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Mozilla Privacy Social Networks The Internet News Technology Your Rights Online

Mozilla Named 'Most Trusted Internet Company For Privacy' 70

redletterdave writes "Mozilla announced on Tuesday that it has been named the 'Most Trusted Internet Company For Privacy' in 2012, according to a new independent study released by the Ponemon Institute early this morning (PDF). Ponemon Institute surveyed more than 100,000 adult-aged consumers over a 15-week period ending in December 2012; of the 6,704 respondents, representing 25 different industries, Mozilla was ranked the top Internet and social media company. While this is a great achievement for Mozilla, especially considering this was their first year making the list, Mozilla's team took note of the fact that 'Internet and social media' was still the least trustworthy sector out of the 25 total industries listed. 'It means we as an industry all have a lot more work to do,' Mozilla wrote on its blog."
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Mozilla Named 'Most Trusted Internet Company For Privacy'

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  • Just saying

  • by TWX ( 665546 ) on Tuesday January 29, 2013 @05:02PM (#42731891)
    ...and it's all about perception and how people feel, not how the world actually works. Therefore, it may give people fuzzy/happy feelings, but it doesn't necessarily mean squat if it's not actually correct.

    This is the Peoples' Choice Awards of privacy and security. And remember, when you think of how stupid the average person is, bear in mind that 50% are below that.
    • by Anonymous Coward

      Given that Mozilla is the only browser maker that is not a for-profit company, maybe the people aren't so stupid.

      I'm not saying all for-profit companies are evil, but their ultimate goal is to make money, and that can easily conflict with protecting users' privacy.

      The profit motive gets you companies like IBTimes.com (one of the links in the summary) that auto plays videos, and restarts those videos if you stop them. (I'm baffled why SoulSkill would have included an IBTimes link in the summary.)

    • by Skewray ( 896393 )

      ...and it's all about perception and how people feel, not how the world actually works. Therefore, it may give people fuzzy/happy feelings, but it doesn't necessarily mean squat if it's not actually correct.

      Well, the Ponemon Institute brought us Pikachu, which makes me feel pretty fuzzy/happy about Mozilla.

    • Given that Firefox isn't an advertising company or someone with a second rate search engine and trying to be number 1 by snooping on your searches there is a valid case for them being better.

      For security, Chrome has more vulnerabilities than Firefox, it's up with IE. Google and Microsoft hold more data on you worth stealing so you're going to be more valuable target.
    • by fatphil ( 181876 )
      Indeed. If it didn't appear last year, and this year it's number one, and Mozilla hasn't significantly changed any privacy policies in the last year, that tells me that the rankings are basically more noise than signal.
      • I think a lot of it is, as someone else wrote in part, the simple fact that Firefox is the major independent (i.e., not affiliated with an OS or search company) browser. Opera was pretty much independent too, last I checked, but they don't have the penetration that Firefox does.

        On that basis, I'm willing to give it security points. Since they do not have a vested interest in selling your information or locking you into an OS, they are likely to have consumer interest a bit more in mind than the others.
  • I mean, seriously?

    • Yes, seriously. Professor Oak did a LOT of research before dispatching Brock, Misty, and Ash to Firefox World Headquarters with the news.

      Unfortunately, Team Rocket got there first, and Jesse, disguised in a suit, was waiting for them in Mitchell Baker's office. Things got a bit dicey for a while... but let's just say that, in the end, Team Rocket blasted off again.

  • Most trusted != Most trustworthy

    Just sayin....

  • by steelfood ( 895457 ) on Tuesday January 29, 2013 @05:59PM (#42732371)

    Social media, by definition, is an invasion of privacy. Except it's usually not some faceless corporation invading your privacy, but yourself, and the people with whom you socialize.

    You can't socialize without giving up some privacy, plain and simple. And you're not going to be able to do socialize online, where all data is stored digitally and can be copied on a whim, without exposing your socializing to the entire world. Whether the rest of the world cares is another matter altogether.

    • Social media, by definition, is an invasion of privacy.

      True. We are socializing here on Slashdot.

      Slashdot is owned by Dice.

    • by 0racle ( 667029 )

      You can't socialize without giving up some privacy, plain and simple.

      How do you figure?

    • The difference is choice. If I invite you into my home, that's OK. If you invade my home uninvited, that's not. Likewise the voluntary relinquishing of privacy inherent in all social interaction is distinct from the involuntary invasion of privacy which people - yes, even those who use the internet to communicate - are opposed to.

      • I take it that the only home you own on the net is your own computing device. Elsewhere, you're just squatting.
  • What would a company like Mozilla have to do to offend our privacy concerns anyway?

    Companies like Microsoft, Google, Facebook, and Yahoo have all kinds of information on us. It's part of their business model to walk that fuzzy line between privacy and profit.

    But Mozilla, with a browser and a few other auxiliary apps, plus a website that very few people even use beyond downloading apps, just doesn't have the capacity to piss people off like the other companies do.

    I might as well say that New Egg has an excel

    • They could write contracts with Microsoft, Facebook, Google and more, in which they assist in tracking users, for a fee. It seems pretty obvious that hasn't happened yet. I don't see it happening in the near to medium future, either. The distant future? Hell, anything can happen twenty years down the road.

  • I'm just waiting for some Micrsoft shill to name Microsoft the "World's Most Trusted Internet Company For Privacy".

    In 3 . . . 2 . . .

  • It's just Microsoft didn't fit in the "Internet & Social Media industry" sub-category. Mozilla is 20th in the top 20 overall. So Internet Explorer beats Firefox.

    Hell, Amazon is number 3. How do you think they make money? Selling you targeted stuff.
    When you buy XYZ from some company via Amazon, do you think they don't get told that it was because the customer clicked on a "we think you'll also like..."?

  • Maybe I'm behind the times, but I was unimpressed to learn about Mozilla Firefox handing off geographic tracking to Google. Uninstall instructions here [leavegooglebehind.com].

    about:config
    In the Filter box, type geo.enabled
    Double click on the geo.enabled preference
    Location-Aware Browsing is now disabled.

Stellar rays prove fibbing never pays. Embezzlement is another matter.

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