NEW DELHI: Mozilla has been accused of tracking user behaviour and websites without consent, reports Reuters. Vienna-based advocacy group NOYB (None Of Your Business) has filed a complaint with the Austrian data protection against the software company. NYOB has accused Mozilla of enabling a “privacy preserving attribution” feature that turned the browser into a tracking tool for websites without directly telling the users.

Once a popular choice among users for its privacy features, the open-source Firefox browser now trails behind market leaders like Google’s Chrome, Apple’s Safari, and Microsoft’s Edge.

It has a single-digit share of the market.

What NYOB says in its complaint

In the complaint, NYOB argued that the feature violates user rights under EU privacy laws, noting that Firefox has enabled the feature by default.

“It’s disappointing that an organization like Mozilla assumes users are too uninformed to make a choice,” said Felix Mikolasch, data protection lawyer at NOYB. “Users should be given the option, and the feature should have been disabled by default,” he added.

NOYB says that it wants Mozilla to inform users about its data processing activities, switch to an opt-in system and delete all unlawfully processed data of millions of affected users.

What Mozilla says

Mozilla on its part defends the “privacy preserving attribution” feature stating that it helps websites understand how their ads perform without collecting data about users. It says that the feature is a non-invasive alternative to cross-site tracking and is aimed to significantly reduce collecting individual information.

Agencies

Agencies