> Because something fundamental has been lost.
> Zero telemetry, privacy‑first access to the internet: a basic human right.
> We believe there needs to be a different path: a browser that answers only to its user.
So basically they have just re-invented Firefox Focus and/or Mullvad Browser ?
Disable Daily Ping and Crash Reports in Firefox Focus and you too have a telemetry-free browser on iOS.
I dropped firefox 9 months so after they updated their privacy policy and removed "we don't sell your data" from their FAQ.
Besides, it doesn't seem like I'm able to install sponsorblock, ublockock origin etc on iOS firefox. I love using sponsorblock and several other add-ons from both Mazzella in chrome in Orion on my phone.
> I dropped firefox 9 months so after they updated their privacy policy and removed "we don't sell your data" from their FAQ.
"Firefox" != "Firefox Focus"
Please do not conflate the two.
> it doesn't seem like I'm able to install sponsorblock, ublockock origin etc on iOS firefox
There are other options though. For example a DoH DNS profile pointing at DNS servers that do that for you (for example Mullvad's `adblock.dns.mullvad.net` DNS servers).
Mozilla has hired a lot of execs from Meta and bought an ad company, looking through a lot of their privacy policy at the time, a lot of it involves rewriting it to say that they can serve you sponsored suggestions when you're searching for things in their search bar and stuff and sharing out some of that data with third parties etc.
Firefox was bringing in half a billion a year for the last decade, if they would've just invested that money in low risk money market accounts (instead of paying their csuite executives millions of dollars in salary and putting the rest on non-Firefox related related social causes), the company would be able to easily survive off the interest alone.
I've been using Firefox since like 2006 and have defended it for decades even when they've made questionable decisions that have gotten everybody upset with them. But this time it wasn't just making stupid decisions to try and fund the company, this time they actuality sold out their own customers.
In public announcement in the above link explaining why they removed "we don't sell your data" from the FAQ, the rationality was that some jurisdictions define selling data weirdly, they cited California's definition as an example but California's definition is exactly what I would consider the definition of selling my personal data.
They're justifying this by saying that they need it to stay alive since they're not going to be getting money from Google anymore, but I argue that you shouldn't sell out your customer base on the very specific reason anyone would choose you. I would rather pay a monthly fee to use Firefox to support them, but even if you gave them $500 million today they would just squander it away like they've done since forever so I really don't have any solution I can think of which frustrates me.
It's absolutely Firefox that I'm trying to avoid completely at this point.
> There are other options though. For example a DoH DNS profile pointing at DNS servers that do that for you (for example Mullvad's `adblock.dns.mullvad.net` DNS servers
DNS adblock doesn't automatically skip sponsored segments of videos like sponsorblock does.
Because their blog makes a big song and dance about the items I quoted above as the answer to their self-imposed question "why the heck do we need a new browser?".
They are saying "we need a new browser" because "Zero telemetry, privacy‑first access has been lost".
However the reality is that zero-telemetry has NOT been lost. It is there in Firefox Focus, Mullvad Browser and doubtless others too.
Therefore, I quite rightly am returning to their question "why the heck do we need a new browser?".
Because "there are no zero telemetry browsers" is factually incorrect as an answer to their headline question.
At the very least they should address their competitor products and why they consider themselves different. Don't just bury your head in the sand and pretend your product has no competitors.
But really they should have picked a better headline topic to base their blog on.
Disable Daily Ping and Crash Reports in Firefox Focus and you too have a telemetry-free browser on iOS.
Meanwhile on macOS you have Mullvad Browser.