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Re:“looks like Firefox quietly added ads into the address bar” by strombofulous on Wednesday October 06, 2021 @09:19PM (#28780610)
Re:“looks like Firefox quietly added ads into the address bar” by tick_tock_tick on Wednesday October 06, 2021 @09:35PM (#28780739)
This is a donation to Mozilla which as they clearly don't give a fuck about Firefox's success has a snowballs chance in hell at funding Firefox development.

> Contributions go to the Mozilla Foundation, a 501(c)(3) organization based in San Francisco, California, to be used in its discretion for its charitable purposes. They are tax-deductible in the U.S. to the fullest extent permitted by law.

Re:“looks like Firefox quietly added ads into the address bar” by dralley on Wednesday October 06, 2021 @09:52PM (#28780866)
Under US tax law, they cannot legally spend tax-exempt donated funds on the development of a for-profit product.
Re:“looks like Firefox quietly added ads into the address bar” by toss1 on Wednesday October 06, 2021 @10:07PM (#28780978)
Yes, but that does not prevent them from spending it on some other 'priority', pet project, administration or whatever else might cross their mind other than Firefox Development.

IDK what are their actual intentions, and they might be 100% focused on FF dev, but nothing in the tax law keeps them on that focus.

Re:“looks like Firefox quietly added ads into the address bar” by MattGaiser on Wednesday October 06, 2021 @10:05PM (#28780962)
Can workers in a building (or cloud, as things currently are) really be so clearly binned?
Re:“looks like Firefox quietly added ads into the address bar” by theamk on Wednesday October 06, 2021 @09:40PM (#28780773)
Note, that's Mozilla Foundation which is not the entity that develops Firefox. Money donated via this form would be "used in its discretion for its charitable purposes".

It is somewhat hard to find out what exactly this means, but US form 990 provides an overview (PDF): https://assets.mozilla.net/annualreport/2019/mozilla-2019-fo... , see page 3 and 9

$926K "Agenda Setting" -- published a report

$4,853K "Movement Building" -- urged Facebook, Snapchat, Apple and others to address issues

$10,387K "Leadeship Development" -- Fellowships and awards for technologists and researchers

$1,374K "Compensation of Officers" etc..

Re:“looks like Firefox quietly added ads into the address bar” by nextaccountic on Wednesday October 06, 2021 @09:43PM (#28780801)
There is no way to donate to fund Firefox development. Here's where your donation to Mozilla goes towards:

https://foundation.mozilla.org/en/what-we-do/

https://foundation.mozilla.org/en/what-we-fund/

Re:“looks like Firefox quietly added ads into the address bar” by chuckdotis on Wednesday October 06, 2021 @09:45PM (#28780816)
In addition to what other commenters have said, I also don't think that they do a good job at promoting the fact that it's possible to donate.

If there were the option to donate directly to the Firefox program, and that they placed a "donate now" button here or there within Firefox and on their website, I'd happily donate as I have with Signal.