Firefox 3.6 privacy policy review

Firefox 3.6 has some new features, like Personas being part of the browser itself.  As such, we
have taken this opportunity to review and update our privacy policy.  Privacy and data protection
are important issues to the people of Mozilla.  So we are looking at all the terms of this policy
and thinking about how to best use our privacy policy to benefit users.  This means you should
expect more significant changes in the future.  For example, we are considering ways to
significantly shorten and simplify this policy.  If you would like to get involved in the privacy
efforts at Mozilla, please feel free to contact me.

You can view the complete set of changes since the April 2009 version at this page:
http://people.mozilla.org/~cwang/Mozilla-Privacy-Policy-3...  

Some changes to note in particular:  
*looked at each of the hypertext links to ensure they were accurate
and appropriate.  As a result, we removed a few and rerouted a few;
*added provisions to address how Personas will work;
*moved pre-3.0 discussions to the end of the document since this
affects a subgroup of users and added to the length and complexity by having it "inline";
*included the process for reviewing and correcting your data;
*included language re some of the steps we take around security. 

Here is the policy:

Mozilla Firefox Privacy Policy
Last Updated: January 20, 2010
This privacy policy explains how Mozilla Corporation ("Mozilla"), a wholly-owned subsidiary of the
non-profit Mozilla Foundation, collects and uses information about users of the official Mozilla
Firefox® web browser ("Firefox") for computers (desktops, laptops, netbooks).  It does not apply to
other Mozilla websites, products or services.  In particular, Firefox for Mobile has its own
separate privacy policy at http://www.mozilla.com/en-US/legal/privacy/firefox/mobile/ because the
features are slightly different..  
Types of Information
As with most Internet web browsers, Firefox sends certain information to the websites that you
visit.  This information falls into the following categories:
"Personal Information" is information that you provide to us that personally identifies you, such
as your name, phone number, or email address. Except as described below, Mozilla does not collect
or require end-users of Firefox to provide Personal Information.
"Non-Personal Information" is information that cannot be directly associated with a specific person
or entity.  Non-Personal Information includes but is not limited to your computer's configuration
and the version of Firefox you use.
"Potentially Personal Information" is information that is Non-Personal Information in and of itself
but that could be used in conjunction with other information to personally identify you.  For
example, Uniform Resource Locators ("URLs") (the addresses of web pages) or Internet Protocol
("IP") addresses (the addresses of computers on the Internet), which are Non-Personal Information
in and of themselves, could be Personal Information when combined with Internet service provider
("ISP") records. 
"Aggregate Data" is information that is recorded about users and collected into groups so that it
no longer reflects or references an individually identifiable user.
Cookies
A cookie is a small string of information that a website stores on your computer and that web
browsers make available to that website each time you return.  Firefox stores cookies on your
computer when requested to do so by websites.  A website uses cookies to help identify and track
visitors, the use of the website, and visitors' website access preferences across multiple requests
and visits. It is possible to include Personal Information, or references to such information, in
cookies, thereby enabling websites to track the online movements of particular individuals. To
prevent Firefox from sending cookies to specific websites, configure Firefox to prompt you when a
website wants to set a cookie.  To prevent Firefox from sending cookies to any website, configure
it to disable cookies.  An article in our Firefox Knowledge Base gives you information about
changing these preferences. 
Information Firefox Sends to Websites
Like most web browsers, Firefox sends information to the websites you visit, including Non-Personal
Information of the type that web browsers typically make available, such as the type of browser you
are using, your language preference, the referring site.  This information may be logged by the
websites you visit.  What information is logged and how that information is used depends on the
policies of each of the websites you visit.
Each website determines its own privacy practices for the distribution and use of this Non-Personal
Information and Potentially Personal Information.  If you are concerned about how a website will
use this information, check out its privacy policy.  To find out more about how Mozilla uses this
information on its own websites, see the Mozilla Privacy Policy.
Interactive Product Features
Add-ons Features.  One thing that makes Firefox so flexible is the ability for you to add various
add-ons, extensions, and themes to Firefox, thereby creating a custom browser that fits your needs.
The following features show how Firefox 3.x provides both the ability to obtain additional add-ons
easily and to protect against potentially harmful add-ons. 
Get Add-ons Feature and Add-Ons Update.  Firefox 3.x offers a Get Add-ons Feature and update
service.  The Get Add-ons Feature creates a list of recommended add-ons and extensions to try.  You
access this recommended list by clicking on the "Get Add-ons" tab from the Firefox Add-ons Manager.
To display the recommended list, Firefox sends certain information to Mozilla, including the type
of computer and version of Firefox you are using as well as your IP address and any cookies set
bythe Add-Ons webpage, but Firefox 3.x does not collect any Personal Information as part of a
download from the Firefox Add-Ons Manager.  Add-Ons Update collects the same information.
Automated Update Service.  Firefox's automatic update feature periodically checks to see if an
updated version of Firefox and installed add-ons are available from Mozilla.  
Firefox. This feature sends Non-Personal Information to Mozilla, including the version of Firefox
you are using, build ID and target, update channel, your operating system, and your language
preference. This feature also sends Potentially Personal Information to Mozilla in the form of your
IP address and a cookie that contains a unique numeric value to distinguish individual Firefox
installs.  Mozilla uses this information to provide you with updated versions of Firefox and to
understand the usage patterns of Firefox users.  We use this information to improve our products
and services and to support decision making regarding feature and capacity planning. 
Firefox 3.x does not collect or track any Personal Information or any information about the
websites you visit, and Mozilla does not release the raw information we obtain from these Firefox
3.x features to the public.  We may release reports containing Aggregate Data so that our global
community can make better product and design decisions.  To prevent Mozilla from obtaining this
information, you can turn this feature off in Firefox's preferences.  An article in our Firefox
Knowledge Base gives you information about changing your preferences. 
Blocklist Feature.  Firefox 3.x also offers a Blocklist feature. With this feature, once a day
Firefox does a regularly scheduled, automatic check to see if you have any harmful add-ons or
plug-ins installed.  If so, this feature disables add-ons or plug-ins that Mozilla has determined
contain known vulnerabilities or major user facing issues or fatal bugs (e.g., client crashes on
startup or something causing an endless loop of unusability).  You may view the current list of
Blocklisted items.  This feature sends Non-Personal Information to Mozilla, including the version
of Firefox you are using, operating system version, build ID and target, update channel, and your
language preference. This feature also sends Potentially Personal Information to Mozilla in the
form of your IP address and a cookie. In addition, Mozilla also uses this feature to analyze
Firefox usage patterns so we may improve our products and services, including planning features and
capacity.  Currently there is no basic user interface to disable the Blocklist feature.  An article
in our Firefox Knowledge Base explains how you may disable the Blocklist feature.  Disabling the
Blocklist feature is not recommended as it may result in using extensions know to be
untrustworthy.
Crash-Reporting Feature.  Firefox has a crash-reporting feature that sends a report to Mozilla when
Firefox crashes.  Mozilla uses the information in the crash reports to diagnose and correct the
problems in Firefox that caused the crash.  Though this feature starts automatically after Firefox
crashes, it does not send information to Mozilla until you explicitly authorize it to do so.  By
default, this feature sends a variety of Non-Personal Information to Mozilla, including the stack
trace (a detailed description of which parts of the Firefox code were active at the time of the
crash) and the type of computer you are using.  Additional information is collected by the crash
reporting feature. Which crash reporting feature is used and what additional information collected
by Firefox depends on which version of Firefox you're using.  For pre-3.x versions of Firefox,
please see the end of this privacy policy.
Firefox 3.0 to present.  For the current versions of Firefox, "Firefox Crash Reporter" is Firefox's
crash reporting feature.  With this feature, you have the option to include Personal Information
(including your email address), Potentially Personal Information (including your IP address and the
URL of the site you were visiting when Firefox crashed), and a comment.  Firefox Crash Reporter
also sends a list of all add-ons that you were using at the time of the crash, the time since (i)
the last crash, (ii) the last install, and (iii) the start-up of the program.  For Firefox 3.0.0 ?
3.0.5, Firefox Crash Reporter also collects Potentially Personal Information to Mozilla in the form
of a unique alphanumeric value to distinguish individual Firefox installs.  This value is not
assigned to users of Firefox 3.0.6 and subsequent versions.  Mozilla only makes Non-Personal
Information (i.e., generic information about your computer, the stack trace, and any comment given
by the user) available in the public reports available online at http://crash-stats.mozilla.com/. 
To safeguard your privacy, Mozilla's policy is to make Personal Information, such as your name and
email address, and Potentially Personal Information, such are the URL of the site you last visited,
only available to its employees, contractors, and selected contributors who signed confidentiality
agreements that prohibit them from using or disclosing such information other than for approved
Mozilla purposes.
Location-Aware Feature.  Beginning with Firefox 3.5, Firefox offers a Location-Aware Feature, parts
of which may be provided by third-party service providers 
You Elect to Use the Location-Aware Feature.  This feature remains inoperative until you visit a
website that requests your location and you choose to opt in to the feature.  If you elect not to,
nothing happens.  Each time you visit such a website, Firefox asks you if you want it to provide
the site with your current location.  Additionally, you may elect to have Firefox remember your
choice to allow or not allow the feature for each site. Any such election is domain specific. You
are able to opt out at any time of having Firefox remember your choice, just like any other
preference setting.  
What Information Firefox Collects. If you choose to allow it, the Firefox Location-Aware Feature
first collects one or more of the following relevant location markers: (i) location provided by a
GPS device built into or attached to your computer or device and/or geolocation services provided
by the operating system; (ii) the wifi routers closest to you; (iii) cell ids of the cell towers
closest to you; (iv) the signal strength of nearby wireless access points and/or cellular phone
towers; and/or (v) your computer or device's IP address.  Next, it attempts to determine your
location using these location markers.  Any information Firefox uses, receives or sends as part of
this Location-Aware Feature is not received by any Mozilla servers or by Mozilla.  Firefox does not
track or remember your location.   Firefox does remember a random client identifier, the temporary
ID assigned by our third party provider to process your request, for two weeks.
What Information Third Parties Receive & Provide.  If necessary, Firefox sends the information
above, except any GPS information and/or geolocation data provided by the operating system, plus
your user agent information (e.g, version of Firefox you're using), along with a temporary client
identifier, to its third party service provider(s) capable of deriving a physical location from the
information Firefox has collected (e.g., convert a set of WiFi signal strengths into latitude and
longitude).  This information is sent over an encrypted connection. The connection between Firefox
and the service provider does not use any cookies. Neither the domain name nor the URL of the site
you're visiting are sent to our service providers.  Our providers estimate your location and return
it to Firefox.  Firefox provides your location information to the webpage that made the request.
For any information the webpage sends back to the website, please see that website's privacy policy.
How Third Parties Providers Use the Information Received. Our policy is to require third-party
providers to enter licensing agreements with Mozilla, which prohibit them from releasing Personal
or Potentially Personal Information to the public.  We only permit our third party providers to use
this information in conjunction with the service(s) they are providing to us.  They are required to
ensure that any information collected on our behalf is anonymized and aggregated before they are
permitted to use such information to develop new features or products and services, or to improve
the overall quality of any of their products and services.  For example, this means that they are
required to ensure that your IP address and unique identifier of your client will be stripped out
before being used by any of our third party provider's other products or features.  For more
information, please see our by third-party service providers.
Third Party Websites.  Please carefully consider any website's privacy practices before agreeing to
share your location with that website.
·	Requesting Websites. For any information the webpage sends back to the website, please see that
website's privacy policy.

·	Location-Aware Service Providers.  In addition, our service providers have their own privacy
policy.

·	ISP and Mobile Carrier.  All requests for your location must be sent through your Internet
service provider or mobile carrier network and your service provider or carrier may have access to
the request. For information regarding your service provider's or carrier's treatment of your
information, please consult their privacy policies. 

Personas Feature.  Firefox's Personas feature is a theme that lets you personalize the look of your
browser.  
Personal Information
Applying Personas.  When you apply a Personas to your browser, Mozilla collects your IP address,
the date and time you applied the Personas design to your browser, and the url you used to make the
application as well as the url you were visiting immediately before that (known as the "referrer"
url).  
Creating a Custom Persona.  If you are creating a Custom Persona for your own use, Mozilla does not
collect any Personal Information.
Contributing a Design to the Personas Gallery.  The Personas gallery is where you can browse all
the available designs.  If you contribute a design or image (each a "Persona Design") to the
Personas gallery, Mozilla collects the following Personal Information: (1) your user name and (2)
your email address.  Your user name will be used to attribute your Persona Design to you and will
be publicly available on the Personas gallery.  You do not have to provide your real name; you can
use a nickname or avatar.  Mozilla will not make your email address publicly available or share it
with any third parties other than Mozilla's service providers.  Mozilla will use your email address
only to contact you regarding your design or to provide any additional information that you elect
or opt in to receive.
Personas' Interactive Product Features
After you have selected your Personas Design, it is stored on your computer.  Once per day Personas
checks to see if your selected Persona Design has been updated.  This feature sends the same
information that web browsers typically transfer with any HTTP requests including user agent and
your IP address. 
We use this information to improve our products and services and to support decision making
regarding feature and capacity planning.  Mozilla is an open organization that believes in sharing
as much information as possible about its products, its operations, and its associations.
Accordingly, we may release public reports containing Aggregate Data so that our global community
and Personas partners may make better product and design decisions.  For example, we think it is
good for  users of Personas to know which are the most popular Persona Designs and Personas
designers to know how many times their Persona Design was downloaded.  
Report Broken Website Feature.  Firefox's Report Broken Website feature lets you notify Mozilla
when a website you visit improperly displays or incorrectly functions.  The feature sends the URL
of the broken website to Mozilla.  You may also choose to send your email address and a description
of the problem.  This feature also sends a your IP address and a variety of Non-Personal
Information to Mozilla, including but not limited to the version of Firefox you are using and your
language preference.  Except for your email and IP address, Mozilla makes all of this information
public.  This feature does not send information to Mozilla until you explicitly authorize Firefox
to do so.  To prevent this public release of Personal and Potentially Personal Information, don't
report a website if the website's URL contains your Personal and Potentially Personal Information,
and don't include Personal Information in your description of the problem.  To prevent the release
of any information, don't use this feature to report a broken website.
Report Web Forgery Feature.  Firefox's Report Web Forgery feature lets you report suspected web
forgeries to Mozilla's third party service provider(s) for the web forgery protection feature when
you encounter a suspected malicious "phishing" or fraudulent website that is impersonating a
legitimate website.  This feature sends your comments about the suspected fraudulent website to our
third-party provider(s), as well as the same information that the browser sends when you visit a
website.  Our policy is to require each of our third-party providers to enter into written
agreements with Mozilla that prohibit them from releasing Potentially Personal Information to the
public.  Our policy is to only permit these third party providers to use this information in
conjunction with the web forgery protection service they are providing.  In addition, we require
each third-party provider to maintain its own privacy policy that is linked to the online form
where you report a potential web forgery.  To prevent the third party provider from obtaining this
information, don't use this feature to report a web forgery.  (Also see "Protection Against
Suspected Forgery and Attack Sites Features" below.) 
Security
Mozilla is committed to protecting your personal information from unauthorized access, alteration,
disclosure, or destruction. We undertake a range of security measures including physical access
restraints, technical security monitoring, and internal security reviews of the environment.   We
also have polices in place to prohibit employees from viewing personal information without business
justification.  Additionally, it is our policy to ensure that Mozilla employees and contractors are
bound by confidentiality obligations.
Beginning with Firefox 2.0, Mozilla has additional security features, some of which are provided by
third party service providers.  
The security features available depend on the version of Firefox you are using.  Please see the
ened of this privacy policy for older versions of Firefox.
Firefox 3.0 to 3.x
Secure Website Certificate Verification.  When you visit a secure website, Firefox will check with
the certificate provider to validate that website's certificate.  Firefox sends only the
certificate identification to the certificate provider, not the exact URL you are visiting.  If the
certificate is not valid, you will receive an error page that states the certificate was revoked
and you will not be able to access that website.  The technical name for this process is OCSP or
On-line Certificate Status Protocol.  You may completely turn off the secure website certificate
verification feature in Firefox's preferences under the encryption tab.  If you do this, none of
the information discussed here will be sent to any third party certificate provider.  An article in
our Firefox Knowledge Base gives you information about changing your preferences.  
Protection Against Suspected Forgery and Attack Sites Features.  The Firefox forgery and attack
protection feature displays a warning if the website you are visiting is suspected of impersonating
a legitimate website (commonly referred to as a phishing or forgery website) or a site that
infiltrates or damages a computer system without your informed consent, including, without
limitation, any computer viruses, worms, trojan horses, spyware, computer contaminant and/or other
malicious and unwanted software (commonly called an attack site or malware).  By default, Firefox
checks the web pages that you visit against a blacklist that is downloaded to your hard drive at
regularly scheduled intervals (e.g., approximately twice per hour), the rate of frequency may
change from time to time.  The blacklist does not include the full URL of each suspicious site.
Instead, each URL is hashed (obscured so it can't be read) and then broken into portions. Only a
portion of each hashed URL is included on the blacklist on your hard drive. If there is a match,
Firefox will check with its third party provider to ensure that the website is still on the
blacklist.  The information sent between Firefox and its third party provider(s) are hashed URLs.
In fact, multiple hashed URLs are sent with the real hash so that the third party provider(s) will
not know what site you are visiting.  If there is a match, Firefox displays either a "Reported Web
Forgery" or "Reported Attack Site" alert, as applicable.  
You may completely turn off the forgery and/or attack site protection features in Firefox's
preferences.  If you do this, none of the information discussed here will be downloaded to your
hard drive or sent to any third party service provider.  An article in our Firefox Knowledge Base
gives you information about changing your preferences.  
Each time Firefox checks in with a third party provider to download a new blacklist, Non-Personal
Information and Potentially Personal Information, such as the information that the browser sends
every time you visit a website as well as the version number of the blacklist on your system, is
sent to a third party provider.  In order to safeguard your privacy, Firefox will not transmit the
complete URL of web pages that you visit to anyone other than Mozilla and its service providers.
While it is possible that a third party service provider may determine the actual URL from the
hashed URL sent, Mozilla's policy is to require its third party service providers to enter into a
written agreement with Mozilla not to use any data or other information about or from users of
Firefox  for purposes other than to provide and maintain their service.  In addition, Mozilla's
policy is to prohibit these third party service providers from correlating any Firefox user data
with any other data collected through other products, services or web properties of that provider.
These third party service providers may post about additional notices regarding their applicable
privacy policies.  (For example, see Google Safe Browsing Service in Mozilla Firefox Version 3.)
Please note that we're not yelling at you in this paragraph.  Our lawyers have advised us that we
need to make sure this information is conspicuous so you'll read it.  The forgery and attack site
protection feature is provided "as is" and for your information as advice and guidance only.
Mozilla and its contributors, licensors and partners do not guarantee that these protection features
will prevent you from being deceived by a malicious website and we strongly recommend that you
continue to be vigilant while online, particularly when following links sent to you in e-mail.  
Legally Required Disclosures
Mozilla may be required to disclose information to the government or others.  This may happen if we
receive a valid search warrant, subpoena, court order, or other legal mandate.  For example, the
DMCA framework (specifically in Section 512(h)) contains an expedited subpoena process for
copyright holders to request and receive information service providers have regarding the identity
of alleged copyright infringers.  
Other Disclosures
In certain other limited situations, Mozilla may disclose your Personal Information, such as when
necessary to protect our websites and operations (e.g., against attacks); to protect the rights,
privacy, safety, or property of Mozilla or its  users; to enforce our terms of service; and to
pursue available legal remedies. Additionally, Mozilla may need to transfer Personal Information to
an affiliate or successor in the event of a change of our corporate structure or status, such as in
the event of a restructuring, sale, or bankruptcy.
Service Providers
We work with third parties who provide services (like companies that help us determine the number
of users of Firefox and various features of Firefox) and content delivery networks and other
services of an administrative nature.  We may share Personal Information about you with such third
parties for the purpose of enabling these third parties to provide such services.
Transfer of Data to the U.S.
Mozilla is a global organization and operates in different countries. Privacy laws and common
practices vary from country to country. Some countries may provide for less legal protection of
your personal data; others may provide more legal protection. By using Firefox, you consent to the
transfer of the information collected, as outlined by this Policy, to Mozilla or its third party
service providers in the United States, the Netherlands, and other places where our distributed,
third party content delivery network exists (which is in several countries around the world), which
countries may provide a lesser level of data security than in your country of residence.
Data Retention
We will retain any information collected for the period necessary to fulfill the purposes outlined
in this Policy unless a longer retention period is required by law and/or regulations.  
Privacy Policy Changes
Mozilla may change the Firefox Privacy Policy from time to time.  Any and all changes will be
reflected on this page.  When Mozilla changes this policy in a material way, a notice will be
posted on www.mozilla.com.  Substantive changes may also be announced through the standard
mechanisms by which Mozilla communicates with its users and community, including Mozilla's
"announce" mailing list and newsgroup.  It is your responsibility to ensure that you understand the
terms of this Privacy Policy.  You should periodically check this page for any changes to the
current policy.
For More Information
You may request access, correction, or deletion of Personal Information or Potentially Personal
Information, as permitted by law.  We will seek to comply with such requests, provided that we have
sufficient information to identify the Personal Information or Potentially Personal Information
related to you.   
Any such requests or other questions or concerns regarding this Policy and Mozilla's data
protection practices should be addressed to:Mozilla Corporation
Attn:  Legal Notices - Privacy
650 Castro Street, Suite 300
Mountain View, CA 94041-2072
Phone: +1-650-903-0800
E-mail: privacy@mozilla.com 
Appendix for Pre-Firefox 3.0
Crash-Reporting Feature for Firefox 1.0-2.x.  
For these earlier versions of Firefox, "Talkback" is Firefox's crash reporting feature.  Talkback
also gives you the option to provide your Personal Information and Potentially Personal Information
(including your name, email address, and the url you were visiting) and Potentially Personal
Information (including your computer's name, IP address, and the processes you were running at the
time of the crash).  You can selectively disable the sending of this information.  Additionally,
you have the option to include the URL of the site you were visiting when Firefox crashed, a
comment, and your email address in the report.  Mozilla only makes Non-Personal Information and
Potentially Personal Information in the public reports available online at
http://http://talkback-public.mozilla.org/.
Security for Firefox 2.0 to 2.x.
Protection Against Suspected Forgery Sites. The Firefox web forgery protection feature displays a
warning if the website you are visiting is suspected of impersonating a legitimate website.
Firefox lets you select various levels of protection, and different information is transmitted by
Firefox depending on the level you choose.  
By default, Firefox checks the web pages that you visit against a list of suspected web forgeries
(a "blacklist") that is downloaded to your hard drive at regularly scheduled intervals (e.g.,
approximately twice per hour), the rate of frequency may change from time to time.  If there is a
match, Firefox displays a "Suspected Web Forgery" alert.  Each time Firefox checks in with the
third party provider to download a new blacklist, Non-Personal Information and Potentially Personal
Information, such as the information that the browser sends every time you visit a website as well
as the version number of the blacklist on your system, is sent to the third party provider.  In
order to safeguard your privacy, Firefox will not transmit the URL of web pages that you visit in
this default mode to anyone other than Mozilla and its service providers. 
You may completely turn off the web forgery protection feature in Firefox's preferences.  If you do
this, none of the information discussed here will be downloaded to your hard drive or sent to any
third party service provider.
Each time Firefox checks in with the third party provider to download a new blacklist, Non-Personal
Information and Potentially Personal Information, such as the information that the browser sends
every time you visit a website as well as the version number of the blacklist on your system, is
sent to the third party provider.  In order to safeguard your privacy, Firefox will not transmit
the complete URL of web pages that you visit to anyone other than Mozilla and its service
providers.  While it is possible that a third party service provider may determine the actual URL
from the hashed URL sent, Mozilla's policy is to require its third party service providers to enter
into a written agreement with Mozilla not to use any data or other information about or from users
of Firefox for purposes other than to provide and maintain their service.  In addition, Mozilla's
policy is to prohibit its third party service providers from correlating any Firefox user data with
any other data collected through other products, services or web properties of that provider. These
third party service providers may inform you about additional notices regarding their applicable
privacy policies.  

_______________________________________________
announce mailing list
announce@lists.mozilla.org
https://lists.mozilla.org/listinfo/announce