Firefox’s Competitive Strategy Must Focus On Privacy

We have previously spent some time here discussing Mozilla and what the problems that are plaguing Firefox today. For a long time during the past decade, Firefox was able to successfully challenge Internet Explorer by offering a much more nimble browsing experience that was more responsive to developing user needs such as a protection against security threats. That competitive advantage slowly unraveled once Google introduced Chrome and began to spend marketing dollars promoting it, something Mozilla has done very little of.

Despite our preference of using apps to access content on mobile devices, we are seeing a shift of the browser wars toward the mobile market. This will be a a very different battle with different requirements and different strengths of each major player: On mobile, the usage of browsers is heavily influenced by the capabilities and goals of closed platforms such as iOS, Android and the upcoming Windows 8 for mobile devices. The mobile browser market is more fragmented than on the desktop with products such as Opera Mobile and Dolphin next to the default platform browsers IE, Safari and Chrome.

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The lack of a dedicated platform in the past has left Firefox in a precarious position that can be addressed with the upcoming Firefox OS for smartphones in the future. The simple fact that Mozilla now has a mobile platform as well is not going to solve the organization’s problems, but there is one distinct standout opportunity that can turn into key advantage, if Mozilla is able to play its cards right.

Keep this in mind: The majority of the top browser companies are in the market for economic reasons: Microsoft, Google and Apple offer their browsers free of charge because they are pillars of a platform strategy and indirect revenues are tied to them. Typically, browsers are leveraged to display advertising sold through specific services that leverage personal information.

Mozilla has a unique position in the browser market that is likely to become much more apparent as the business strategies of its rivals unfold: Firefox is overseen by a non-profit foundation that does not sell ads or personal data. Mozilla’s revenue is based on user traffic sent to Google’s search engine. While there are advertising implications as well and Google supports a decent portion of its search advertising business with Mozilla traffic, there is an advantage that goes back to the beginnings of the organization and can be exploited. Mozilla needs to offer a feature-rich private browsing experience to differentiate itself in a world that opens more and more user data to being used for profit in targeting.

Since Firefox is the only truly open browser and its features do not depend primarily on investor concerns, Mozilla has a unique opportunity to go to great lengths protecting the privacy of its users while they are on the Internet. In a time that explores how user data can be increasingly exploited for revenue gains, Mozilla has the credibility to work against this trend and focus on privacy and security of its mobile platform. Security and privacy are not just cohesive features that play toward Firefox’s strengths; it’s a widening gap in the market that only Mozilla can address. If you think about your smartphone, it is scary to think about where all are of this personal data is going. In the end, it is stored somewhere where it really should not be.

A perfect example of this is Google. Since 2009, the company has been personalizing search for its users who aren’t even signed into Google’s services. Earlier this year, Google announced Search, plus Your World, which takes a cue from social networks on what kind of search results you might be looking for in a query.

These ideas are fine and well, and Google’s Chrome browser even offers Incognito Mode to avoid having cookies tracked – most other browsers do as well. But increasingly, more and more personal data is required in order for search results and user experience to improve. And it’s starting to look like it is going to be harder to turn these types of features off. To get an idea how companies are tracking you across the web – whether it is Google, Facebook or some other organization, check out Disconnect, a plugin that works in Chrome, Firefox or Safari. It will block and notify you of tracking requests. There is a company formed behind the idea of Disconnect, but they have yet to make any money.

Interestingly, Firefox has its own plugin, called Collusion, that does the same thing Disconnect does. They also have a demo that shows how going to one site inadvertently will send your data over to other sites that you probably don’t want to have anything to do with. For just a handful of sites visited, tracking data is likely being spread to over a dozen different sites.

It’s nice to see Mozilla doing what’s right to raise awareness about what actually happens when we visit websites. But they could do a lot more. Why just make it a plugin? As a privacy feature, Collusion should be feature of Firefox by default. Mozilla has been discussing that the effects of tracking is  not a good thing for anyone, since it is essentially selling our personal data that we likely have given right to hand over just by visiting a website.

The implication is that there is no other large platform company that can afford not to track its users. There is big money in advertising and as increased tracking helps marketers avoid scatter-shooting their campaigns to users a privacy advantage of Firefox will become more important. Sure, there is do-not-track as an industry initiative that is supported also by Microsoft, but we are seeing some advertising-focused companies to already look for ways to get around it. For example, Yahoo has filed a patent that lays out an approach to reward Internet users in some way, if they are opting out of features such as do-not-track.

The problem for Mozilla is that one of the biggest companies that is tracking Internet users and dissects their habits is one of Mozilla’s biggest partners. Google recently signed a new deal with Mozilla to provide them with almost $300 million per year to make Google the browser’s default home page. This was after some possible negotiations with other web companies as well. The fact that Mozilla is getting this much money from Google an indirectly ties Firefox users to tracking, can be questioned by users. In the end, there is no free money in this world, and Mozilla’s traffic will be monetized through advertising.

Yet Mozilla is in an enviable position. The terms of this past deal show that the organization is in demand. They work on open web standards and have a good browser on several different platforms. They still have a die-hard base of users. There is still market share that can make or break a technology pushed by either Google or Microsoft. However, as the market share is dwindling on the desktop and Mozilla is making a play in the mobile market, Firefox needs a compelling identity. There is no mobile platform today that makes security and privacy a priority, leaving this gate wide open for Mozilla as an opportunity to succeed.

If Mozilla follows the general feature and apps trend laid out by Apple and Google, there is little to gain for the Firefox OS and the mobile Firefox browser.  If Mozilla decides to implement features to depersonalize the web experience for users who want that, it has a good shot at establishing itself, emerge as an unexpected contender and challenge an established environment once again.

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