European data privacy advocacy group None of Your Business (noyb) has filed a complaint against Mozilla, the developer behind the Firefox browser, accusing the company of quietly introducing a new feature that tracks users’ website activities. The complaint, announced Wednesday, claims that Mozilla’s “privacy preserving attribution” feature was implemented without user consent as part of a July software update.
Mozilla’s New Tracking Feature
The “privacy preserving attribution” feature is designed to allow advertisers to track the effectiveness of their ad campaigns while allegedly avoiding the collection of personal data. Instead of relying on cookies, this new feature requires websites to ask Firefox to store aggregated information about users’ interactions with ads. According to Mozilla, this data is then bundled together across multiple users, providing advertisers with insights without identifying individuals.
While Mozilla insists that the feature uses cryptographic techniques to ensure privacy, and that it can be easily disabled in Firefox’s settings, the noyb group argues that the feature interferes with individual privacy rights under the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), Europe’s stringent data privacy law.
A Blow to Firefox’s Privacy Reputation?
For years, Firefox has positioned itself as a privacy-friendly alternative to other major browsers, most of which are built on Google’s Chromium platform. Felix Mikolasch, a data protection lawyer at noyb, criticized Mozilla’s shift, stating that “Mozilla has just bought into the narrative that the advertising industry has a right to track users by turning Firefox into an ad measurement tool.” He added, “It is just a new, additional means of tracking users.”
This move has angered some Firefox users who chose the browser specifically for its privacy features. Though noyb acknowledges that the change is not as invasive as traditional cookie tracking, the group is concerned that Mozilla’s decision reflects a broader trend of compromising on privacy to serve the advertising industry.
Regulatory Action and Broader Implications
The complaint has been filed with Austria’s data protection authority (DSB), with noyb highlighting that millions of users across Europe are affected by Mozilla’s decision. Although Firefox holds only about 3% of the global browser market share, it remains a popular choice among privacy-conscious users. This regulatory action could further test the limits of the GDPR and the future of privacy-preserving technologies in digital advertising.
This isn’t noyb‘s first high-profile case. The advocacy group’s efforts earlier this year led Meta to abandon plans for using user data to train AI algorithms. However, Meta has since resumed its data collection practices after receiving approval from the U.K.’s data privacy regulator, who agreed to the move as long as users were given easier ways to opt out.
Mozilla’s Response
In response to the growing backlash, Mozilla released a statement defending its new feature, describing it as an effort to “improve invasive advertising practices by providing technical alternatives.” Mozilla emphasized that the privacy preserving attribution tool prevents the company, or any third party, from identifying individual users or tracking their browsing behavior.
Mozilla has yet to publicly address the complaint from noyb or the growing discontent among privacy advocates.
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