Every time I see somebody talking about a bug or security issue, or insisting Mozilla just doesn't have the resources, I think about this.

Source: https://blog.nightly.mozilla.org/2026/06/03/more-kit-more-control-these-weeks-in-firefox-issue-203/

The guy who wrote this blog really gets what makes/made Firefox good.

Mozilla is a 30 year old company. They are the polar opposite of “start-up”. In fact, for the past 15 years, they've been "thinking like a Start-Up" in various flavors and now they have the lowest [user count] ever. Instead, I dunno, maybe look back at that 30 year history and see what they were doing when they had positive [numbers] and do that again?

I'll give them a hint because I was around then: It wasn't chasing the latest fads.

It was doing what they're good at, being deeply abnormal, and helping folk make what they really wanted.

Firefox succeeds not by being the same, but by attracting folk that want something different and reflects their needs rather than someone's [business objectives].

Facebook's Senior VP of Marketing
is now
Mozilla's Chief Financial Officer

Facebook's VP of Ads
is now
Mozilla's Senior VP of Product
(The apparent most senior position)

cross-posted from: https://piefed.social/c/firefox/p/2092438/the-fifa-countdown-is-just-phase-1-mozilla-working-on-full-fledged-sports-widget

Spotted on Mozilla's bug tracker:

[meta] Homepage Sports Widget

Where it turns out the countdown widget was part of a broader plan to add a different permanent widget:

• "Phase 1: Countdown"
• "Phase 2: Follow a team and View Schedule"

Web calls will apparently be providing

• SportsMatch
• SportsTeam
• MatchStatus
• TournamentPhase

You can also expect a popup on the Desktop that advertises World Cup wallpapers.

The Phase 1 wallpapers and widget remind me of 2017 when they rolled out the creepiest experiment possible and then apologized with language that would be at home today:

"Although we always have the best intentions, not everything that we try works as we want," said Jascha Kaykas-Wolff, Mozilla's chief marketing officer... "This was not a paid promotion but rather a collaboration that was intended to be fun."

Spotted on Mozilla's bug tracker:

[meta] Homepage Sports Widget

Where it turns out the countdown widget was part of a broader plan to add a different permanent widget:

• "Phase 1: Countdown"
• "Phase 2: Follow a team and View Schedule"

Web calls will apparently be providing

• SportsMatch
• SportsTeam
• MatchStatus
• TournamentPhase

You can also expect a popup on the Desktop that advertises World Cup wallpapers.

The Phase 1 wallpapers and widget remind me of 2017 when they rolled out the creepiest experiment possible and then apologized with language that would be at home today:

"Although we always have the best intentions, not everything that we try works as we want," said Jascha Kaykas-Wolff, Mozilla's chief marketing officer... "This was not a paid promotion but rather a collaboration that was intended to be fun."

Mozilla's AI Shake to Summarize is announcing itself via a blue dot in the menu and a pop-up when you visit articles. Neither the popup, the confirmation dialog, nor the new menu item mention AI.

She confessed her worries to her therapist: her marriage, her finances, and self-esteem. Therapists are legally and ethically bound to confidentiality, but two years later, a transcript of every word typed to her psychologist using the app Talkspace was produced in court by her former employer.

To test drive this I needed to apply some configuration tweaks, but the built-in ad blocker seems to just work. I tried it out on YouTube and a few other sites, and I haven't seen so much as a hitch.

Here's a look at the configuration screen, which currently resides at the top of Settings > Privacy:

Ads from the default search provider are enabled (per their request), but disabling them is pretty straightforward. Other functionality, like toggling the default filter lists (12 are enabled by default) or adding your own are accessible via buttons.

Lists enabled by default:

• Default
  • EasyList
  • EasyPrivacy
  • uBO Filters
  • uBO quick-fixes
  • uBO unbreak
• Privacy
  • AdGuard Tracking Protection
  • Peter Lowe's Ad and Tracking Server List
  • uBO Badware
  • uBO Privacy
  • uBO Resource Abuse
• Annoyances
  • EasyCookie
  • uBO annoyances-cookies

Other available lists:

• Fanboy's Annoyances
• Fanboy's Anti-Chat
• Fanboy's Anti-Newsletter
• Fanboy's Mobile Notifications
• Fanboy's Social
• 34 more Regional lists

I'm thinking of doing a thing, and was hoping for some feedback (and maybe it'll change my mind):

1. How do you define bloat in a browser?
2. What are some examples of it, and what browsers have it?

So far I'm thinking bloat includes...

• Extra software that typically is standalone, like an email client or RSS reader
• Things that are not widely wanted in a browser, and could be extensions, like an AI toolbar or a cryptocurrency wallet
• Advertisements built directly into the browser

Are PDF readers bloat?
How about LibreWolf's uBlock Origin?
And why/why not?
I've got some of my own reasoning in the list above, but I'm interested in others' thoughts.

Full article: Firefox browser has started shipping Brave's adblock-rust engine

After seeing a lot of backlash over Waterfox adding Brave's adblock engine:

It looks like Waterfox is piggy-backing off of Firefox’s implementation (great!).

And it's been there for a little while.

Mozilla bundled adblock-rust (Brave’s Rust-based adblock engine, the same one my team works on) into Firefox. Pretty exciting to see them finally start taking ad & tracker blocking seriously; I didn’t think I’d see this day. It landed in Firefox 149 via via Bugzilla Bug 2013888.

Full article: Firefox browser has started shipping Brave's adblock-rust engine

After seeing a lot of backlash over Waterfox adding Brave's adblock engine:

It looks like Waterfox is piggy-backing off of Firefox’s implementation (great!).

And it's been there for a little while.

Mozilla bundled adblock-rust (Brave’s Rust-based adblock engine, the same one my team works on) into Firefox. Pretty exciting to see them finally start taking ad & tracker blocking seriously; I didn’t think I’d see this day. It landed in Firefox 149 via via Bugzilla Bug 2013888.

I hear people saying "Mozilla isn't trying to push AI on users", well here is an example of it.

With the new, free! Firefox VPN, your data gets routed through the servers of Mozilla's service partner, Fastly, a content delivery network.

Mozilla delegates responsibility to Fastly

First, not every service is created equally: Mozilla's Mullvad-based VPN explicitly promises not to collect data if you use their paid VPN service, and says its partner Mullvad does not collect data:

Network data. When you activate Mozilla VPN, it will encrypt your internet traffic and send it to Mullvad. No logs of your network activity are maintained by either Mozilla nor our partner Mullvad when you’re using the Mozilla VPN service in any circumstance. Learn more at Mullvad’s Privacy Policy.

To Mullvad's credit: It has been audited, and it has been battle-tested. But this isn't a look into Mullvad...

I cannot find a similar promise for the free "VPN" in Firefox, but Mozilla washes their hands of data shared to third parties that presumably include Fastly for this free service.

The VPN servers' Jurisdiction: the USA

While testing, I managed to only connect to Fastly servers in one part of the United States, specifically through

p.m1.fastly-masque.net  

I tested this while spoofing an IP address from these countries (while using the free tier of Proton VPN):

• United States
• Japan
• (Sorry, it was just those two)

Unless I'm missing something here, this might be the only available jurisdiction.

Data collection: Your behavior and interests, based on your online activity

In its privacy policy, Fastly enumerates the data they collect about you:

• "[N]ame, postal address, e-mail address, or telephone number, either actively or passively, and billing information such as credit card number and tax address."
• "Information about your Internet connection and Internet protocol (IP) address, your login data, the equipment you use to access our websites and applications, time zone settings and location, browser plug-in types and versions, operating system and other technology on the devices you use to access or use our websites."
• "Behavioral Data: Inferred or assumed information relating to your behavior and interests, based on your online activity and your use of our websites."

In its privacy policy, Fastly describes collecting data with various technologies that may include your private data.

Fastly and our partners use cookies or similar technologies (such as web beacons) to gather information, analyze trends, administer our websites, track users’ movements around our websites, and to gather demographic information about our user base as a whole. These technologies may provide us with personal data, information about devices and networks you utilize to access our websites, analytics information and other information regarding your interactions with our websites.

Fastly collects client IP address information on a limited basis to provide and improve its services. Fastly also may collect and retain for its legitimate business purposes client or Customer IP addresses associated with suspicious activity that may pose a risk to the Fastly network or our Customers, or that are associated with administrative connections to the Fastly service.

Data retention: 7 years or more

According to the Fastly privacy policy, user data is retained for 7 years after the end of service, or longer. They maintain a long list of reasons to not delete it:

The retention period shall not exceed the duration of our business relationship with you plus (7) years unless we have a legitimate business interest need to retain the information for a longer period, which include maintaining a record of your preferences, securing the integrity of databases, conducting audits, complying with our legal and contractual obligations, resolving disputes, and enforcing our agreements.

Data sharing: They do it

Unsurprisingly, Fastly shares your data with other companies.

We consequently share information, including personal data, with these contracted third-party service providers in connection with using their services...

We share information, including personal data, with our subsidiaries and affiliates in the operation of our global business because our subsidiaries and affiliates may provide you services under our contracts or other functions...

Fastly may buy data about you

From their privacy policy:

We may receive information about you from other sources, including publicly available databases or third parties from whom we have purchased data, and combine this data with information we already have about you. This helps us to update, expand and analyze our records, identify new customers, and provide products and services that may be of interest to you. If you provide us personal data about others, or if others give us your information, we will only use that information for the specific reason for which it was provided to us. If we receive personal data about you from a third party in order to engage in marketing of our services, then we will market to you only in your capacity as representatives of companies we wish to sell to and we will present you an opportunity to opt-out of future communications.

Examples of the types of personal data that may be obtained from public sources or purchased from third parties and combined with information we already have about you, may include:

• Contact information about you, including your name, email address [sic] telephone number...
• Data purchased from third parties, such as social networking sites... to create more tailored advertising and products.