I don’t understand how they are supposed to “sell your data” if you just never use a Mozilla account and uncheck all the telemetry. Its not like they can secretly steal your data, since its Open Source.
It seems to me like just more FUD that Google is spreading to undermine our trust in free software.
Having seen this FAR too often, I have a different view:
Capitalism and greed will determine when they go further.
There is no “if” about it. Mitchell Baker is in it to get rich by destroying the platform, and is sharing enough of the corpse’s leavings with others to make sure they protect her.
I’m aware that history is against them. The one thing in Firefox’s (not Mozilla) favour is that its open source. The browser and codebase will live on even if Mozilla crashes and burns.
The forks already exist, the only “moat” that Mozilla has is trust and goodwill, which they are burning rapidly.
I know that software is a very different industry, but Mountain Equipment Co-Op went through this in Canada. The end result is that the new Mountain Equipment Company is a for-profit, US-owned reseller of overseas crap, just like everyone else.
The problem I see is that browsers are still evolving significantly, and I’m worried about what will happen if Mozilla goes T-U. Sure we have the code, but will it continue to be developed after that point?
This has happened before in the software world, and its usually not a huge deal after a little bit of rockiness.
OpenOffice->LibreOffice. ddwrt->openwrt->tomato etc.
Development will continue, but maybe in a less resourced fashion.