Overview
In this privacy policy, we address the following:
- Definitions of the types of information
- What Firefox Sends to Websites
- Feature-by-Feature Description of Data Practices
- What Mozilla Does to Secure Data
- Government and Court Demands for Information
- Overview of Other Situations Involving Possibility of Data Disclosures
- Mozilla’s Approach to Data Retention
- How Mozilla Discloses Changes to this Policy
- How to Contact Mozilla about this Policy
- Appendix of Practices relating to Prior Versions of Firefox
Types of Information
“Personal Information” is information that you provide to us that personally identifies you, such as your name, phone number, or email address. Except as described below, Mozilla does not collect or require end-users of Firefox to provide Personal Information.
“Non-Personal Information” is information that cannot be directly associated with a specific person or entity. Non-Personal Information includes but is not limited to your computer’s configuration and the version of Firefox you use.
“Potentially Personal Information” is information that is Non-Personal Information in and of itself but that could be used in conjunction with other information to personally identify you. For example, Uniform Resource Locators (“URLs”) (the addresses of web pages) or Internet Protocol (“IP”) addresses (the addresses of computers on the Internet), which are Non-Personal Information in and of themselves, could be Personal Information when combined with Internet service provider (“ISP”) records.
“Aggregate Data” is information that is recorded about users and collected into groups so that it no longer reflects or references an individually identifiable user.
Information Firefox Sends to Websites and ISPs
Like other web browsers, Firefox sends Non-Personal and Potentially Personal Information to the websites you visit when requested by the website. This may include, e.g. the type of browser you are using, the type of device you are using (desktop, mobile, touch screen), your language preference, the referring site, and your IP address. If you are viewing a video, the buffering functionality of Firefox may allow the server hosting the video to determine which sections of the video you have actually played. This information may be logged by the websites you visit and the Internet Service Provider you are using. What information is logged and how that information is used depends on the policies of each of the websites you visit and the ISPs you use.
Each website determines its own privacy practices for the distribution and use of this Non- Personal Information and Potentially Personal Information. If you are concerned about how a website will use this information, check out its privacy policy. To find out more about how Mozilla uses this information on its own websites, see the Mozilla Privacy Policy.
Cookies
A cookie is information stored on your computer by a website you visit. Cookies often store your settings for a website, such as your preferred language or location. When you return to the site, Firefox sends back the cookies that belong to the site. This allows the site to present you with information customized to fit your needs. Cookies can store a wide range of information, including personally identifiable information (such as your name, home address, e-mail address, or telephone number). Because of their ability to store Personal Information, or references to such information, cookies can allow websites to track the online movements of particular individuals.
Firefox itself does not set any cookies on behalf of Mozilla.
By default, the activities of storing and sending cookies are invisible to you. However, you can change your Firefox settings to allow you to approve or deny cookie storage requests, delete stored cookies automatically when you close Firefox, and more. An article in our Firefox Knowledge Base gives you information about changing these preferences.
SMS Text Message Downloading (Firefox for mobile only)
In addition to downloading Firefox for mobile onto your mobile device from our download website, Mozilla provides an easy way to send yourself an SMS text message from the Firefox for mobile main website, which will include a download link. If you choose to send a text message, the mobile phone number you type into the box on the website will not be stored on any Mozilla servers.
Interactive Product Features
Add-ons Features
One thing that makes Firefox so flexible is the ability for you to add various add-ons, extensions, and themes to Firefox, thereby creating a custom browser that fits your needs. The following features show how Firefox provides the ability both to obtain additional add- ons easily and to protect against potentially harmful add-ons.
Get Add-ons Page
Firefox offers a Get Add-ons page of the Add-ons Manager that features popular add-ons and displays personalized recommendations based on the add-ons you already have installed. This page can be accessed by clicking (or tapping on a mobile device) on the “Get Add-ons” tab of the Firefox Add-ons Manager. To display the personalized recommendations, Firefox sends certain information to Mozilla, including the list of add-ons you have installed, Firefox version information, and your IP address. This communication only happens when the Get Add-ons area is open and can be turned off at any time by following these instructions.
Add-on Information and Searches
In order to keep the information displayed to you about your installed add-ons up to date, Firefox communicates with Mozilla once a day to update add-on descriptions, home pages, download counts, screenshots, and ratings. This communication includes the list of add-ons you have installed, Firefox version information, how long it took Firefox to start up, and your IP address. You can turn off this functionality at any time by following these instructions.
If you enter keywords into the search field for the Add-ons Manager, those keywords will be sent to Mozilla in order to perform the search, along with Potentially Personal Information (such as IP address) normally transferred to perform such functionality.
Automated Update Service
Firefox’s automatic update feature periodically checks to see if an updated version of Firefox and installed add-ons are available from Mozilla.
This feature sends Non-Personal Information to Mozilla, including the version of Firefox you are using, build ID and target, update channel, your language preference, and your operating system. This feature also sends Potentially Personal Information to Mozilla in the form of your IP address and a cookie that contains a unique numeric value to distinguish individual Firefox installs. Mozilla uses this information to provide you with updated versions of Firefox and to understand the usage patterns of Firefox users. We use this information to improve our products and services and to support decision making regarding feature and capacity planning.
Mozilla does not collect or track any Personal Information or any information about the websites you visit, and Mozilla does not release the raw information we obtain from these Firefox features to the public. We may release reports containing Aggregate Data so that our global community can make better product and design decisions. To prevent Mozilla from obtaining this information, you can turn this feature off in Firefox’s preferences. An article in our Firefox Knowledge Base gives you information about changing your preferences in non-mobile versions of Firefox.
Blocklist Feature
Firefox also offers a Blocklist feature. With this feature, once a day Firefox does a regularly scheduled, automatic check to see if you have any harmful add-ons or plug-ins installed. If so, this feature disables add-ons or plug-ins that Mozilla has determined contain known vulnerabilities or major user-facing issues or fatal bugs (e.g., Firefox crashes on startup or something causes an endless loop). You may view the current list of Blocklisted items. This feature sends Non-Personal Information to Mozilla, including the version of Firefox you are using, operating system version, build ID and target, update channel, and your language preference. This feature also sends Potentially Personal Information to Mozilla in the form of your IP address and a cookie. In addition, Mozilla also uses this feature to analyze Firefox usage patterns so we may improve our products and services, including planning features and capacity. Currently there is no basic user interface to disable the Blocklist feature. An article in our Firefox Knowledge Base explains how you may disable the Blocklist feature. Disabling the Blocklist feature is not recommended as it may result in using extensions known to be untrustworthy.
Crash-Reporting Feature (not applicable to Firefox for mobile)
Firefox has a crash-reporting feature that sends a report to Mozilla when Firefox crashes. Mozilla uses the information in the crash reports to diagnose and correct the problems in Firefox that caused the crash. Though this feature starts automatically after Firefox crashes, it does not send information to Mozilla until you explicitly authorize it to do so. By default, this feature sends a variety of Non-Personal Information to Mozilla, including the stack trace (a detailed description of which parts of the Firefox code were active at the time of the crash) and the type of computer you are using. Additional information is collected by the crash reporting feature. Which crash reporting feature is used and what additional information collected by Firefox depends on which version of Firefox you’re using. For pre-3.x versions of Firefox, please see the end of this privacy policy.
Firefox 3.0 to present
For the current versions of Firefox, “Firefox Crash Reporter” is Firefox’s crash reporting feature. With this feature, you have the option to include Personal Information (including your email address), Potentially Personal Information (including your IP address and the URL of the site you were visiting when Firefox crashed), and a comment. Firefox Crash Reporter also sends a list of all add-ons that you were using at the time of the crash, the time since (i) the last crash, (ii) the last install, and (iii) the start-up of the program. For Firefox 3.0.0 – 3.0.5, Firefox Crash Reporter also collects Potentially Personal Information to Mozilla in the form of a unique alphanumeric value to distinguish individual Firefox installs. This value is not assigned to users of Firefox 3.0.6 and subsequent versions. Mozilla only makes Non-Personal Information (i.e., generic information about your computer, the stack trace, and any comment given by the user) available in the public reports available online at http://crash-stats.mozilla.com/.
Location-Aware Feature
Beginning with Firefox 3.5 and all versions of Firefox for mobile, Firefox offers a Location-Aware Feature, parts of which may be provided by third-party service providers.
You Elect to Use the Location-Aware Feature
This feature remains inoperative until you visit a website that requests your location and you choose to opt in to the feature. If you elect not to, nothing happens. Each time you visit such a website, Firefox asks you if you want it to provide the site with your current location. Additionally, you may elect to have Firefox remember your choice to allow or not allow the feature for each site. Any such election is domain specific. You are able to opt out at any time of having Firefox remember your choice, just like any other preference setting.
What Information Firefox Collects
If you choose to allow it, the Firefox Location-Aware Feature first collects one or more of the following relevant location markers: (i) location provided by a GPS device built into or attached to your computer or device and/or geolocation services provided by the operating system; (ii) the wifi routers closest to you; (iii) cell ids of the cell phone broadcast towers closest to you; (iv) the signal strength of nearby wireless access points and/or cell phone broadcast towers; and/or (v) your computer or device’s IP address. Next, it attempts to determine your location using these location markers. Any information Firefox uses, receives or sends as part of this Location-Aware Feature is not received by any Mozilla servers or by Mozilla. Firefox does not track or remember your location. Firefox does remember a random client identifier, the temporary ID assigned by our third party provider to process your request, for two weeks.
Transmission of Geolocation Information to Third Parties
If your computer or device has a GPS unit or your operating system provides geolocation services and you have elected to use the location aware feature, Firefox will send your location information directly to the requesting website. If not, Firefox will send the other information described above, plus your user agent information (e.g., version of Firefox you’re using) and a temporary client identifier, to a third party geolocation services provider. That provider can determine your approximate location from such data (e.g., convert a set of WiFi signal strengths into latitude and longitude). This information is sent by Firefox over an encrypted connection and no cookies are used. Neither the domain name nor the URL of the site you’re visiting is sent to our service providers. Our providers estimate your location and return it to Firefox. Firefox provides your location information to the webpage that made the request.
Restrictions on How Third Party Providers Use the Location Information Received
Our policy is to require third-party providers to enter licensing agreements with Mozilla, which prohibit them from releasing Personal or Potentially Personal Information to the public. We only permit our third party providers to use this information in conjunction with the service(s) they are providing to us. They are required to ensure that any information collected on our behalf is anonymized and aggregated before they are permitted to use such information to develop new features or products and services, or to improve the overall quality of any of their products and services. For example, this means that they are required to ensure that your IP address and unique identifier of your client will be stripped out before being used by any of our third party provider’s other products or features. For more information on how our geolocation services providers use information sent by Firefox, please see the privacy policy links in our list of third-party service providers.
Third Party Privacy Policies
Please carefully consider any website or service provider's privacy practices before agreeing to share your location.
- Requesting Websites. For information on the use of location data sent back to the website, please see that website’s privacy policy.
- Location-Aware Service Providers. For information on how our service providers use the location data sent by Firefox, see the privacy policies linked from our list of third-party service providers.