Did Mozilla Just Give Up Their Right to Privacy?

Did Mozilla Just Give Up Their Right to Privacy?

Tech companies have a way of testing boundaries, shifting policies just enough to see if anyone notices. This time, it's Mozilla—the company many once trusted as a leader in online privacy.

With its latest Firefox Terms of Use update, Mozilla introduced a clause that caught privacy advocates off guard:

"When you upload or input information through Firefox, you hereby grant us a nonexclusive, royalty-free, worldwide license to use that information to help you navigate, experience, and interact with online content as you indicate with your use of Firefox."

A company that built its reputation on protecting user privacy now wants a global, perpetual license to use the information you enter into their browser. Mozilla insists this is harmless legal phrasing. But if privacy is the priority they claim, why introduce language that requires users to hand over rights to their own data?

Privacy policies don’t change without reason. And history tells us they rarely change in favor of the user

📢 This didn’t go unnoticed. Even Brendan Eich, creator of JavaScript and former Mozilla CEO, reacted with disbelief: 

Firefox Silently Removed Its 'Never Sell Your Data' Promise 

Buried within these changes was another disturbing shift—Mozilla quietly removed its long-standing pledge that it would "never sell your personal data." While they haven't outright announced plans to sell data, removing this commitment leaves the door wide open. Companies don’t delete privacy promises unless they intend to change how they handle user data.

At Unplugged, our stance on this is clear: We will never sell your data—period. Unlike Mozilla, we don't play legal word games or introduce vague clauses that could be exploited later. Our mission has always been privacy-first, not privacy-optional.

Unplugged + Brave Partner – May 2024

At Unplugged, we saw this shift coming. When we were developing the UP Phone, we had a critical decision to make: Which browser would offer true privacy, not just in words, but in practice?

The answer for us was Brave.

That’s why, in May 2024, Unplugged partnered with Brave to make it the default browser on every UP Phone.

Unlike other browsers, Brave doesn’t just talk about privacy—it’s engineered for it:

✔️ Blocks trackers and fingerprinting by default 
✔️ Prevents WebRTC leaks that expose your real IP, even if you use a VPN 
️✔️ Has a powerful built-in search engine with an independent index outside of the tech majors. 
✔️ Includes integrated privacy-respecting AI 
✔️ Doesn’t store your browsing history on its servers 
✔️ Doesn’t slip vague legal loopholes into its policies 

When we surveyed the available browser / search engine partners to ship with the UP Phone, Brave brings real differentiated privacy and the total package to the table.

Privacy > Reputation 

Not everyone agreed with our decision. At the time we rolled out the change, we caught some shade from some of our users as well as on the social platforms.  

💬 "Why not Firefox?" 
💬 "Is Brave really better?" 
💬 "Mozilla has always been pro-privacy!"

We get it. Mozilla built a reputation that made people feel safe. But reputation is based on the past—not the future. 

Privacy isn’t about trusting a company’s history. It’s about holding them accountable for what they do today.

We weren’t willing to wait and see. We wanted to be sure. 

The Right Call 

Mozilla’s recent Terms of Use update only confirms what we already knew: even companies with strong privacy track records can shift their priorities over time.

The wording they introduced might seem harmless now. But privacy is rarely lost all at once—it erodes one policy change at a time.

That’s why every UP Phone comes with Brave Browser. No vague legal jargon. No shifting terms. Just privacy, by design.

Mozilla may have changed course. We haven’t. 


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