Mozilla Recognized as Most Trusted Internet Company for Privacy

https://blog.mozilla.org/blog/2013/01/28/privacy-day-2013/

by cleverjake • 13 years ago

323 74 13 years ago

blog.mozilla.org

rayiner3• 13 years ago

In other news: Mozilla basically the only major internet company whose business model isn't built on selling your privacy.

lawdawg• 13 years ago

I love both companies, but you realize Mozilla makes most of their money because of a search deal with Google, right?

shardling2• 13 years ago

But since their goal isn't to make money...

rayiner3• 13 years ago

Yeah, but selling your privacy isn't the point of its existence, unlike Google, Facebok, Twitter, etc. That makes it the top performer in the Special Olympics, so to speak.

rooshdi• 13 years ago

But Mozilla actually has leverage over Google to commit to user privacy. If Google doesn't like what they're doing, Bing, Yandex, or any other search engine has the opportunity to be the new search default.

kyrra• 13 years ago

But most of their money comes from companies that do sell your privacy (ie: google for being the default search engine).

leeoniya• 13 years ago

you're not forced to use it, though.

reinhardt• 13 years ago

That's like saying you can eat a steak and be a vegetarian because the cow it came from eats grass.

johnward• 13 years ago

What exactly is the business model?

chmod7752• 13 years ago

It's a non-profit run with donations. I don't know how much of the code/other contributions are from the community and how much by Mozilla employees though. I could imagine that the translations - for instance - are mostly done by bilingual hobbyists.

hosay123• 13 years ago

As much as I love Mozilla for precisely this reason, it cannot go without remark that the majority of their funding continues to come from the metaphorical privacy antichrist, Google. This could change as early as 2014 when the search contract is due for renewal.

Can anyone comment on Mozilla's future revenue plans? Are they aiming to license Firefox OS?

stanleydrew7• 13 years ago

Do you really believe that Google is the "metaphorical privacy antichrist" and if so, can I ask what exactly makes you feel that way?

krenoten• 13 years ago

People tell Google incredibly intimate things on an hourly basis, many of which Google then sells to pesterers or gives to three letter agencies. People may catch on eventually, but most simply don't think they need to care what the consequences may be.

WayneDB2• 13 years ago

I hold the same opinion so I can answer for myself - Mainly I judge them by their actions and it seems obvious to me that Google is working against the anonymous Internet. They seem to want to tag and track everyone with a real name and they force you sign in to save important settings on many of their services.

They just seem to want all of your data on their servers all of the time. I don't like it and I actively work against it.

j_s• 13 years ago

Illustrated (comic): http://mattputtz.com/google-is-big-brother/

duskwuff• 13 years ago

Note that Mozilla wasn't #1 on the list. They were just added to the list (at #20). Amex is #1.

http://www.ponemon.org/local/upload/file/2012%20MTC%20Report...

rayiner3• 13 years ago

Mozilla is the #1 in the internet/social media industry. See page 7. Unsurprisingly, the industry as a whole ranks last out of the 25 industries in the list.

DannyBee2• 13 years ago

Actually this is really surprising, considering a lot of the companies/industries ranked above it are much worse at privacy, just much better at the snow job of hiding it.

Taking banking, ranked #3, which has a lot of companies (well, basically all of them) that not only sell all of your transaction info/etc, you can't opt out, and it isn't very anonymized.

Look at https://www.bankofamerica.com/privacy/consumer-privacy-notic...

for an example.

At least with most internet companies, you can opt out if you like, and most internet companies do not share with affiliates. It's not like Facebook is selling your social data to advertisers directly, instead it's selling the ability to show ads to people like you.

This is a far cry from "hey, want records of what dannyb bought in the last month with his BoA account so you can market better? Here you go!"

sek• 13 years ago

Also Amazon is place 3, I find that rather dishonest from Mozilla.

lucb1e• 13 years ago

I understand why, but it's ironic to see that the article's domain is "mozilla.org".

For the Dutch people around here: "Wij van WC-eend..." :)

shardling2• 13 years ago

Why is it ironic?

brokenparser• 13 years ago

Parent is saying ACME has the best products, according to ACME. I, for one, don't click such articles as they're usually biased to favour the authors. Checks real quick In this case, Mozilla really ranked #20 but were #1 in their category of just 12. The article reeks of exploding just one tiny bullet point in a report which appears not to have been reviewed much outside of Ponemon Institute LLC except for the fine commentary here on HN.

(See http://search.cpan.org/~chromatic/Acme-Incorporated-1.00/lib... )

stanleydrew7• 13 years ago

Ironic that the page gives me a mixed content warning:

"The page at https://blog.mozilla.org/blog/2013/01/28/privacy-day-2013/ displayed insecure content from http://blog.mozilla.org/files/2013/01/most-trusted-privacy-2...

doe88• 13 years ago

That's the main reason why Firefox is still my main browser, I trust the Mozilla Foundation to do the right thing. Also, there is no nagging "connect to your account" every time I restart the browser or open a new tab or whatever, I hate this message, I want to browse the web not connect to another service. Moreover I find it is still the more convenient browser for customization and tweaking. For instance I only have to set network.http.sendRefererHeader to 0 to prevent sending http referrers. I use the Nightly version and it's pretty stable although I would prefer not having to restart FF after each update.

shitlord• 13 years ago

Yup, I love using firefox for the same reasons. It's just so incredibly customizable, and you can't get that level of customizability/compatibility in any other major web browser.

TheEskimo• 13 years ago

The article's title is misleading. I read the linked study (pdf and prweb summary of results) and found nothing to support that they are the "Most Trusted Internet Company"... In fact, Amazon, eBay, WebMD, and Microsoft are all above it on the list. All of those I'd consider to be "Internet companies". If you alter it, as Mozilla did in the paragraph below, to read "Internet & Social Media" then it's right according to the linked pdf, but that's hardly the same thing as the title.

I do trust Mozilla far more than the other companies that made this list, but I can't help but feel their title is intentionally misleading.

I do find it odd that Mozilla didn't end up higher of course. Out of the listed entities I don't think any of the others are non-profit (nor have something like the Mozilla Manifesto as a guiding principal), and if any are I doubt that they understand crypto anywhere near as well as Mozilla. I trust Mozilla because they not only have the desire to keep me safe, but also have the technical know-how.

jcburnham• 13 years ago

This is some gerrymandered surveying.

Yes, technically Mozilla comes in at #1 in the Internet & Social Media Category, but that category excludes higher-ranking companies such as Amazon (classified as eCommerce), ebay (eCommerce), WebMD (healthcare), Microsoft (technology and software), and Intuit (technology and software).

Let's be real, if the parent company of Mint.com beats you, then this isn't really much to brag about. I mean, I do love me some Mozilla, but come on now.

ghurlman• 13 years ago

From the study:

Note: The eCommerce subgroup consists of Internet retainers (merchants). All other Internet companies are contained in the Internet & Social Media subgroup.

Otherwise, Amazon beats out Mozilla handily.

Millennium• 13 years ago

Being the most trusted internet company for privacy is like being the branch of the sewer with the fewest disease-carrying rats. Sure, you're the best of the bunch, but how much does that really say?

nikcub• 13 years ago

Check the full results.[0] Mozilla ranked below AT&T, who had the iPad leak, below HP, Amazon, Microsoft, IBM, eBay, Verizon, WebMD, etc.

They seem to have 'won' their category through being mis-categorized as 'Internet and Social Media', where they compete against Facebook and Twitter.

In terms of software vendors, they are outranked by most of the big names - only Google aren't mentioned.

Ranking behind that long list of companies, and only having to beat Twitter and Facebook on privacy issues is not a big win.

Edit: Also the source of this survey is very vague. It looks like a lobby/industry group who do nothing but put out surveys. No transparency on who the people behind it are, who makes up the board or how they are funded. From the website[1]:

Members of the RIM Council represent a cross-section of Fortune 500 companies and are champions of privacy and data protection in their organizations.

Interesting. So which companies exactly[2]?

RIM Council activities operate under strict confidentiality. Sponsorship revenues from participating Council companies provide funding for our core activities

Oh, right.

[0] http://www.prweb.com/releases/2013/1/prweb10363796.htm

[1] http://www.ponemon.org/

[2] http://www.ponemon.org/rim-council

Cowen• 13 years ago

It should be noted that this was a web-based survey, not a ranking by security audits.

> Our Web-based research study asked respondents to name up to five companies in 25 different industries they believe to be the most trusted for protecting the privacy of their personal information [0]

It's not terribly surprising that, given only five choices, more people chose some of the most well-known corporations in the world rather than the relatively PR-challenged Mozilla.

[0] http://www.ponemon.org/local/upload/file/2012%20MTC%20Report...

mseebach2• 13 years ago

That bit is fair enough. It's about trust (subjective) not trustworthiness (objective).

jre• 13 years ago

I really love what Mozilla is doing and they would be pretty close to #1 on my trusted companies list.

Sadly, the post is so misleading and borderline dishonest that it just makes them seem a bit less trustful. I mean, the study's categorization is seriously arbitrary and for example Microsoft, which is a direct Mozilla competitor, is ranked higher overall but isn't in the same category.

Also, Google (another Mozilla competitor) wasn't ranked this year, but they were rank 19 last year (Mozilla is 20)...

This is really a good example that you'll always find a way to segment your data so you can push your agenda.

zabraxias• 13 years ago

As someone already mentioned these end-user surveys seem to be closer to popularity contests. I have no doubt MS, Google, Apple etc are astronomically more popular than Mozilla and will rank higher based on name recognition.

These results probably do hold another meaning but it would take someone better than me at testing to figure that out.

bullseye• 13 years ago

From the PRWeb article:

More than 100,000 adult-aged consumers were asked to name up to five companies they believe to be the most trusted for protecting the privacy of their personal information

This is nothing more than a name recognition contest. I'm actually surprised Mozilla made the list at all.

Freestyler_3• 13 years ago

Yes, I agree. Also how many consumers know how their/others privacy is handled/valued by these companies. Beauty contest thats all. (most brand related surveys don't mean much, because not many people know a thing or 2 about the lesser known companies)

dobbsbob• 13 years ago

haha privacy. then why when I type about:config in FF and search for google plenty of spying comes up.

charonn0• 13 years ago

I see safe browsing and default search related settings. Why would this be surprising?

benologist3• 13 years ago

What a joke. If any browser vendor really gave a fuck about privacy it would simply not be a problem anymore at all.

It's certainly not worthy to have to deceive your way to the top of a list that exists because of how little privacy really matters to browser vendors.

justinph• 13 years ago

How would this happen like you say?

Browsers stop accepting third party cookies & scripts, block ads, disable localStorage, etc?

It'd be the browser that no one would use, because half the sites on the 'net wouldn't work.

Like many big problems, the solution is a lot more nuanced than you suggest. It involves browsers having more stringent defaults, website makers caring more (altruistically or by legislation) and consumers caring more.

benologist3• 13 years ago

They fight off viruses, malware, exploits, etc so I think mostly we should consider this a classification problem only from where we sit.

Most of the net works too - AdBlock, NoScript and Ghostery wouldn't be amongst the most popular extensions on multiple browsers if they had many negative consequences.

mburns• 13 years ago

What else do you think Firefox should do to protect your privacy?

benologist3• 13 years ago

They should consider the leak of PII (outside of form fields) a vulnerability and treat companies that circumvent their efforts as hostile.

canistr• 13 years ago

I open up the study and find the following:

American Express (AMEX) continues to reign as the most trusted company for privacy among 217 organizations rated in our most trusted companies list. New entrants to this year’s top 20 most trusted list includes: Microsoft (ranked 17), United Healthcare (ranked 18) and Mozilla (ranked 20).

So not exactly the "Most Trusted Internet Company for Privacy" given they were ranked 20th and AMEX was ranked first.

Source: http://www.ponemon.org/local/upload/file/2012%20MTC%20Report...

azakai• 13 years ago

American Express was in a different category than Mozilla. American Express was first over all categories, yeah.

(The survey and categories are a bit weird, no argument there.)

tferris• 13 years ago

Congrats to Mozilla but honestly, I wonder when they implement Retina support, Web Audio API and other goodies (or must-haves) Chrome and Safari have for years. It's hard to use such a browser in 2013.

macspoofing• 13 years ago

I'll buy that. They have no ulterior motive to collect personal data and they have been very vocal on privacy issues.

randomstring• 13 years ago

The same report lists the NRA as the most trusted non-profit. Not exactly the ringing endorsement the Mozilla's blog makes it out to be.

However, Mozilla should get some branding kudos for having enough people associate privacy and trustworthiness with the Mozilla brand.

rdl2• 13 years ago

The irony is that Firefox is by far the least secure current browser (after Chrome, then probably Safari and IE10 for various reasons, then Firefox).

mweibel• 13 years ago

Erm - why exactly? Sources?

dbaupp• 13 years ago

I think most of the others have JS sandboxing, but FF doesn't.

teeja• 13 years ago

For what it's worth, security & software guy Steve Gibson uses the Firefox browser.

mb123• 13 years ago

Yeh for anyone who has a website, Mozilla Persona is a great method for users to login

http://www.mozilla.org/en-US/persona/

you can see it action when you login (4th option presented) to http://ebookoid.com/

Mozilla Recognized as Most Trusted Internet Company for Privacy

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