At the beginning of this year, Mozilla underwent significant changes, including switching CEOs, letting go of employees, and canceling unnecessary projects. Several months later, Laura Chambers, the interim CEO of Mozilla, admitted in an interview with Fast Company that over the past few years, Mozilla had shifted its focus to other projects such as VPN and email forwarding service Relay, causing a loss of focus on its core product, Firefox.
Chambers stated that her task is to refocus Mozilla back on Firefox by prioritizing new features based on community demands. We are starting to see some new features in Firefox, such as the Vertical Tab layout, after years of user requests. Additionally, Firefox is showing renewed interest in Progressive Web Apps after neglecting them for some time.
However, Firefox under Chambers’ leadership faced criticism when Firefox 128 quietly introduced a feature called Privacy-preserving attribution (PPA), allowing advertisers to measure ad performance directly from the browser. This system was developed in collaboration with Meta, a major advertising platform. This feature left privacy-conscious Firefox users dissatisfied and feeling betrayed by Mozilla’s partnership with Meta.
Users were concerned that their privacy was compromised, although Mozilla explained that PPA was a way for advertisers to accurately measure ad performance without resorting to alternative methods, while still safeguarding each user’s personal data. This system was considered superior to Google’s Privacy Sandbox, which Google recently abandoned.
Chambers acknowledged that the implementation of PPA in Firefox was a communication misstep and a learning experience, emphasizing the importance of better understanding and engaging with the user community beyond this.
TLDR: Mozilla underwent significant changes, refocusing on Firefox after diverting attention to other projects like VPN and Relay. However, the introduction of PPA in Firefox faced backlash for compromising user privacy and teaming up with Meta, highlighting the need for better communication and understanding with the user community.
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