Mozilla offers Firefox users removal option for telemetry in browser

Mozilla will let Firefox users remove all telemetry data that the browser collects from the next version. That happens because of a new privacy law that applies to residents of California. Mozilla is making the feature available worldwide.

This specifically concerns data that Firefox collects about browser use. This is data that the company collects to improve the stability of the browser, but in some cases also for marketing purposes. Such data is, for example, how many tabs a user has open. In Firefox 72, the next version of the browser that will be released next week, there is an option that allows users to directly request to remove the telemetry data from the browser. Previously, Firefox already had an opt-out for data such as crash reports or Studies.

Mozilla’s plans come in response to the California Consumer Privacy Act. This is a comprehensive privacy law that has been in effect since January 1. Under the CCPA, citizens of the US state gain more control over what happens to their data. For example, companies are obliged to honor data deletion requests. In principle, the CCPA only applies to California citizens, but Mozilla says it has seized the opportunity to make the new telemetry delete feature available worldwide.