The original post: /r/privacy by /u/TheTerranadoVortex on 2024-06-26 15:06:23.
Mozilla Firefox, a non-profit stating they are privacy-oriented but then makes business deals with Google to keep their business alive.
Doesn’t necessarily mean there is any malicious intent.
But it does seem like a conflict of interest.
It seems hypocritical as Mozilla states, Apple keeps Safari as the default browser to stifle competition but then they’re also keeping Google as the default search engine to keep the money rolling. As we all know having the default settings picked for a user usually means that they are unlikely to change that default later on.
https://www.theverge.com/2024/1/26/24052067/mozilla-apple-ios-browser-rules-firefox
Quote:
"Despite this, Mozilla argues that rolling out the changes only in the EU will make it more difficult for browsers to juggle different versions. “Apple’s proposals fail to give consumers viable choices by making it as painful as possible for others to provide competitive alternatives to Safari,” DeMonte adds. “This is another example of Apple creating barriers to prevent true browser competition on iOS.”
Quote:
“Most of the revenue of Mozilla Corporation comes from Google (81% in 2022) in exchange of making it the default search engine in Firefox.”
Quote:
“Google and Firefox have been friends from the start.” “Mozilla, the nonprofit organization that makes Firefox, introduced the web browser in 2004, the year Google went public. Both projects focused on replacing a computing landscape dominated by Microsoft Corp. with an open internet that would be more resistant to centralized control. Google assigned coders to help develop Firefox, which eventually took a 30% share of the browser market; Firefox promoted the Google search engine on its homepage.”
So I am trying to say isn’t it kind of hypocritical for Firefox or Mozilla to state things like this when they also do the same type of business deals?
If they are so privacy-oriented, why don’t they state their business conflicts transparently, like in your face as a user?
When you first download the browser, why doesn’t it say:
“We have a business relationship with Google that keeps Google the default search engine by default when the Firefox browser is first downloaded”.
“If you would like to change that, you can go into settings.”
As a non-profit, shouldn’t they be disclosing this to the public in a very transparent way?