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Comment by db48x | Hacker News Reader

But that has nothing to do with the new language that was added to the ToS, which states:

> You give Mozilla the rights necessary to operate Firefox. This includes processing your data as we describe in the Firefox Privacy Notice. It also includes a nonexclusive, royalty-free, worldwide license for the purpose of doing as you request with the content you input in Firefox. This does not give Mozilla any ownership in that content.

This new license to the data that you enter into the browser is only for local operation of the browser itself, not for ads or sponsored suggestions. In addition to that license, they also use the words that you type into the urlbar or search box to customize the ads and search suggestions that you see. It is important to keep these two things separate, because only one of them is new. The other has been there for years.

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Nothing in the ToU says this is local only or not for ads.

Of course it does. It explicitly says that the license is for “operating Firefox” and “for the purpose of doing as you request”. Not for improving it, or serving you ads, or for understanding your usage. Just for Firefox to follow your instructions. You type in a url, and it navigates to the url for you and saves it in your history. You type in some form data, and it submits it for you and saves it for later.

> It explicitly says that the license is for “operating Firefox” and “for the purpose of doing as you request”. Not for improving it, or serving you ads, or for understanding your usage.

It does not. That is explicitly stated as a subset of their rights. Before that sentence you might notice:

“This includes processing your data as we describe in the Firefox Privacy Notice.”

So check the privacy notice and you find…

“How we use data

We use data to keep Firefox running smoothly, improve features and help sustain our business”

So they can use the data in anyway that helps sustain the business.

> We use data to keep Firefox running smoothly, improve features and help sustain our business

I would say that those 3 vaguely worded things pretty much cover them to use consumer data in any way they want.

Exactly.

Yes, their rights have 2 parts in their paragraph:

1. The data processed described in the Privacy Notice,

2. A nonexclusive, royalty-free, worldwide license for the purpose of doing as you request with the content you input in Firefox.

The 2nd is not the data they talk about in the 1st (a.k.a the Privacy Notice). The data they describe in the Privacy Notice in the 1st are not the data they have "nonexclusive, royalty-free, worldwide license" in the 2nd. Don't mix 2 or these together.

Completely disagree with that interpretation of that language. Given the beginning sentence of “You give Mozilla the rights necessary to operate Firefox.”

Operate Firefox is an extremely broad statement. It then goes to outline that means everything in their privacy notice (which then also includes even more broad language) and then exclusive, worldwide license.

No good will or benefit of the doubt should be given to a terms of service like this. The changes here are an expansion of Firefox’s rights - therefor, a contracting of your own.

You do you. We are not the legal entities who are the ones that will decide the final understanding of those legal words.

If anyone thinks Firefox processes the data with "nonexclusive, royalty-free, worldwide license" outside of "the purpose of doing as you request with the content you input in Firefox" like in scenario 1 (the Privacy Notice), I would like to learn about which codes in Firefox that do that. It would be really useful as well if there would be legal disputes in court to Mozilla that could clarify these things.

No one wants a terms of service like that, of course, because we all agree implicitly that the softwares do what we input in it. However, not all lawyers or legals are "we", many of them always want things interpreted explicitly to make those activities "clearer" for their jobs when legal confrontations happen. Like Epic founder said:

> The license says that when you type stuff, the program can use the stuff you typed to do the thing you asked it to do. This is what programs ordinarily do, but nowadays lawyers tend to advise companies to say it explicitly.

https://x.com/looking5452/status/1895458253854711854

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