As promised, here is an interview with @ryanleesipes from #Thunderbird, on the whole #Mozilla and #Firefox terms of use situation.
We talk about why this had to happen, how Thunderbird will handle their own Terms of Use, what's happening at Mozilla, and what's changing.
“Why this had to happen”? Well, that's certainly ominous and gaslight-y (because no, it didn't have to happen).
Will #Mozilla next be asserting the right to scrape and sell the contents of our emails as well?
@argv_minus_one @ryanleesipes It actually did have to happen, du to regulator pressures. How it was done isn’t good, IMO, but they did have to add terms of use.
Quoth the ToU announcement:
> the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) defines “sale” as the “selling, renting, releasing, disclosing, disseminating, making available, transferring, or otherwise communicating orally, in writing, or by electronic or other means, a consumer’s personal information by [a] business to another business or a third party” in exchange for “monetary” or “other valuable consideration.”
Mozilla is not supposed to be doing any of that!
@argv_minus_one @thelinuxEXP I'll have to ask about this. But I think Firefox is considering the transfer of search queries to Google as a sale of personal data, since they have a default search engine agreement with them.
Do you mean the search suggestions that appear before the user presses Enter to actually perform the search?
Yes, I saw that and find it rather creepy. Novices won't know about the privacy implications of this. Firefox should ask for specific consent for this during setup, like the Microsoft Edge privacy options screen.
1/
Do you mean search queries sent when the user presses Enter in the search box?
I don't see how that qualifies as “personal information” when the user intentionally submits it to Google. But I suppose the lawyers may have a different interpretation. 
2/
Either way, what's stopping Mozilla from saying “we don't sell your data except x, y, and z”?
This open-ended “we can take and sell basically anything we want” non-commitment to user privacy doesn't exactly inspire confidence in what was supposed to be a privacy-oriented browser.
3/end
@argv_minus_one @thelinuxEXP
@thelinuxEXP @argv_minus_one @ryanleesipes FWIW, these changes make Firefox not really a viable option anymore in the current political environment, independent of whether the changes "had to happen."
Such a big change should merit reconsideration of the contract with google rather than the drastic widening of TOS on behalf of all users (esp considering one of the first things I do is disable google as the default search engine).
@johnmarianhoffman @thelinuxEXP @argv_minus_one I can understand that perspective. Bear in mind that the Privacy Policy is still in effect and serves as protection as well. There are also a number of privacy settings that you can further fine-tune how you want Firefox to behave. Because it's all open source, you can verify that these settings do, in fact, do what they say they do. There are many layers of protection for user data beyond the ToS.
@ryanleesipes @thelinuxEXP @argv_minus_one and also, I have so much love for Mozilla and Firefox and all the work that you all do. Trying to share my perspective in the hopes it can be constructive to the conversation going forward. Thank you!
@johnmarianhoffman @thelinuxEXP @argv_minus_one I appreciate that. I welcome it. Like I said in the video, without these thoughts and these conversations - we're not going to succeed. So I think it's great!
@thelinuxEXP @argv_minus_one @ryanleesipes thanks for the considered and quick response.
And heard/understood that this is the policy/plan going forward. TBH I do not have faith that the policies and terms will protect my data should someone decide to sell it.
That's not a Mozilla problem, but broadly these moves feel consumer-hostile based on all existing evidence of tech companies rug-pulling data and privacy. I think the burden is on orgs to do better, not users to be more aware of why.
@johnmarianhoffman @thelinuxEXP @argv_minus_one I agree with that. My goal and, I think, all of Mozilla's goal is to figure this out. I just want to reassure people that we are working on this and that it is a conversation and a process. Not something we're happy with just throwing over the wall.