Re:Firefox's AI Switch Is Off. Telemetry Isn't
by wtallis on Wednesday September 02, 2026 @05:30PM
(#49542849)
At some point, the pervasive unethical behavior of having telemetry on by default instead of opt-in, not just in proprietary software but also in open-source software and even from Mozilla itself becomes overwhelming enough that "telemetry=bad" becomes a reasonable summary of the situation. We need a new word specifically for ethical opt-in data collection.
The point of telemetry is not to estimate the number of active users, and focusing on "telemetry" is the wrong bogeyman. Things like crash reports are telemetry, and are perfectly acceptable as long as the user remains in control over whether or not to send them. Software should respect user privacy and user control.