Raegan MacDonald is a Policy Advisor at Mozilla, a “hybrid company” that “builds open source software while being a non-profit foundation“. During the European Data Ethics Forum, Raegan touched on Mozilla’s commitment to its manifesto and the three Ps the company has in mind when talking privacy: policy, process and product.
Advancing a dialogue around online privacy, Reagan pointed, requires strong laws and good standards, an educated user base that understands their digital rights but also a shift in the business world, away from the idea that labels privacy and data protection as an administrative burdens. Instead, what is needed from companies is an understanding of privacy and data protection as differentiators, as a factors that sustain competitiveness in the market.
Raegan then went further to describe Mozilla’s efforts in this field, ranging from Policy to Process to Product. In terms of Policy, she mentioned ePrivacy Regulation as complementary to GDPR and Mozilla’s view of it as an opportunity to building trust in its users. An example of Mozilla’s consideration for privacy from a Process point of view is the Privacy Notice displayed as the second tab of Firefox for all new installs. Lastly, Product – wise, Raegan introduced the example of a new automatic browser, a light mobile app called Firefox Focus. Such an app is not only made to “reduce creepiness but also makes for a great browsing experience” by reducing load times.
Watch Raegan MacDonald’s full presentation here.
Watch the rest of European Data Ethics Forum talks here.