape, and the internet explorer versus netscape wars involved a lot of underhanded shit with both sides trying to set competing proprietary standards that made certain websites borderline unusable in the opposite browser. meanwhile netscape vanished for a bit but was eventually reincarnated as a company called mozilla

[autolenaphilia]

Why enshittification happens and how to stop it.

The enshittification of the internet and increasingly the software we use to access it is driven by profit. It happens because corporations are machines for making profits from end users, the users and customers are only seen as sources of profits. Their interests are only considered if it can help the bottom line. It's capitalism.

For social media it's users are mainly seen by the companies that run the sites as a way for getting advertisers to pay money that can profit the shareholders. And social media is in a bit of death spiral right now, since they have seldom or never been profitable and investor money is drying up as they realize this.

So the social media companies. are getting more and more desperate for money. That's why they are getting more aggressive with getting you to watch ads or pay for the privilege of not watching ads. It won't work and tumblr and all the other sites will die eventually.

But it's not just social media companies, it's everything tech-related. It gets worse the more monopolistic a tech giant is. Google is abusing its chrome-based near monopoly over the web, nerfing adblockers, trying to drm the web, you name it. And Microsoft is famously a terrible company, spying on Windows users and selling their data. Again, there is so much money being poured into advertising, at least 493 billion globally, the tech giants want a slice of that massive pie. It's all about making profits for shareholders, people be damned.

And the only insurance against this death spiral is not being run by a corporation. If the software is being developed by a non-profit entity, and it's open source, there is no incentive for the developers to fuck over the users for the sake of profits for shareholders, because there aren't any profits, and no shareholders.

Free and Open source software is an important part of why such software development can stay non-corporate. It allows for volunteers to contribute to the code and makes it harder for users to be secretly be fucked over by hidden code.

Mozilla Firefox and Thunderbird are good examples of this. There is a Mozilla corporation, but it exists only for legal reasons and is a wholly-owned subsidiary of the non-profit Mozilla foundation. There are no shareholders. That means the Mozilla corporation is not really a corporation in the sense that Google is, and as an organization has entirely different incentives. If someone tells you that Mozilla is just another corporation, (which people have said in the notes of posts about firefox on this very site) they are spreading misinformation.

That's why Firefox has resisted the enshittification of the internet so well, it's not profit driven. And people who develop useful plugins that deshitify the web like Ublock origin and Xkit are as a rule not profit-driven corporations.

And you can go on with other examples of non-profit software like Libreoffice and VLC media player, both of which you should use.

And you can go further, use Linux as your computer's operating system.. It's the only way to resist the enshitification that the corporate duopoly of Microsoft and Apple has brought to their operating system. The plethora of community-run non-profit Linux distributions like Debian, Mint and Arch are the way to counteract that, and they will stay resistant to the same forces (creating profit for shareholders) that drove Microsoft to create Windows 11.

Of course not all Linux distributions are non-profits. There are corporate created distros like Red Hat's various distros, Canonical's Ubuntu and Suse's Opensuse, and they prove the point I'm making. There has some degree of enshittification going on with those, red hat going closed source and Canonical with the snap store for example. Mint is by now a succesful community-driven response to deshitify Ubuntu by removing snaps for example, and even they have a back-up plan to use Debian as a base in case Canonical makes Ubuntu unuseable.

As for social media, which I started with, I'm going to stay on tumblr for now, but it will definitely die. The closest thing to a community run non-profit replacement I can see is Mastodon, which I'm on as @autolenaphilia@chaosfem.tw.

You don't have to keep using corporate software, and have it inevitably decline because the corporations that develop it cares more about its profits than you as an end user.

The process of enshittification proves that corporations being profit-driven don't mean they will create a better product, and in fact may cause them to do the opposite. And the existence of great free and open source software, created entirely without the motivation of corporate profits, proves that people don't need to profit in order to help their fellow human beings. It kinda makes you question capitalism.

[izicodes]

Switching to Firefox

This post is to answer @leaveblackkbrosalone’s question on my post about me switching to Firefox!

I recently had an eye opener moment when researching about Google and how they collect data to alter the things they recommend you and other things. And it was astonishing how much data they collect on you and how they track you every movement whilst on Google/Chrome/Other Google services e.g. Google PlayStore.

I truly believe there are better alternatives out there than the default Google Chrome people tend to use. We now live in world of constant data breaches and online tracking, therefore protecting your online privacy and security has never been more important.

I’ve recently deleted Chrome from my phone and computer and switched to FireFox and I’ll explain why~!

What is Firefox?

Firefox is the famous fox web browser! It is a free and open-source that is developed by the Mozilla Foundation. It's designed to be fast, secure, and customizable, and is available for multiple operating systems, including Windows, Mac, and Linux.

Firefox includes a suite of built-in features, such as enhanced tracking protection, custom themes (so important obviously) and add-ons, and a flexible interface that can be tailored to the user's needs.

Why Firefox and not Google Chrome?

There are a bunch of reasons why I chose to delete Google Chrome and why I prefer FireFox now, let me list some:

Privacy

Firefox has a strong focus on privacy and security, with features like built-in tracking protection and a strict anti-tracking policy.

In contrast, Chrome is owned by Google, a company that relies heavily on data collection and advertising for its business model.

Customisation

Firefox has a much more flexible and customizable interface than Chrome, with a wide range of add-ons (equivalent to Chrome’s ‘extensions’ I believe) and themes available to personalize your browsing experience.

Open-source

Firefox is an open-source project, meaning that anyone can contribute to its development and review the code for security issues.

Chrome, on the other hand, is based on the Chromium project, which is also open-source but is controlled by Google.

Cross-platform compatibility

Firefox works on a wide range of devices and operating systems, including Windows, Mac, Linux, and mobile devices.

Chrome is also available on multiple platforms, but it's more heavily integrated with Google's services and ecosystem.

Performance

Firefox has made significant improvements in recent years and is now a competitive browser in terms of speed and efficiency.

Still, Chrome is known for its fast performance

Community-driven

Firefox is developed by the non-profit Mozilla Foundation, which has a strong focus on user empowerment and community involvement. This means that Firefox users have a voice in the development process and can contribute to the browser's future direction.

With all of that being said, there is one particular area that caught my eye that I mentioned briefly: the Privacy and Security.

Firefox’s Privacy and Security Advantages

Firefox definitely has advantages in these areas than Google Chrome surprisingly!

Enhanced Tracking Protection

Firefox includes built-in tracking protection that blocks many common types of trackers by default, including

third-party cookies, cryptominers, and fingerprinters

This helps to protect your online privacy and reduce the amount of data that's collected about you. Below are the options for the 'Enhance Tracking Protection' in the settings:

No Google Tracking

Oh boy, I like this one. So unlike Chrome, which is owned by Google and ties into its advertising and data collection ecosystem, Firefox is developed by the non-profit Mozilla Foundation and has no affiliation with Google or any other major tech company. This means that Firefox is less likely to collect and share your data with third parties.

No Sign-In Required

While Chrome requires you to sign in with a Google account to access certain features, Firefox does not require any sign-in at all. This means that you can still use Firefox without creating a user profile or linking your browsing activity to any personal information -

Don’t get me wrong, if you want to use the Google search engine WITHIN FireFox, it might still prompt you to sign in but you still don’t have to! Also, the choice is there to create an account just to sync bookmarks and tab from one device to another e.g. phone to laptop.

Private Browsing Mode

(Another very important part!) Firefox offers a Private Browsing mode that doesn't save your browsing history, cookies, or temporary files. This can be useful for browsing sensitive content or preventing others from seeing what you've been looking at.

Firefox's Private Browsing mode offers a more robust set of features for privacy and security than Google’s Incognito mode. Within the ‘Settings’, you can customise your privacy settings more extensively than Google Chrome. You can choose to block all third-party cookies, prevent websites from accessing your location data, and clear your browsing history and data automatically when you close the browser.

Google's Incognito mode does not block all cookies or prevent all forms of tracking.

Open-Source Security

Like I mentioned before, Firefox is an open-source project, meaning that anyone can review the code and contribute to its development. This helps to ensure that security vulnerabilities are identified and addressed quickly, and that the browser remains as secure as possible. You too can find something and report it to the repository via creating an issue!

To Conclude

Of course, these are just some general reasons why you might prefer Firefox over Chrome, and the choice ultimately comes down to personal preference and priorities. I know with developers, they would prefer Chrome for the dev tools and I think it’s almost a standard to use Chrome (though at my workplace we use Microsoft Edge), anyhoo Google is just a default for web browsing and search engine. I also know it’s hard if you have a whole Google ecosystem set up like Google docs to Sheet to Slides, emails, calendar etc, you can still use them but on a safer browser.

I would also recommend using ‘DuckDuckGo’ for a search engine as they too are really good with security and privacy but as a search engine (plus on their phone app they have a cool animation when you want to delete you browsing data from the tabs hehe)!

Links to interesting pages for more information on this topic:

YouTube videos: video 1 | video 2 | video 3 | video 4

Articles: article 1 | article 2 | article 3

I’d say give it a go, if you don’t like it I still recommend anything but Google Chrome! Well, that’s all and thank you for reading! 🥰👍🏾💗

[magz]

Reminder:

Fakespot can be useful website and extension for figure out if a product and seller legit or use fake reviews, on amazon or ebay etc.

though less feature on ebay.

Fakespot have been acquired by Mozilla foundation [Article link]

The marketing of it a bit misleading for the sake of AI hype of calling everything ever AI;

but otherwise it work fine. and Fakespot "privacy" oriented.

[shooting-stars-only]

what's the deal with firefox

Boy howdy, am I glad you asked! I'll be comparing Firefox to Chrome and Edge.

Firefox uses fewer resources than Chrome or Edge, meaning that your browser and other apps will run faster and your battery will last longer on mobile/laptop.

Firefox is privacy-focused, meaning the browser doesn't gather data unless you opt into it, and by default it blocks third-party cookies, trackers, and other things that track you across the web. You can choose between standard, strict, and custom blocking, plus install privacy tools from the add-on store. This will protect your personal data and help websites load more quickly.

Speaking of ad blocking, Firefox supports ad-blocking extensions on Android devices, unlike the other Big 3 browsers. I don't even use the YouTube app on my phone anymore because if I watch via Firefox, I get no ads. I can actually read articles on news sites without being spammed by ads! It's amazing!

Firefox has equivalent add-ons for almost all Chrome extensions, so you won't lose functionality when you switch.

Firefox accounts allow you to sync across devices, just like Google accounts allow Chrome settings to sync, so moving from desktop to mobile or vice versa is very simple.

The Mozilla Foundation, Firefox's parent company, is a non-profit which advocates for online transparency and users' rights to keep the internet usable for everyone.

Firefox is free, open source, and non-proprietary, and allows you to opt out of all sponsored content, unlike Chrome or Edge.

Firefox does not tie you down to a particular product or corporation, such as Microsoft or Apple. It works on any platform.

Cutest mascot by far.

[subdee]

It’s Official: Cars Are the Worst Product Category We Have Ever Reviewed for Privacy

Article from Mozilla foundation about how many different kinds of data your car's privacy policy says it can collect from you.

Highlights are Nissan and Kia collecting information about your sex life but all the major car brands collect way more data than they need to, make "inferences" from the data about your intelligence, abilities, and interests, and sell the data and inferences to 3rd parties.

And: "A surprising number (56%) also say they can share your information with the government or law enforcement in response to a “request.” Not a high bar court order, but something as easy as an “informal request.”"

Really scary stuff, read the article, and there's a petition you can sign. Most people consider their car a private space and even if they didn't, it's not like you can opt out of buying a car with a bad privacy policy when they're all like this!!!!

[sonicenvy]

If you are somehow not already a user of uBlock Origin, this is your sign!

What is uBlock Origin?

Glad you asked! It’s a browser extension available for users of Mozilla Firefox and Google Chrome (derogatory). It is THE best adblocker out there in terms of scope, options, power, reliability and speed. It is not available for Safari users (derogatory) because Safari does not allow you to use any kinds of content blockers with the kind of power that uBlock Origin has. If you must use Safari, obtain a copy of ghostery. It is nowhere near as good as uBlock Origin or even adguard, but it is actually functional and legit, which cannot be said for most other “adblockers” purportedly available for Safari. Sidenote: uBlock Origin does not have a website of its own. The closest you’ll get is their subreddit, which you 100% should check out. If you use reddit, you can even get other people and uBlock devs to help you troubleshoot issues that you encounter.

OK, but, like what makes uBlock origin better than MY adblocker/no adblocker?

SO glad you asked! Ok, so you know how I said above that uBlock Origin is an adblocker? Well, technically it’s really a “content blocker”.

What does this mean?

So, when you get something like adblock or adblock plus or adguard or whatever, the creator of the extension make and maintains the block lists and can do whatever they want with them. They block ads. Supposedly.

But uBlock Origin? YOU can block whatever annoying adverts OR clutter on pages that you’d like. You control which filters the extension uses, can write your own filters, use the extension’s element picker to physically select an element to block on screen, or use filter lists created by other users. (Highly recommend checking out the filter lists you can add from here, here and the listed ones here in the uBlock subreddit’s FAQ. Also recommend you check out Peter Lowe’s Ad tracking list.) The extension comes out of the box with a bunch of pre-added super useful lists, and you can expand on this by adding whatever other ones you’d like.

Also uBlock Origin blocks ALL ads on YouTube. You can even remove the recommended videos column on the right hand side of your screen with this filter list. YouTube premium whomst??

But let me show you the ublock difference using screenshots! I will be screenshotting with ublock in Firefox and with no adblocker in safari.

With uBlock Origin, in Firefox:

Without uBlock Origin, in safari:

With uBlock Origin in Firefox (side note: I have the remove YT recommended column filter list in mine, which is not included in the out of the box version, so that’s what the blank column is. For me, adding that filter is really about wasting less time when I watch YT videos. It also does not autoplay another video, or even the one that I selected.):

Without uBlock Origin in Safari:

So what are you waiting for??

tldr; the internet is godawful and unusable without ad blocking and uBlock origin is the best tool for the job. Also, you should switch to firefox, because I have heard rumours that google intends to join safari in the anti-adblocking crusade. There are numerous other reasons to switch, but, uh, that’s another post entirely. Finally, I am not personally affiliated with raymond hill (creator of uBlock Origin) or the mozilla foundation, I am simply a fan of their work.

Get thee a greatly improved internet experience today!

[tomboyjessie13]

A friend of mine @mollyjimbly wants me to post this, I don't know what Mozilla is, but it seems to be some kind of global nonprofit dedicated to keeping the internet accessible to everyone as it claims.