Former Mozilla chief product officer Steve Teixeira sued Mozilla and executives in June 2024, alleging discrimination and other claims after cancer diagnoses and medical leave. Mozilla denied wrongdoing. The suit said the company proposed a demotion with 40% lower total compensation, which Teixeira declined. In December, the parties reached a confidential settlement; both said no one admitted wrongdoing.
On April 24, the suit says, Mozilla formally proposed to demote Teixeira to senior vice president of technology strategy, with a 40% reduction in total compensation. He declined to accept the role change.
In November 2024, the Mozilla Foundation confirmed it laid off 30% of its employees. Executive Director Nabiha Syed said advocacy and global programs were no longer separate divisions. The Foundation said advocacy would remain central and be integrated across other areas, but provided no specifics. TechCrunch reported the staff count at the time was about 120, a figure Mozilla did not dispute.
The Mozilla Foundation, the nonprofit arm of the Firefox browser maker Mozilla, has laid off 30% of its employees as the organization says it faces a “relentless onslaught of change.”
In February and March 2025, Mozilla faced criticism after Firefox terms appeared to grant broad rights to users’ input and it removed blanket promises never to sell personal data. Mozilla said its data practices had not changed and the license did not confer ownership. It later narrowed the wording, limiting use to operating Firefox and the Privacy Notice; Mozilla said partner data is de-identified or aggregated, while critics remained concerned.
After fielding user backlash over its new Terms of Use last week, Firefox browser maker Mozilla has rewritten its policy to address issues around the overly broad language it had previously used. Critics said the terms implied Mozilla was asking users for the rights to whatever data they input into the browser or upload, which some worried would be then sold to advertisers or AI companies.
On Wednesday, the browser maker introduced a new Terms of Use and updated Privacy Notice for Firefox, saying it wanted to offer users more transparency over their rights and permissions in the agreements, as well as provide a more detailed explanation of its data practices.
Firefox maker Mozilla deleted a promise to never sell its users’ personal data and is trying to assure worried users that its approach to privacy hasn’t fundamentally changed. Until recently, a Firefox FAQ promised that the browser maker never has and never will sell its users’ personal data. An archived version from January 30 says:
Mozilla co-founder Brendan Eich’s 2008 $1,000 donation supporting California’s Proposition 8, which banned same-sex marriage, drew renewed criticism after his March 2014 appointment as CEO. Employees and others challenged his suitability; Eich declined to explain the donation. He stepped down as CEO and from Mozilla’s board on April 3, 2014, amid the dispute.
At issue is Brendan Eich, a co-founder of Mozilla, inventor of the much used Javascript programming language and the newly appointed CEO of the company. Eich made a $1,000 donation to the campaign for California's Proposition 8, which defined marriage as only between a man and a woman. The donation had come to light in 2012, but fizzled.
Within hours, Eich's appointment became mired in controversy over a $1,000 donation he made in support of Proposition 8, the 2008 California vote banning same-sex marriage. Over the following week, Eich refused to discuss his personal views as Mozilla reiterated its support for equality.
Mozilla President Mark Surman described an effort to build a “Rebel Alliance” for open-source AI and resist concentrated tech power. In a 2023 interview, he warned that rushed AI deployment could cause social harms and disadvantage smaller players. Mozilla’s 2026 report advocated investment beyond models, while TIME noted disputed claims and limited treatment of open-source AI risks.
Mozilla, the non-profit behind the Firefox browser, is reinventing itself as a champion of open-source AI, in what its president Mark Surman says is an attempt to build a “Rebel Alliance” resisting the concentration of power in the tech industry.
Mark Surman, president and executive director of the nonprofit Mozilla Foundation behind the Firefox browser, has spent the last three years promoting what his organization calls “trustworthy” artificial intelligence. As generative AI tools like ChatGPT take off, he’s accelerating that work, focusing on a new venture capital fund and an open-source AI startup called Mozilla.ai.
In September 2024, digital rights group NOYB complained to Austria’s data protection watchdog, alleging Firefox’s Privacy-Preserving Attribution feature tracked users without consent. Mozilla said the feature had not been activated or recorded or sent end-user data, was limited to a test on its developer network, and was designed to protect privacy; users could disable it.
European digital rights group NOYB (None Of Your Business) has filed a privacy complaint with the Austrian data protection watchdog (DSB) against Mozilla, alleging the company uses a Firefox privacy feature (enabled without consent) to track users' online behavior.
OpenSecrets listed Mozilla Foundation lobbying at $140,000 in 2024 and $120,000 in 2023; a separate displayed figure was $134,137, with no date specified. It also reported that all four Foundation lobbyists in 2023 and all four in 2024 had previously held government jobs.
4 out of 4 Mozilla Foundation lobbyists in 2023 have previously held government jobs.
On January 7, 2022, Mozilla Foundation said it had stopped accepting cryptocurrency donations and would review whether they align with its climate goals. The move followed criticism of Mozilla’s crypto donation support, including from founder Jamie Zawinski. Mozilla had accepted Bitcoin since 2014 and removed crypto support from its donation page.
The Mozilla Foundation, a non-profit organization and maker of the Firefox browser, has revealed it has stopped accepting donations in cryptocurrencies with immediate effect. The company broke the news on January 7, 2022, adding that it will review the environmental impact of cryptocurrencies and whether it aligns with its climate goals.
OpenSecrets’ 2020-cycle page lists $335,519 in contributions, all from individuals and none from organizations. It reports $260,828 to candidates and $53,187 to party committees; listed recipients include Joe Biden, the DNC and Bernie Sanders. The evidence also shows $100,000 for 2020 and $120,000 for 2019, without clarifying those figures’ scope.