HalimC.com

A sad tale of what happens when Big Tech infiltrates and corrupts non-profit free software foundations.

Last updated: September 21, 2024

The Mozilla Foundation that produces Firefox, largely funded by advertising deals and Google, started testing a new advertising data collection feature in partnership with Meta this July.

They also bought an advertising company that claims to respect privacy. Yeah, right.

With their foundation focusing more on A.I. and the Orwellian double-speak named “privacy-focused advertising” rather than the actual Firefox web browser, I can no longer recommend Firefox as a safe alternative to Big Tech's platforms.

This leaves Brave as my primary recommended browser, even though it is also funded by advertising (which can be disabled) and is based on Google's Chromium browser engine. Users of Firefox that prefer the user interface may want to give LibreWolf a try.

Some good news on the browser front is that a new alternative browser platform called Ladybird is under development. They are funded by a non-profit foundation that only accepts unrestricted donations and doesn't sell board seats, meaning Big Tech will not be able to buy their influence, unlike other prominent foundations.

The bad news is they're still in the early development phase and don't expect to have a public semi-usable release until 2026, so stay tuned. This is something I'll be keeping an eye on.

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