14 DAY TRIAL // Mozilla is anything but a Microsoft advocate, being in fact a poster-child for the open source struggle against the Redmond behemoth. But at the same time, Mozilla also seems ready to “render unto Caesar the things which are Caesar’s,” and acknowledged the fact that Microsoft does a better job to Google when it comes down to protecting end user privacy. Citing this superiority in search engine privacy policies for the Redmond company, Mozilla Director of Community Development Asa Dotzler, recommended on his personal blog, that users ditch the Mountain View-search giant from Firefox and replace it with Bing.
Dotzler took issue with a statement from Google Chief Executive Officer Eric Schmidt, available in the video embedded at the bottom of this article. Ironically, Google and Firefox have had an intimate relationship for years now. The Firefox open source browser ships with Google as the default search engine, and features a customized Google home page. Because of the Firefox optimizations for Google, the Mountain View search giant paid Mozilla approximately 90% of the $75 million in revenue the company accounted for in 2008.
However, it seems that although Google is writing his paycheck, Dotzler is ready to speak against the search giant when it indicates little to no concern for protecting customer privacy. “If you have something that you don't want anyone to know, maybe you shouldn't be doing it in the first place. If you really need that kind of privacy, the reality is that search engines -- including Google -- do retain this information for some time and it's important, for example, that we are all subject in the United States to the Patriot Act and it is possible that all that information could be made available to the authorities,” Schmidt stated.
Swapping Google for Bing is extremely simply, Dotzler explains, pointing users to the official Bing add-on provided by Microsoft for Firefox. The Bing extension for Firefox has been available for download since June 1st, after Microsoft killed Live Search, and has so far been downloaded approximately 900,000 times.
“That was Eric Schmidt, the CEO of Google, telling you exactly what he thinks about your privacy. There is no ambiguity, no "out of context" here. Watch the video,” Dotzler stated. “And here's how you can easily switch Firefox's search from Google to Bing. (Yes, Bing does have a better privacy policy than Google.)”
Microsoft itself is also subject to the Patriot Act in the US, but the fact of the matter is that the Redmond company indeed has a much healthier privacy policy for its search decision engine compared to Google. And where Google shows down right blatant disregard for the kind of user information it harvests and stores, the Redmond company has had to deal with years long battles with regulators and barrages of public criticism, and is tip-toeing around the users data it gathers with Bing and stores on its servers.
UPDATE: "I think that the thing that bothers me most about Google CEO Eric Schmidt's comment is that it makes clear that he simply doesn't understand privacy. That a company with so much user data on its servers is led by someone who just doesn't understand privacy is really scary to me and it should be scary to you as well," Dotzler added.
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