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Dear Mozilla Supporter,
Technology needs a hero. We know all too well its villains and its threats â widespread conspiracy theories, growing social media addictions, and relentless online spying. Itâs easy to feel hopeless in the face of these challenges.
But there is a reason for hope. Together, we have won positive change, called out bad behavior, and shown the world a better way. We are technologyâs heroes â you and me. Your participation and donations fuel our actions, and we are proud to be in this fight with you. Here are just a few of the things we accomplished together this year.
Protecting Your Privacy
We got Apple to step-up on privacy. Mozilla first called on Apple to curb cross-app tracking in 2019, because advertisers should not be able to collect highly personal data across apps without your consent. So we were delighted when Apple finally agreed with us in April and rolled out the ability to block cross-app tracking. Click here for the opt-out instructions. Weâre standing up to Venmo. We believe privacy should always be the default when it comes to your online financial life. So we teamed up with the Electronic Frontier Foundation to urge Venmo to give users privacy control for their friend list. You can co-sign our letter here, or read the history of our campaign to make Venmo more private here.
Expanding Technologyâs Stakeholders
Ensuring everyoneâs voice is heard. Over the next decade, speech is expected to become the primary way people interact with devices. But most of the voice data currently used to train algorithms is held by a handful of major companies, and none of them support a single native African language. So weâre excited to announce a major new expansion of our open-source Common Voice initiative to build out voice data sets in Kiswahili â an East African language spoken by an estimated 100 million people. Read more here. Crowdsourcing internet health. Mozillaâs annual Internet Health Report features the perspectives of more than a hundred people who are making the internet healthier. Now, you can also hear their voices in a new audio feature: Sounds of the Internet Health Report. Read more, and tune in to the podcast, here.
Promoting Transparency
Teaming up to take control of our data. These days, itâs increasingly difficult to understand the data companies collect from you, and what theyâre doing with it. Here at Mozilla, we believe that you should determine who benefits from your data, so weâve launched a new initiative â Rally â thatâs aimed at rebuilding control of your data. Read more here. Demanding TikTok open up. Ad transparency is a crucial safeguard against disinformation and dark money political influence. Thatâs why Snapchat, YouTube, Instagram, and Facebook have all built ad databases for public viewing. But TikTok doesnât share this information, and our research reveals that itâs teeming with political ads. With upcoming elections around the world, including a major election in Germany this September, TikTok must immediately implement ad transparency to avoid becoming the next hotspot for disinformation and shady political influence. Sign our petition to demand ad transparency now.
Thereâs so much more to be proud of, but we thought you would enjoy these highlights the most. So from the bottom of our hearts, thank you for your support. Your time, your actions, and your donations make all of this work and progress possible.
Sincerely,
The Mozilla Partnerships & Fundraising Team
(Jessie, Will, Stephanie, Juan, Jesse and Tom)
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