The thing is there is disparity between the value they promote - privacy - and Mozilla actions.
If privacy first was truly the Mozilla mission, we won't have Google Analytics on extension internal pages, the Mr Robot Ad, the Yahoo ad deal, and the ability to inject code remotely in your browser. Privacy seems to be a Mozilla concern but it's not a primary one.
Mozilla will gladly protect you from other entities, but they are not user freedom respecting enough to realize that they should also not require you to submit yourself to them. My argument is that allowing users to "opt out" from tracking is insufficient, and I will argue against it whenever possible.. You should be asked and informed before ANY DATA IS SENT to them, not just informed that it is already happening and then asked if you want to keep it on.
You're right - the user should be asked and informed before any data is sent. But the situation is more complex than that.
- For better or worse, most people aren't scared of the Internet, so they don't want a detailed, itemised list of risks and mitigations to allay their fears, they just want to get down to business. How do you ask and inform a user who refuses to answer or read?
- People want to use the web-browser that works best with the sites they visit, and the connectivity they have available. While every person's situation is different, the Pareto principle says an awful lot of people will be in a very similar situation, so any browser vendor willing to accurately measure people's situations and optimize for them would become tremendously more attractive for most people. Refusing to implement telemetry, or leaving it as opt-in, means voluntarily giving up the mass market to less scrupulous browser vendors.
> People want to use the web-browser that works best with the sites they visit, and the connectivity they have available.
Firefox has fought this uphill battle before and they didn't need telemetry to do it. When chrome first came out it had improved the UI and it didn't need telemetry to do it.
Since firefox added telemetry their market share has declined and their UI has got worse, the idea that telemetry improves products needs to die.
Without the Yahoo ad deal, or "the ability to inject code remotely in your browser" i.e. automatic updates, or reliable telemetry from the majority of Firefox users, it would have been impossible to build a good browser.
If privacy first was truly the Mozilla mission, we won't have Google Analytics on extension internal pages, the Mr Robot Ad, the Yahoo ad deal, and the ability to inject code remotely in your browser. Privacy seems to be a Mozilla concern but it's not a primary one.