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by jwfxpr 2852 days ago
You're succumbing to the allure of what-aboutism here. Yes, granted, Mozilla aren't perfect and have made some significant missteps (not all of which they've suitably amended), and deserve criticism for them. But just because they're vulnerable to criticism doesn't invalidate what they're saying here, and doesn't make another entity who regularly handles more sensitive data in less private ways less vulnerable to criticism.

Should this message be coming from another source? Yes, but 'as well as', not 'instead of'. Is it good for user advocacy that a highly recognised source is promoting this message, even if the source is flawed? Yes, it is.

1 comments

You missed my point. To me, Mozilla is not a highly recognised source. They are politically aligned, they don't respect the privacy of their users, and what's even worse: they say they do and herald themselves as the saviours of the free web and privacy and blah blah, while they stab their users in the back. Mozilla is not only a "flawed source": they either don't know what privacy is, or they are simply malicious. They have no authority to tell me how to defend my privacy or to tell other corporations how to act.
No, they didn't miss your point. You missed their point. You're not criticizing the message, you're criticizing the messenger. Maybe Mozilla shouldn't be the one saying this. But are they wrong about Venmo?
Yes, I'm criticising the messenger. I didn't imply I was criticising the message in any of my posts. I personally don't care because I don't use Venmo. I just thought it was hilarious, if not infuriating, for Mozilla to say anything about user privacy.
By quoting a few high-profile stories and ignoring everything else Mozilla does for privacy. That really is infuriating.
What exactly has Mozilla done for my privacy? The effects of Mozilla on my privacy have only been detrimental, given that I use Firefox and they have screwed me over a few times already.
> I personally don't care because I don't use Venmo

By that logic, you shouldn't care about Mozilla because you can just download another browser.

But that's not true. Venmo and Firefox have an impact on the larger world, whether you use them or not. Both should be criticized. But criticizing the messenger does not excuse the behavior of the other.