How does Zen deals with the new Firefox terms that enable them to steal our intellectual property and privacy?

[Exadra37]

I am evaluating a new browser alternative after discovering that the new Firefox terms give them the right to steal our data, thus our privacy.

From their terms:

You Give Mozilla Certain Rights and Permissions

You give Mozilla all rights necessary to operate Firefox, including processing data as we describe in the Firefox Privacy Notice, as well as acting on your behalf to help you navigate the internet. When you upload or input information through Firefox, you hereby grant us a nonexclusive, royalty-free, worldwide license to use that information to help you navigate, experience, and interact with online content as you indicate with your use of Firefox.

My concern is that once Zen is based on Firefox how it may allow Firefox to receive our data, or is this code removed?

[thibaultmol]

Just fyi, there was an update to that blog post (still not super clear, but better): https://infosec.exchange/@mttaggart/114074190115514004

[Exadra37]

Thanks for the link, but to me as zero value what they say in a blog, what it matters is what they say in the terms, and their they say the opposite.

[thibaultmol]

oh yeah no, I'm not trying to defend it tbc. Just adding info to the discussion.

I'll also add: https://circumstances.run/@davidgerard/114078708183574404

[diabhoil]

Any statement on this? Could be important to know for many firefox users.

[thpar]

I'd also love to hear from someone of the Zen team about this. I only started using Zen a couple of weeks ago and I'm loving the UI and the fact that I can still use (almost) all of my extensions and sync my bookmarks with my Firefox account.

But now with the worrying statements of Mozilla, I checked the Zen Privacy Policy.
If you go to "About > End-User Rights > Zen Privacy Policy" it just takes you straight to https://www.mozilla.org/en-US/privacy/firefox/

If hope this was an oversight?

If you click directly on "About > Privacy Policy" you get a kind of more reassuring message:

8. Other telemetry done by Mozilla Firefox
   We try to disable all telemetry data collection in Zen Browser. But, we may have missed some. Check the below links for more information.

And would I be correct to understand that the syncing feature encrypts bookmarks and tabs on our device and only then sends the encrypted data to the Mozilla cloud?

[yamalight]

Would love to know the official stance of Zen team on that as well. I do love Zen's UI, but if the privacy stance will be the same as Mozilla - I'd go for librewolf instead.