Originally, I meant to write a blog post diving deep into the hole Mozilla has been digging itself into with its “privacy-first” advertising push, perhaps even exploring the background work at organizations like the W3C and the IETF that led to this moment. I still may do that at some point. But today, this isn’t that article. This is just me venting my frustration at Mozilla’s relentless push of this topic.
And it’s really coming from a place of love—or at the very least former appreciation. In my early days of open-source advocacy with the Jordan Open Source Association, we collaborated extensively with Mozilla to promote the open web. As a web developer in the era of “This website looks best on IE6,” I witnessed firsthand the incredible progress Mozilla spearheaded, progress that many today might take for granted.
Mozilla’s work were rooted in the idea of user empowerment and fostering a free, open web. Firefox wasn’t just a browser; it was a tool to fight back against the monopolistic grip of Internet Explorer and later, Chrome. Firefox became a haven for users who wanted control over their browsing experience—users who refused to trade privacy for convenience.
Mozilla didn’t just challenge the status quo; they pushed for real, tangible change. They built tools to block trackers, shield users from pervasive surveillance, and give people control over their data. They were leaders user-centric design.
And for a while, they were the embodiment of the term user agent. In technical terms, a user agent is the software (like browsers and email clients) that acts on behalf of the user. For years, Firefox provided more value than the other browsers out there—it was operating in the user’s best interest, safeguarding them from the invasive practices of the ad-tech industry.
But I don’t recognize any of that in the Mozilla of today. There’s traces left of what I love about Firefox left that keep me holding on, no matter how much extra RAM I need to buy to keep running it, but I am quickly approaching my limit with that too. To add this advertising bullshit on top of it, I am honestly done.
It’s not that the arguments Mozilla is making in favor of privacy-first advertising have no merit. They do. The advertising industry undeniably has a privacy problem. But is that Mozilla’s problem to fix? It feels to me like they’ve forgotten which side they’re on. If the advertising industry has a problem, it’s not Mozilla’s job to fix it or ensure the future of ads is more sustainable. If artificial intelligence has ethical and sustainability concerns, it’s not on Mozilla to solve those either.
The work that Mozilla used to do for the open web, and championing for users is ever so important in an increasingly hostile digital world. Look how Google Chrome dominates the market and continues its hostility towards privacy-enhancing tools like uBlock Origin. But how can we trust Mozilla to continue in this role when it now owns an advertising company?
Speaking as a longtime Mozilla fan, I’d like to see them return to their original mission— and to being the user’s agent. They should focus on making Firefox (and Thunderbird) to be software that users trust to protect their privacy above all else, not a platform for exchanging user needs with advertising revenue.