Firefox Will Now Delete Your Personal Data

Mozilla is offering all Firefox users the chance to delete their personal data. Specifically, telemetry data, which most of the technology industry doesn’t even consider to be personal data. Still, Mozilla is going the extra mile with regards to privacy and security.

What Is CCPA?

This move has been prompted by the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA), which went into effect on January 1, 2020. CCPA expands the rights of Californians to manage their data. They can access their data, see if it has been sold, and request it be deleted.

The CCPA only applies to citizens of California. However, as happened with the EU’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), some companies are expanding the rules to users elsewhere. Including Mozilla, which has supported CCPA from the beginning.

Mozilla Offers to Delete Your Firefox Data

As a direct result of the CCPA legislation, Mozilla is offering all Firefox users around the world the opportunity to delete the personal data the company collects. Mozilla explains the change, which will be available with Firefox 72, on the Open Policy & Advocacy Blog.

Day 1 of the new year is off to a strong start with #CCPA going into effect.

Let's keep the momentum going for the rest of 2020. #HappyNewYear pic.twitter.com/4duAY0bjly

— Firefox ? (@firefox) January 1, 2020

Mozilla is keen to point out that “Firefox already collects very little of your data,” stating that most of it is “to help us improve the performance and security of Firefox”. Mozilla calls this “telemetry data”, which offers very general information about browsing habits.

If you use Firefox in private browsing mode none of this telemetry data is even collected. What’s more, the company has “always given people easy options to disable telemetry in Firefox” and enforces “strict limits on how long we keep telemetry data”.

However, Mozilla is now expanding user deletion rights to include this telemetry data. Therefore, Firefox will now “provide users a way to request deletion for desktop telemetry directly from Firefox – and a way for us, at Mozilla, to perform that deletion.”

Maximize Your Privacy When Using Firefox

As previously noted, the option to request your data is deleted is available to all Firefox users worldwide, and not just Californians covered by CCPA. Which is a classy move. And here are some more ways to maximize your online privacy when using Firefox.

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