Note that the first link states that conversations are private by default and that user error is likely involved[1]. Mozilla’s use of text emphasis almost implies otherwise[2].
[1]: “To be clear, your AI chats are not public by default — you have to choose to share them individually by tapping a share button. Even so, I get the sense that some people don't really understand what they're sharing, or what's going on.”
[2]: At least that’s how I understood “_Make all AI interactions private by default_ with no public sharing option unless explicitly enabled through informed consent.” at first glance.
After trying the app, it's hard for me to interpret this article as anything other than Mozilla lying. Sharing in this app is the same as any other social media app.
In the app there is a "Share" button at the top right. After clicking you see an interstitial with a big "Post" button at the bottom. When you click that button, the chat is shared.
Am I seeing something different than anybody else? Why would Mozilla lie like this? Most of the "demands" are already satisfied.
> Shut down the Discover feed until real privacy protections are in place.
Everything is already private by default and you can see what is public.
> Make all AI interactions private by default with no public sharing option unless explicitly enabled through informed consent.
This is true already
> Provide full transparency about how many users have unknowingly shared private information.
Meta shouldn't have to do this
> Create a universal, easy-to-use opt-out system for all Meta platforms that prevents user data from being used for AI training.
This already exists (EDIT, looks like only for EU users. Personally I don't believe this is related to the public sharing claims)
> Notify all users whose conversations may have been made public, and allow them to delete their content permanently.
Mozilla post is quite bad at explaining what's wrong so I went to Meta AI app to try it myself:
- When you have a chat it has "Share" button
- When you click on the button it shows you a draft of the chat with "Post" button
- Clicking on the "Post" publishes the chat to public and sends you to "Discover" tab
- From published chat you can click on "send" icon to send link to the chat to someone else
IMO it is in fact dark pattern and goes against of how people perceive "Share" action. The fact you can't share without making chat public is also not cool.
For example top discover post I see right now is stylized picture of a baby, with original photo available if you open the post. I'm pretty sure the person who posted it was trying to share the picture with their relatives/friends.
Overall: Meta at its "best", better to say sorry rather than ask for permission...
A social media company made an AI app that lets users share its results to social media. Shocker!
But sure lets write an article with zero details and just the right amount of buzzwords and engagement bait that it’ll make it to the top of HN and sustain today’s outrage cycle. We’ll go back to “Google is bad” tomorrow.
I so don't understand why everyone's been taking the bait and calling this company Meta. I guess because the restructuring was intentional by Facebook for manipulation purposes (everyone mistrusted Facebook at that point and they needed a new identity in order to try to gain people's trust again), while Google doesn't really use Alphabet as a front because they seemingly don't care if people know them as evil.
I very commonly see things like Google acquires this, Google acquires that, even in cases where the acquirer is actually Alphabet, but I almost never see anything about Facebook, because everyone's now calling them Meta. Maybe I'm fighting a losing battle at this point, but I will never forget their past actions nor malicious intentions just because they tried to change their name.
I know the brand "Facebook" still exists for the social network, but Meta is still Facebook at its core. Same people, same values, same data harvesting. They're just using other methods to get at your data, abusing trust that maybe people wouldn't have given to Facebook if the name change hadn't occurred.
I think I must feel a little bit like Louis Rossmann must've felt when Time Warner Cable changed their name to Comcast. He still holds all of their former misdeeds against them and I think it's a real shame that more people don't do that for Facebook.
Sure in plenty of people's minds Meta is still its own entire dystopia and a half, but it still feels to me like they've all forgotten the precedent that Facebook set all the way back when that name was the one they put on their dystopia.
While I am happy Mozilla is still going after privacy disasters like Meta, it does ring a little hollow after the Firefox terms of use change and subsequent back pedaling [1].
Mozilla, come on. WTH is the "AI Discover Feed"? Can you link to something? Show a video? Post an image?
This entire page assumed you know everything about it, assumes you know about some kind of issue involving private chats leaking, and assumes it's been proven they training on private chats.
I'm not interested in trusting Meta at all and I can completely believe they are doing something horrible but this page doesn't give even 1/10th of the information needed.
Yes please. It's invasive garbage. When I click "uninterested" on ukraine war news I immediately got russian propaganda. When I do it again I get back Ukrainian news. I just dont want to see it. Same with politics. It's just switching sides which it shows when I click hide but I cant hide the theme as a whole.
I recommend this extension. It blocks this ridiculous bullshit.
Says the company that recently changed "we don't sell your data" in the terms.
How about you make a good browser (it's great) and you leave the political righteousness out? I remember when you ousted Brendan Eich unjustly. I remember when you came in favor of censorship for "safety".
I love the browser for its customization but the people at the company who write these things tend to be quite delusional and damaging to the brand and product.
Good luck with the protests; we protested when they brought the newsfeed in in the first place, and it was quite an uproar. You can see how well that panned out.
Deleting my Facebook as a gift to myself in 2013 was one of the better Christmas presents I ever got.
In all seriousness, who expects and decency, privacy, respect (of human rights) from the makers of Myanmar flame-fanning, the scum who allowed/facilitates Cambridge Analytica (and the likes), to name but a few?
Perhaps Zuck wants to look like a good tech-bro by smiling at Joe Rogan and advertise "I am one of you guys, I too do BJJ", but in his soul he is a filthy snake who lies all the time ("FBI forced me and I railroaded you but 3 years later I come clean")..
I mean... People are willingly sending their data to another computer operated and fully owned by another entity, and then take offense when that other entity does what it wants with that data (which I'm pretty sure is allowed according to their incredibly/intentionally vague T&Cs).
Stop asking and expecting a private for-profit corporation to do what you want or what you think is right. They are not there to serve you, they exist to profit off of you. Delete your account if you're unhappy with the service or the ethics.
Mozilla should be more focused on figuring out how to actually make money and not this sensationalist stuff. Depending on how the Google case lands, they're finished.
Just assume that every interaction you have with Meta will be public. Because it will be, either accidentally or if they think they can make an extra dollar by selling it.
Meta: Shut down your invasive AI Discover feed
(mozillafoundation.org)536 points by speckx 6 June 2025 | 225 comments
Comments
- “Meta has a new stand-alone AI app. It lets you see what other people are asking.” https://www.businessinsider.com/meta-ai-app-public-feed-warn... (may 2025)
- “People are seemingly accidentally publishing their AI chat histories with Meta’s new AI app” https://www.crikey.com.au/2025/05/05/meta-ai-chatbot-discove... (may 2025)
Note that the first link states that conversations are private by default and that user error is likely involved[1]. Mozilla’s use of text emphasis almost implies otherwise[2].
[1]: “To be clear, your AI chats are not public by default — you have to choose to share them individually by tapping a share button. Even so, I get the sense that some people don't really understand what they're sharing, or what's going on.”
[2]: At least that’s how I understood “_Make all AI interactions private by default_ with no public sharing option unless explicitly enabled through informed consent.” at first glance.
In the app there is a "Share" button at the top right. After clicking you see an interstitial with a big "Post" button at the bottom. When you click that button, the chat is shared.
Am I seeing something different than anybody else? Why would Mozilla lie like this? Most of the "demands" are already satisfied.
> Shut down the Discover feed until real privacy protections are in place.
Everything is already private by default and you can see what is public.
> Make all AI interactions private by default with no public sharing option unless explicitly enabled through informed consent.
This is true already
> Provide full transparency about how many users have unknowingly shared private information.
Meta shouldn't have to do this
> Create a universal, easy-to-use opt-out system for all Meta platforms that prevents user data from being used for AI training.
This already exists (EDIT, looks like only for EU users. Personally I don't believe this is related to the public sharing claims)
> Notify all users whose conversations may have been made public, and allow them to delete their content permanently.
This already exists
- When you have a chat it has "Share" button
- When you click on the button it shows you a draft of the chat with "Post" button
- Clicking on the "Post" publishes the chat to public and sends you to "Discover" tab
- From published chat you can click on "send" icon to send link to the chat to someone else
IMO it is in fact dark pattern and goes against of how people perceive "Share" action. The fact you can't share without making chat public is also not cool.
For example top discover post I see right now is stylized picture of a baby, with original photo available if you open the post. I'm pretty sure the person who posted it was trying to share the picture with their relatives/friends.
Overall: Meta at its "best", better to say sorry rather than ask for permission...
An example? A screenshot?
I don’t understand, after reading, when this is happening or how.
Has a righteous, bossy tone that doesn't seem earned by case particulars or its (anonymous) author.
"Mozilla: Improve your messaging. Now."
The irony by making that checkbox mandatory for submitting a privacy protest form
(The viewport only covers 1/4 of my phone screen and I can scroll it around in the black abyss)
Are Mozilla they now the privacy guardians? This seems so weird.
Who is even using the Meta AI app?
They should be doing a petition about the Meta AI stuff thats happening in Whatsapp now.
But sure lets write an article with zero details and just the right amount of buzzwords and engagement bait that it’ll make it to the top of HN and sustain today’s outrage cycle. We’ll go back to “Google is bad” tomorrow.
I very commonly see things like Google acquires this, Google acquires that, even in cases where the acquirer is actually Alphabet, but I almost never see anything about Facebook, because everyone's now calling them Meta. Maybe I'm fighting a losing battle at this point, but I will never forget their past actions nor malicious intentions just because they tried to change their name.
I know the brand "Facebook" still exists for the social network, but Meta is still Facebook at its core. Same people, same values, same data harvesting. They're just using other methods to get at your data, abusing trust that maybe people wouldn't have given to Facebook if the name change hadn't occurred.
I think I must feel a little bit like Louis Rossmann must've felt when Time Warner Cable changed their name to Comcast. He still holds all of their former misdeeds against them and I think it's a real shame that more people don't do that for Facebook.
Sure in plenty of people's minds Meta is still its own entire dystopia and a half, but it still feels to me like they've all forgotten the precedent that Facebook set all the way back when that name was the one they put on their dystopia.
[1] https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2025/02/firefox-deletes-...
Make your website strip trailing spaces off autofillled emails instead of saying they are invalid.
It's really not hard, I can manage it.
This entire page assumed you know everything about it, assumes you know about some kind of issue involving private chats leaking, and assumes it's been proven they training on private chats.
I'm not interested in trusting Meta at all and I can completely believe they are doing something horrible but this page doesn't give even 1/10th of the information needed.
Bear in mind Meta/Facebook/Zuckerbook is the same company that's always employed dark patterns to get you to unwittingly share more
Go away Mozilla, so trying to wade into a new sector and virtue signal.
I recommend this extension. It blocks this ridiculous bullshit.
https://chromewebstore.google.com/detail/undistracted-hide-f...
How about you make a good browser (it's great) and you leave the political righteousness out? I remember when you ousted Brendan Eich unjustly. I remember when you came in favor of censorship for "safety".
I love the browser for its customization but the people at the company who write these things tend to be quite delusional and damaging to the brand and product.
Deleting my Facebook as a gift to myself in 2013 was one of the better Christmas presents I ever got.
The article really reads like as if Mozilla just wants attention.
Perhaps Zuck wants to look like a good tech-bro by smiling at Joe Rogan and advertise "I am one of you guys, I too do BJJ", but in his soul he is a filthy snake who lies all the time ("FBI forced me and I railroaded you but 3 years later I come clean")..
"...it's my nature, said the scorpion."
What exactly are they complaining about?..
And behave accordingly.