@fenny
@cult @kel @aral

Mozilla are like a good prestidigitator on the surface they appear as bastions for an open, private and free internet, however contrary to this image they have complex contracts that offer use of their platform and partner access to the telematics data through the use of the APIs

Firefox collects telemetry data by default, which has value increased when combined with other information, mozilla can do this as even under the GDPR telematics on its own is not specifically personally identifiable as it is data you generate from your interactions with the internet using their browser

Telematics can however reveal times, browser tab information ,histograms, events (clicks, mouse movements etc) the nearest access points (like WiFi and mobile / cell towers) placing you at a location

While this information does not seem that important it is valuable to third parties that already hold personal information, it also enables the tracking of non internet real world purchases that started with a search for a product

Google uses this type of data to track real world purchase on credit cards (an agreement with MasterCard has been confirmed)

Full detail on the telematics that mozilla can share can be located here

https://firefox-source-docs.mozilla.org/toolkit/components/telemetry/telemetry/index.html

I'm sure if I have misunderstood any of the detail above someone will correct me.

When it comes to the "sale" of telematics Its not so much sold like a bottle of milk but as part of the contracts they have with their "partners" like the search engine companies, who can do a lot with the generated data.

https://www.mozilla.org/en-US/privacy/firefox/

If you look at the end of year filings for mozilla (published on there website) the bulk of their income is generated by the (unpublished) contracts they make with search engines companies

(Yahoo are still realing from the financial cost of dealing with mozilla along with all the shady shit they have been up to - different story)

Btw Privacy Aware = we know the (monetary) value of your privacy

But its not just at the monetary and privacy level that mozilla have deviated from their claims but also in their dealings within the w3c

Publicly they denounce DRM and cry out for a free internet (its in their mission statement) yet they were pro DRM and implemented EME within the Browser before it was officially adopted, there is nothing free about DRM and EME

And then there was that time they forcefully hijacked Firefox browser installs with a remotely installed advert