By default, Mozilla Firefox continuously collects data about how you use the browser. This feature, known as Telemetry Data Collection, anonymously gathers information regarding your system hardware, performance metrics, browser crashes, and which features you click on most frequently. Mozilla uses this data to identify bugs and improve future updates. However, many privacy-conscious users prefer that their software remains entirely silent and does not phone home with usage statistics, regardless of how anonymised the data might be. If you want absolute privacy, you can completely turn off Firefox’s telemetry.
How to Turn Off Telemetry Data Collection
You can opt out of all data collection directly from the main privacy settings.
- Open the Mozilla Firefox browser.
- Click the Application Menu button (the three horizontal lines) in the top-right corner.
- Select Settings from the drop-down menu.
- In the left-hand sidebar, click on Privacy & Security.
- Scroll down the page until you find the Firefox Data Collection and Use section.
- You will see several checkboxes here. The primary one is Allow Firefox to send technical and interaction data to Mozilla.
- Click this checkbox to uncheck it.
- Also, uncheck the box for Allow Firefox to install and run studies to prevent Mozilla from running experimental features on your machine.
Firefox will immediately sever its background connection to Mozilla’s telemetry servers. The browser will continue to function exactly as normal, but your usage habits and crash reports will remain entirely local and private to your machine.