IAB Accuses Mozilla of Undermining American Small Business & Consumers’ Control of Their Privacy with Proposed Changes to Firefox

Trade Organization Releases Comprehensive FAQ to Address Publisher, Marketer & Agency Questions About Mozilla’s Actions Against the Ad-Supported Internet

NEW YORK–(BUSINESS WIRE)– The Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) today accused the Mozilla Corporation, the technology giant whose Firefox web browser controls how a fifth of users worldwide access the internet, of undermining American small businesses and consumers’ ability to manage their own privacy, through planned changes to Firefox that would re-architect the way data flows between web sites and internet users.

“Thousands of small businesses that make up the diversity of content and services online will be forced to close their doors,” said Randall Rothenberg, President and CEO, IAB, the trade association for the ad-supported digital media industry, in a statement released this afternoon.

“This move will not put the interest of users first. Nor does it promote transparency or ‘move the web forward’ as Mozilla claims in its announcement. It will not advance Mozilla Corporation‘s objective, as stated in its bylaws, of ‘promoting choice and innovation on the internet,’ but will, instead, impede both,” Rothenberg said. He called on the for-profit Mozilla Corporation and its non-profit parent, the Mozilla Foundation, to rescind their planned changes to the Firefox browser.

A recent study by Harvard Business School researchers found that the ad-supported internet was responsible for 5.1 million U.S. jobs and contributed $530 billion to the U.S. economy in 2011 alone. Sole proprietors and very small firms were called out as a vital part of the ecosystem by the research team, with tiny entrepreneurial digital ventures across the country generating more jobs than such internet giants as Google, Microsoft and Yahoo!.

Joining a chorus of complaints from companies and industry groups around the world, the IAB, which represents 500 major U.S. internet companies and more than 1,000 small digital publishers, focused on Mozilla’s plans to block third-party cookies by default in the next version of the Firefox browser. The IAB pointed specifically to the impact the ban would have on small internet publishers, which depend on such cookie technology to sell advertising to niche audience segments.

“These small businesses can’t afford to hire large advertising sales …read more
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