Last month, Mozilla made a quiet change in Firefox that caused some diehard users to revolt.
Deep in the browser’s privacy settings, Firefox introduced an experimental “privacy-preserving ad measurement” toggle, enabling it by default without explanation or disclosure. It’s a system that Mozilla designed in partnership with Meta, allowing advertisers to measure the success of their campaigns without collecting individual user data.
Privacy experts say the new toggle is mostly harmless, but Firefox users saw it as a betrayal. The Mozilla Corporation, which operates Firefox as a subsidiary of the nonprofit Mozilla Foundation, has always claimed to put people ahead of business interests, yet here it was offering a gift to the ad industry while keeping users in the dark.
“They made this technology for advertisers, specifically,” says Jonah Aragon, founder of the Privacy Guides website. “There’s no direct benefit to the user in creating this. It’s software that only serves a party other than the user.”
The episode shows how Mozilla risks alienating longtime fans as it tries to revitalize its once-beloved web browser. Laura Chambers, who stepped into an interim CEO role at Mozilla in February, says the company is reinvesting in Firefox after letting it languish in recent years, hoping to reestablish the browser as independent alternative to the likes of Google’s Chrome and Apple’s Safari. But some of those investments, which also include forays into generative AI, may further upset the community that’s been sticking with Firefox all these years.
What’s coming to Firefox
In its mid-2000s heyday, Firefox was the top choice for anyone who wanted an alternative to Internet Explorer. Arising as an open-source spin-off from Netscape, it was faster and more secure than Microsoft’s browser, and it offered cutting-edge features such as tabbed browsing and pop-up blocking.
But over the years, Firefox’s popularity has dwindled. Google Chrome won over desktop users in the early 2010s with its streamlined design and speedier JavaScript performance, and smartphone users tend to stick with the default Safari for iOS and Chrome for Android. Meanwhile, new browsers such as Brave, Vivaldi, and Arc have offered stronger focuses on privacy or productivity. Data from Statcounter puts Firefox’s browser market share at 2.7% (7% on laptops and desktops), down from its peak of 31% in 2010.
