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Comment by alexis_fr | Hacker News Reader

Let’s enumerate how Firefox is bugging the user to tell him they respect his privacy:

- Each time one opens a tab,

- Every week in my mailbox,

- When opening any other website and their popup is here to tell me « You’re protected! »

- When one opens a website and FF asks « Do you want to install this privacy extension? », pointing at the facebook jail or the container feature.

- When suggesting to use Pocket or any new idea,

Chrome succeeded by advertising in competitors’ browsers (through Google properties) for Chrome and making Chrome get out of the way... in Chrome. I’m not sure Firefox can succeed by bugging the user in their own browser. Also, coming from a company who fired his CEO for a private donation made 10 years earlier, claiming it’s a privacy-respecting company is rich.

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This is just not true:

> Each time one opens a tab

you can customize to look exactly how you want it.

This is my new tab page: https://imgur.com/TpSzOCZ

> Every week in my mailbox

Don't subscribe to newsletters you don't enjoy.

> When opening any other website and their popup is here to tell me « You’re protected! »

You get this the first time only or after an update with new features.

> When one opens a website and FF asks « Do you want to install this privacy extension? », pointing at the Facebook jail or the container feature.

I don't like the recommended extensions thingy but it can be disabled https://imgur.com/xjTG4N2

> When suggesting to use Pocket or any new idea

Any new idea? really? we should just stop innovation.

> Also, coming from a company who fired his CEO for a private donation made 10 years earlier, claiming it’s a privacy-respecting company is rich.

Two corrections. Brendan Eich made a public donation in support of Proposition 8 banning same-sex marriage in California. He also was not fired; he voluntarily stepped down.

>Brendan Eich made a public donation

He meant private, as opposed to corporate. I'm not aware if it's even possible to hide charitable donations from the public eye.

It is, but a political campaign is not a charitable organization.

I also think it strains credulity that he could check his feelings at the door and treat all employees equally, given he felt it so important to oppress LBGTQ people that he wanted it enshrined in the California state constitution.

>Also, coming from a company who fired his CEO for a private donation made 10 years earlier, claiming it’s a privacy-respecting company is rich.

I have to admit this does make me not want to support the Mozilla foundation.

It’s not reason enough to support Google instead.

Very true, Google can be much worse. I still use Firefox. But whenever Mozilla asks for donations, this is still in the back of my mind.

I think Mozilla should have a stance about this, such as « We don’t exclude white males » or « We don’t exclude Christians ». It is an extremely difficult thing to say in 2019. The series Silicon Valley did an excellent parody of the IT scene’s position about Christians in S05E05, where a gay christian is outed by a founder, and everyone asks him to apologize for ruining his reputation.

Not because he’s gay. Because he’s Christian. And there is no way I would donate to an organization that is so much anti-Christian that they consider their pro-life positions as criminal.

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