The Mozilla Blog

Advertising is central to the internet economy. It funds many free products and services. But it is also very intrusive. It is powered by ubiquitous surveillance and it is used in ways that harm individuals and society. The advertising ecosystem is fundamentally broken in its current form. Advertising does not need to harm consumer privacy. […]The post Building a more privacy preserving ads-based ecosystem appeared first on The Mozilla Blog.

The modern web is funded by advertisements. Advertisements pay for all those “free” services you love, as well as many of the products you use on a daily basis — including Firefox. There’s nothing inherently wrong with advertising: Mozilla’s Principle #9 states that “Commercial involvement in the development of the internet brings many benefits.” However, […]The post The future of ads and privacy appeared first on The Mozilla Blog.

We connected with Zeke Smith, the comedy writer who was known to fans of CBS’s Survivor as “the goofy guy with the mustache and the Hawaiian shirt” over two seasons of the show until another contestant outed Smith as a trans man. Smith found himself suddenly in the spotlight as an activist and voice of an often-invisible community. The post Zeke Smith on internet haters, Survivor and sending support to people online appeared first on The Mozilla Blog.

For Mozilla, it boils down to this: our mission requires that we empower everyone to protect themselves online, not just the folks that are plugged in to the recent techlash. And a lot of the people that may need our tools the most spend a lot of time on Facebook and Instagram. The post Our approach to advertising on Facebook platforms appeared first on The Mozilla Blog.

From the beginning, Mozilla has had an important vision: for the internet to benefit everyone, it should remain a global resource that is open and accessible. With this vision in mind, Mozilla has played a prominent role in the advancement of open source and community collaboration. The impact of Mozilla has catalyzed the internet as a force for good, as it touches lives in some of the least developed parts of the world.The post Why I’m joining Mozilla’s Board of Directors appeared first on The Mozilla Blog.

I was born and raised in Zambia and came to the United States for university. Even though growing up, I had almost no exposure to computers, I chose to study … Read moreThe post Why I’m joining Mozilla’s Board of Directors appeared first on The Mozilla Blog.

A new Firefox is coming your way on June 1 with a fresh look designed for today’s modern life online. We pored over the browser’s user interface pixel by pixel, measured the value users were getting from our massive library of features, and ultimately streamlined the Firefox experience to be clean, inviting and easier to […]The post Behind the design of the fresh new Firefox coming June 1 appeared first on The Mozilla Blog.

COVID-19 accelerated changes in our behaviors that drove our lives increasingly online. Screens became our almost exclusive discovery point to the world. There were some benefits to this rapid shift. For many people, work was able to continue relatively uninterrupted at home, almost anything could be ordered online and delivered, and we were able to […]The post How to actually enjoy being online again appeared first on The Mozilla Blog.

You don’t last 20 years as a browser without making improvements along the way. So on June 1, that’s exactly what we’re doing. Get ready for a fresh new Firefox.The post A fresh new Firefox for desktop and mobile appeared first on The Mozilla Blog.

Last spring, Norah W. took note of how former President Barack Obama, Beyoncé and K-Pop band BTS broadcasted impassioned commencement speeches to the graduating class of 2020. Now that it’s her turn to mark the end of high school, she can’t help but feel disregarded. “It felt like the entire world mourned the class of […]The post Class of Zoom: The reality of virtual graduation, prom & college orientation appeared first on The Mozilla Blog.

The world this year’s college graduates will inherit is vastly different than the one they grew up expecting. COVID-19, a changing political climate, and a fluctuating economy all have something to do with it. But one of the biggest factors: continuous advancements in technology. New developments in social platforms, artificial intelligence, and augmented reality continue […]The post Enter our college essay contest for a chance to win $5,000 appeared first on The Mozilla Blog.

The web can be as wonderful as it is overwhelming. Fortunately there are ways you can customize Firefox with add-ons to achieve a more harmonious browsing experience. Here are a few examples—from soothing visual enhancements to great tools for mental clarity and peace of mind. Firefox themes Perhaps the easiest way to bring good vibes […]The post Peace of mind browser add-ons for Firefox appeared first on The Mozilla Blog.

The need for equitable broadband internet access has been a problem since the term “digital divide” was first coined in the mid-1990s, but these conversations are getting renewed attention as a result of COVID-19 forcing lives online more rapidly in 2020 than ever before. At Mozilla, we are committed to building an internet that includes […]The post Detroit’s digital divide reminds us how far America has to go for internet equity appeared first on The Mozilla Blog.

Today, Mozilla joins Fastly, Intel, and Microsoft in announcing the incorporation and expansion of the Bytecode Alliance, a cross-industry partnership to advance a vision for fast, secure, and simplified software … Read moreThe post Growing the Bytecode Alliance appeared first on The Mozilla Blog.

Now that we’re starting to get widespread COVID vaccination “vaccine passports” have started to become more relevant. The idea behind a vaccine passport is that you would have some kind … Read moreThe post Notes on Implementing Vaccine Passports appeared first on The Mozilla Blog.

In early 2020, I outlined our efforts to expand Mozilla’s boards. Over the past year, we’ve added three new external Mozilla board members: Navrina Singh and Wambui Kinya to the … Read moreThe post Mark Surman joins the Mozilla Foundation Board of Directors appeared first on The Mozilla Blog.

For many years now — and well before I sought out the job I have today — I thought: the world needs more organizations like Mozilla. Given the state of … Read moreThe post Wearing more (Mozilla) hats appeared first on The Mozilla Blog.

As technology makes massive shift to voice-enabled products, NVIDIA invests $1.5 million in Mozilla Common Voice to transform the voice recognition landscape Over the next decade, speech is expected to … Read moreThe post Mozilla partners with NVIDIA to democratize and diversify voice technology appeared first on The Mozilla Blog.

If we want the internet to be different we can’t keep following the same roadmap. I am celebrating a one-year anniversary at Mozilla this week, which is funny in a … Read moreThe post Reflections on One Year as the CEO of Mozilla appeared first on The Mozilla Blog.

In an important victory for software developers, the Supreme Court ruled today that reimplementing an API is fair use under US copyright law. The Court’s reasoning should apply to all … Read moreThe post Software Innovation Prevails in Landmark Supreme Court Ruling in Google v. Oracle appeared first on The Mozilla Blog.

It’s been less than a year since we launched Mozilla VPN, our fast and easy-to-use Virtual Private Network service brought to you by a trusted name in online consumer security … Read moreThe post Latest Mozilla VPN features keep your data safe appeared first on The Mozilla Blog.

Today, Mozilla together with other internet companies ADT, Dropbox, Eventbrite, Reddit, Vimeo, Wikimedia, sent a letter to the FCC asking the agency to reinstate net neutrality as a matter of … Read moreThe post Reinstating net neutrality in the US appeared first on The Mozilla Blog.

Addressing Supply Chain Vulnerabilities One of the unsung achievements of modern software development is the degree to which it has become componentized: not that long ago, when you wanted to … Read moreThe post Notes on Addressing Supply Chain Vulnerabilities appeared first on The Mozilla Blog.

Beginning last year, the internet began playing a bigger role in our lives than ever before. In the US, we went from only three percent of workers to more than … Read moreThe post Latest Firefox release includes Multiple Picture-in-Picture and Total Cookie Protection appeared first on The Mozilla Blog.

I’m delighted to share that the Mozilla Foundation and Corporation Boards are each welcoming a new member. Wambui Kinya is Vice President of Partner Engineering at Andela, a Lagos-based global … Read moreThe post Expanding Mozilla’s Boards appeared first on The Mozilla Blog.

Like many of us I suspect, I have long been a fairly passive “end-user” of the internet. In my daily life, I’ve merrily skipped along it to simplify and accelerate … Read moreThe post Why I’m Joining Mozilla’s Board of Directors appeared first on The Mozilla Blog.

My introduction to Mozilla was when Firefox was first launched. I was starting my career as a software developer in Boston, MA at the time. My experience was Firefox was … Read moreThe post Why I’m Joining Mozilla’s Board of Directors appeared first on The Mozilla Blog.

Over the last few years, Mozilla has turned its attention to AI, asking: how can we make the data driven technologies we all use everyday more trustworthy? How can we … Read moreThe post Next steps on trustworthy AI: transparency, bias and better data governance appeared first on The Mozilla Blog.

Today Mozilla is thrilled to join the Rust community in announcing the formation of the Rust Foundation. The Rust Foundation will be the home of the popular Rust programming language … Read moreThe post Mozilla Welcomes the Rust Foundation appeared first on The Mozilla Blog.

If I told you that two weeks ago IETF and W3C finally published the standards for WebRTC, your response would probably be to ask what all those acronyms were. Read … Read moreThe post What WebRTC means for you appeared first on The Mozilla Blog.

This is the fifth post in my series on voting systems (catch up on parts I, II, III and IV), focusing on computerized voting machines. The technical term for these … Read moreThe post Why getting voting right is hard, Part V: DREs (spoiler: they’re bad) appeared first on The Mozilla Blog.

Based on Mozilla's greenhouse gas emissions assessment, we are now pledging carbon-neutrality as well as significant reductions in our organisation emissions going forward. Read moreThe post Mozilla’s Climate Commitments appeared first on The Mozilla Blog.

Does the “openness” that made the internet so successful also inevitably lead to harms online? Is an open internet inherently a haven for illegal speech, for eroding privacy and security, … Read moreThe post Reimagine Open: Building a Healthier Internet appeared first on The Mozilla Blog.

This is the fourth post in my series on voting systems. Part I covered requirements and then Part II and Part III covered in-person voting using paper ballots. However, paper … Read moreThe post Why getting voting right is hard, Part IV: Absentee Voting and Vote By Mail appeared first on The Mozilla Blog.

There is no question that social media played a role in the siege and take-over of the US Capitol on January 6. Since then there has been significant focus on … Read moreThe post We need more than deplatforming appeared first on The Mozilla Blog.

This is the third post in my series on voting systems. For background see part I. As described in part II, hand-counted paper ballots have a number of attractive security … Read moreThe post Why getting voting right is hard, Part III: Optical Scan appeared first on The Mozilla Blog.

This year began like any other year, with our best intentions and resolutions to carry out. Then by March, the world changed and everyone’s lives — personally and professionally — … Read moreThe post Our Year in Review: How we’ve kept Firefox working for you in 2020 appeared first on The Mozilla Blog.

Mozilla is publishing its white paper, “Creating Trustworthy AI.” A little over two years ago, Mozilla started an ambitious project: deciding where we should focus our efforts to grow the … Read moreThe post Mozilla’s Vision for Trustworthy AI appeared first on The Mozilla Blog.

In Part I we looked at desirable properties for voting system. In this post, I want to look at the details of a specific system: hand-counted paper ballots. Hand-counted paper … Read moreThe post Why getting voting right is hard, Part II: Hand-Counted Paper Ballots appeared first on The Mozilla Blog.

Every two years around this time, the US has an election and the rest of the world marvels and asks itself one question: What the heck is going on with … Read moreThe post Why getting voting right is hard, Part I: Introduction and Requirements appeared first on The Mozilla Blog.

2020 has been a year like few others with the internet’s value and necessity front and center. The State of Mozilla for 2019-2020 makes clear that Mozilla’s mission and role … Read moreThe post State of Mozilla 2019-2020: Annual Impact Report appeared first on The Mozilla Blog.

Release of Mozilla's 2019 Greenhouse Gas emissions baseline, detailing the environmental impact for all three scopes and applicable categories and adding context and a few data visualisations to help make sense of these findings. Read moreThe post Release: Mozilla’s Greenhouse Gas emissions baseline appeared first on The Mozilla Blog.

Today the US Department of Justice (“DOJ”) filed an antitrust lawsuit against Google, alleging that it unlawfully maintains monopolies through anticompetitive and exclusionary practices in the search and search advertising … Read moreThe post Mozilla Reaction to U.S. v. Google appeared first on The Mozilla Blog.

It’s noisy out there. We are inundated with sensational headlines every minute, of every day. You almost could make a full-time job of sorting the fun, interesting or useful memes, … Read moreThe post The internet needs our love appeared first on The Mozilla Blog.