Tech companies are using the word “privacy” a lot these days. What do they mean when they say it? To one company, privacy means keeping your information between you and your device. To another, it means knowing who in your social network can see the stuff you post. And to a third, it’s just a setting you can toggle while using their services. They all want you to think they can be trusted.

Let’s be clear: the business success of many of these companies depends on using our personal information as their currency. The details of our lives fuel their growth. Like greenwashing, pretending to care about privacy doesn’t solve the underlying problem. It just muddies the truth.

Here’s what we mean when we use the word “privacy”: we will never sell what little personal info we have about you. Our business doesn’t depend on abusing your trust. In fact, respecting your privacy is at the core of every Firefox product, and the heart of our mission.

Firefox Personal Data Promise

The Firefox Personal Data Promise explains the convictions that guide us, and the work we do to honor your privacy in every product we make.

Take less.

We make a point of knowing less about you.

All tech companies collect data to improve their products. But it doesn’t need to include so much of your personal info. The only data we want is the data that serves you in the end. We ask ourselves: do we actually need this? What do we need it for? And when can we delete it?

Keep it safe.

We do the hard work to protect your personal info.

Data security is complicated—or at least it should be. Which is why we take the extra steps to classify the data we have, maintain rules for how we store and protect each type, and never stop iterating on our processes. We prioritize your privacy. We invest in it. We’re committed to it.

No secrets.

You’ll always know where you stand with us.

There’s no hidden agenda here. Our business doesn’t depend on secretly abusing your trust. Our Privacy Notice is actually readable. Anyone in the world can attend our weekly company meetings. If you want to dig into every datapoint we collect, our code is open. And so are we.

Why we are making this promise now

This promise isn’t new. It’s the commitment we’ve always made to our users, the advice we extend to our peers, and if you ask us, the respect every person should demand from their tech.

The reason we’re putting it out now is that we’re as fed up as you are. Big Tech’s encroachment into our daily lives has gone too far. What you do online is your business, and your activities shouldn’t be tracked for someone else’s profits. Especially invasive is the tracking of your activity all over the web. Mozilla does not keep a log of your personal searches. Syncing is encrypted so that not even we know our users’ browsing histories. You’re safe from us. Which is the way it should be.

Take less. Keep it safe. No secrets. These are more than words to us. We hope they inspire other companies to examine their own practices and begin to think beyond their bottom line. And we hope it’ll encourage you to start demanding more honesty and respect from all the tech in your life. It’s our actions as consumers that will force the industry to stop with the empty promises and start making real changes.

We need to show the world that we all deserve better than this.

Meet the Firefox family

Soon you’ll find the Firefox Personal Data Promise heart stamped across the whole Firefox family of products and services. (Yep, we’re more than a browser.) Everything we make is designed to keep you safer and smarter online—and get around the abuses of Big Tech while you’re at it. And every single product honors your privacy by default.

You choose with whom you share personal information and when. You choose what’s right for you. Firefox is on your side, every step of the way.

There is a way to protect your privacy.

Take your stand against an industry that’s making you the product. Join Firefox for the respect you deserve from a tech company that fights for you.

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