cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/40386879
We need to boycott Firefox
Mozilla is making it clear that they do not care about users any more.
Firefox is full of ads, with ads being in the homepage shortcuts, the news feed and the omnibox dropdown, as well as various ads for Mozilla services throughout the UI. Their ad network is also marketed to companies as allowing them to reach adblocker users.
Mozilla’s 210M+ global users are typically hard to reach. They're usually hidden behind ad blockers, nearly half avoid dominant social media, and most say no to default platforms. They’re selective, tech savvy, and paying attention. From: https://www.mozilla.org/en-US/advertising/
Firefox is also full of tracking, with their mobile app sending data to the tracking company Adjust, and it having options for "personalised extension recommendations" and "Install and run studies". The latter allows them to install what they want into your browser without your consent out of the box.
Their tracking protection also mostly works only in private / incognito mode by default, with tracking scripts being allowed to run in standard windows with just isolated cookies protecting you, which is not a decision that a company who actually cares about privacy would make.
Mozilla is also partnering with Perplexity, an AI search engine who wants to collect as much data as possible even outside of their app to sell "hyper personalized" ads, which is exactly who you shouldn't work with if you claim to care about privacy. From: https://techcrunch.com/2025/04/24/perplexity-ceo-says-its-browser-will-track-everything-users-do-online-to-sell-hyper-personalized-ads/
I recommend switching to Librewolf as it takes Firefox and removes this bullshit. Some other alternatives like Brave are just as bad.
While I wouldn't want to argue that Firefox hasn't become more shit it doesn't fit the Doctorowian definition of enshitification. And while they screw up stuff, to not an insignificant amount in communicating to the public what they're doing, I do think their desktop browser is still better than most other browsers, all Chromium based ones included, and most of the terrible things are opt-ins. You don't want them to install shit without you knowing? Then don't participate in their experimentals. You don't want the so-called AI crap in there? It'll be opt-in as well so don't opt in. If your standard was zero tracking then vanilla Firefox was never your right flavor. And virtually all mobile shit is trackable. So let's take a chill pill and also appreciate if we push Firefox out of business, all the libres and waters will probably not be far behind.
Everybody is free to switch to any browser they like. Not every switch needs public announcing or result in a call to arms.